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Transport to Trinity: comparing 2023 to pre-COVID travel

Thanks to the students and staff who completed our travel survey in April 2023. Click here or on the image below to see a summary of the results.

Public transport is Trinity’s primary mode of transport (66%), followed by walking (20%) and cycling (9%). Students and staff are travelling further distances to Trinity. Particularly noticeable is a reduction in students travelling 4-6kms, though 69% of students and staff live within 10kms of campus.

Whilst increases in public transport use are welcome, reductions in walking and cycling to campus are disappointing from a health perspective as the World Health Organization recommends active commuting as a priority means of promoting physical activity. Trinity students and staff were asked during COVID-19, if they could have any form of transport to commute to campus, what would they choose (Caulfield et al, 2021). Students were mostly likely to choose walking to campus and staff were most likely to choose cycling. Both Healthy Dublin City and Healthy Trinity align to Healthy Ireland and Trinity would like to continue to work with Dublin City Council to promote a #LiveableDublin with particular focus on walking and cycling.

COVID-19: Transport preferences while socially distancing

Thanks to students and staff who completed our June 2020 survey assesssing travel plans to Trinity while social distancing measures are in place. We're grateful to have received over 2,600 responses.

Students want walking: Our cluster analysis revealed that students aged 18-20, that prior to COVID would take the bus to college, and while restrictions are in place would like to study from home 1-2 days a week and when travelling to college would choose to walk (N = 1,499 (63.2%))

Staff want cycling: The staff cluster analysis found that those aged 35-45, that prior to COVID would use rail to get to
college, and while restrictions are in place would like to WFH 3+ days a week and when travelling to college would choose to cycle. (N = 873
(36.8%))

You can download a poster of our results here or the full article here. Trinity made this submission to Dublin City Council asking for improved walking and cyclign infrastructure to support active travel while social distancing.

Choosing Transport: A survey of actual and preferred transport modes (2019)

Results of the 2018 Smarter Travel Survey

Thank you to everyone who completed Trinity's third Smarter Travel survey in February. A summary of the report is below and you can read the entire report here.

Trinity's use of Smarter Travel modes vastly exceeds national targets. We are lucky enough to have every form of transport available to us thanks to our city centre location and the good work of our partners in the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council. We can take some of the credit too though as we have been removing car parking for decades.

We assessed what motivates people to choose their preferred mode. Not surprisingly, people want transport that's quick and cheap. It's no wonder then that despite the array of transport available to us, Trinity loves cycling. Worryingly, there has been an 8% decline in cycling since our first survey in 2011. Clearly, the Trinity community believes cycling to be unsafe in Dublin and would like segregated cycling or quiet ways.

In 2018/2019, Trinity will be asking for improved cycling infrastructure in Dublin City between its main campuses and the residences it provides for students and staff.  Both Trinity and Dublin would benefit. If you would like to help us, all students, staff and alumni are welcome to join the Smarter Travel Committee. To do so, email Martina Mullin on health.promotion@tcd.ie

A full report on the 2018 Smarter Travel Survey is available here. Here are the 2015 and 2011 reports. Data from the 2016 Student Activity and Sports Study Ireland (SASSI) relevant to Smarter Travel and specific to Trinity is available here and the full report is here.