Irish people still prefer using private transport to get to work, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showed today.
Signs that the Celtic Tiger is still alive were evidenced by a doubling of the number of students driving themselves to school or college; up from 2,564 to 5,131.
The figures -which cover the period from 2002 to 2006 - show that the proportion of people driving to work increased by 2.6 per cent. Over 225,000 more vehicles joined those driving to work over the four years covered by the survey.
Of the 1.9 million workers in the State in April 2006, almost 1.1 million - or 57 per cent - drove a car to work and 7.4 per cent used a van or lorry. In 2002, 55 per cent used cars and 6.8 per cent used vans or lorries out of a working population of 1.6 million.
Nearly 1.2 million households had at least one car in 2006 - an increase of 170,000 compared with 2002.
The highest proportion of households with a car were in counties Meath (90 per cent), Cork (88 per cent), Waterford and Kildare (both 87 per cent). Four out of ten households in Dublin city had no car in 2006.
The share of commuters using buses fell slightly, but there was a 66 per cent increase in train usage, largely accounted for by the opening of the Luas in Dublin and the extension of commuter services in and around the capital.
Train usage by workers was highest around north county Dublin, with areas such as Donabate, Skerries, Portmarnock and Malahide showing increases of 20 per cent or more.
The figures show workers travelled on average 15.8 km from home to work in 2006 with journey times slightly up on 2002 at 27.5 minutes.
Almost 285,000 workers left home before 7.00 am to get to work in 2006, with 113,000 leaving before 6.30 am. Around 75 per cent were men while 40 per cent of women departed between 8.00 and 9.00am.
The Dublin Transport Office last month issued figures showing that 40 per cent of primary school pupils were driven to schools within 2 kilometres of their homes.
The trend was reflected nationally in today's CSO figures which showed that some 55 per cent of primary children were driven 4 kilometres or less to school.
Surprisingly, more secondary pupils in rural areas used public transport to get to school than urban dwellers. Over half of rural dwellers used the bus while just one in five urban dwellers did likewise.
Labour transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said the figures showed the "massive" public transport deficit and the urgency of improving public transport and cycle paths.
"The lack of comprehensive and safe urban cycleway networks is highlighted by the fact that the numbers cycling to work remains - at 36,306 - very low," Mr Broughan said, noting that in 1991 50,000 people cycled to work.
"The figures also highlight this government's appalling failure to complete the QBC networks and to ensure that Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann have regular high quality fleets of buses," he added.
"Continuing gridlock and poor spatial planning are reflected in the increase in time it takes urban workers to get to work."