D/TTAS - Transport policy data
needs
Transport Statistics Liaison Group
19th September 2013
SoS 2011-14 Key Strategies
• Maintain road and public transport infrastructure and
implement improvements where funding is available
• Drive efficiencies and rationalisation in the public
transport companies in the context of falling subsidies
• Encourage more people out of their cars by improving
their experience of public transport through initiatives
like integrated ticketing, better stations, better bus
stops and real-time passenger information, safe cycling
and attractive walking
• Maintain the downward trend in road fatalities and
injuries
• Ensure that our airports and ports provide efficient and
competitive support to trade and to tourism
Some KPIs from SoS
Related KPIs very much at high level; for example;
• Aviation - increase number of routes operating into and out
of Ireland by 2014
• Increased passenger throughput at State airports
• Less than 200 road fatalities per annum
• Maintained or improved journey times and reliability of
public bus and rail services as measured by the Quarterly
Performance Reports published by the NTA
• Trends in public transport passenger numbers, including
increased public transport share of total travel as measured
by the CSO’s National Travel Survey
• Improved accessibility on bus, rail and taxi services.
2008-2011 SOS Goals
Previous SoS based on a different mandate
• Cut travelling times
• Improve safety
• Deliver real commuting choice
• Reduce congestion
• Protect the environment
 Perhaps likely that future policy directions could
be more in line with these past goals
 Policy goals can change – importance of broad
measures of progress/improvements
Statistics issues identified 2007/08
• Commuting 25-30% of km demand – no understanding of majority of demand
• No national measure of trip volumes, mode share, distances travelled etc.
• Commercial demand issues:
– High level knowledge through Road Freight Survey – discussion around
need for more spatial knowledge, port linkages, foreign vehicles in ROI
– Virtually no knowledge of non-freight demand
– For all goods/commercial movement issue around being able to quantify
associated value of goods (freight, ports & airports)
– And competitiveness/costs of commercial transport
• Lack of an aggregated demand measure of “vehicle km”
• Poor estimates of relative road demand (motorway/national/regional etc.)
• Environment & energy statistics and improving link back to fleet & demand
• Measure or indicator of “travel times” and “congestion”
• Measures of “integration” and “accessibility”
• Availability of “spatial planning” measures in transport context
Post 2007/08 improvements
• CSO Transport Omnibus first published in December 2007
• Additions to omnibus since then:
– Detailed vehicle km estimates by vehicle type, year, month
– Public transport flows by time of day etc.
– Airport pairings
• CSO 2009 National Travel Survey filled major gap
– Provided one off picture of key indicators for all trip purposes
(trip volumes, mode shares, distances travelled etc.)
• CSO National Travel Survey repeated 2012, 2013, 2014
• Environment & energy – improvements in understanding
due to vehicle km estimates and emissions standards – but
commercial demand remains a problem.
Post 2007/08 outstanding issues?
• Freight/commercial demand:
– knowledge remains similar, although aggregate vkm figures available
– value of goods still regularly raised
– “competitiveness” and/or transport costs to industry
• “Congestion”
– no measure (or definition!)
– NTS provides peak/off-peak journey times by mode useful for long
term monitoring of travel times
• Measuring “accessibility” –
– 2009 survey some questions regarding access to public transport and
“regular use of a vehicle”
– Survey also identified large share of people who did not travel on
survey day
• Relative road type demand shares (e.g. discussion on importance/
relative value of and demand on regional roads)
• Integration
• Spatial planning measures
Other data and work
Range of other information with national coverage:
• National Transport Authority schools surveys,
national travel survey 2012, rail survey
• AVL information?
• National Road Authority road counters
• Also NRA road side surveys(?)
• Revenue transport fuel statistics
• SEAI energy statistics and EPA emissions statistics
Key Issues
• CSO transport omnibus essential source of information within Department
– But some key policy goals and investments not covered by “statistics”?
– Annual capital investment and subvention levels
– For example MIU investment of €16bn – statistics to measure outcomes
– Is cost of and revenue from transport important (e.g. fuel prices, excise, VRT,
public transport fares)?
• But need to balance coverage and providing the most important
information:
– Evolve the CSO omnibus co-operatively
– And/or potential merit in high level transport key indicators annual update as
early as possible each year?
• Agreed on importance of National Travel Survey – but type of survey
needed and how best to progress co-operatively?
• Congestion and travel times will return as key issues – need to measure!