Fewer children now walking to school in Galway City

Date Published: 17-Dec-2012

By Dara Bradley

The number of primary school pupils who walk to school in Galway has continued to decline as increasing numbers of parents opt to drive their children to the school gates.

Analysis of the Census 2011 figures released this week reveal that the car is by far the most popular means of travelling to primary school in Galway City and County for children aged between five and 12 years.

The Census shows that more than seven out of ten children (72.4%) in Galway travel to school in a car, which is way above the national average (61%); and much greater than five years ago when just 65% of Galway national school children were driven by car to school.

The data, released by the Central Statistics Office, also showed just 3,425 (13.2%) of students aged 5-12 years in the county walked to school in 2011, with 12.8% travelling by bus and 1.3% cycling.

Secondary school students in Galway were far more likely to use alternatives to the car to get to school: 13% (2,193 students) walked, 46.5% travelled to school by car, while 38.6% travelled by bus and 1.3% cycled.

A total of 66,543 persons, representing 75.7 per cent of commuters in County Galway, either drove to work or were a passenger in a car in 2011. This compared to 69 per cent of commuters in the State overall.

Meanwhile, 3.3% used public transport (bus or train), 2.2% cycled and 9.4% walked to work. One in thirteen commuters residing in County Galway had travel times of an hour or longer to work, while 2.1% (1,821 persons) spent 90 minutes or more commuting. 28.5% of workers had travel times of 15 minutes or less.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel