Dublin offers a wide range of transportation choices for its inhabitants. These choices however differ from one person to another. Choices of transportation, or commuting media, ranges from different reasons such as availability of funds, weather, convenience and comfort, as well as for recreational purposes.
Work constitutes the largest reason for vehicular commuting in Ireland. From the about 6.5 million people that populate Ireland, statistics report that about 2.25 million are employed. This presupposes ultimately that roughly over 2 million go to work using the popular range of commuting choices in the country. However, asides from this number, students also constitute a significant ratio of commuters in Ireland.
In a short documentary video which I made, I interviewed a number of commuters in Dublin who spoke about what forms of commuting work best for them. From the respondents — who are mostly immigrants from Nigeria — many noted that they use from buses, trams, to bicycles. To them, these choices offer the best, most comfortable mode of transport to work.
A respondent, Pelumi, noted, interestingly, that as a new employee, he preferred the use of bicycles as they were “eco-friendly.” He added that it was also helpful because of the close distance between his workplace and home. Pelumi commented also on the ease of transport with bicyles in Dublin, noting the use of road markings for cyclists, as well as the tolerance of motorists to cyclists on the road.
Buses offer some comfort for commuters in Dublin. Toye, another respondent, corroborated this. In the documentary, he noted also the fact that buses offer more privacy and comfort as opposed to the tram. Temi, another correspondent, agreed that buses were easier to use as a commutation mode in Dublin. However, Temi added that buses were cheaper but time-exhausting as opposed to taxis which were quick but expensive to use each day.
It is noteworthy that among the ratio of workers are also students who work to earn a living while schooling at the same time. This significantly widens the gap of commuters in Dublin. Other strata of commuters are simple travellers, tourists, sight seers, etc.
