Kildare town chosen for international commuting study
Sallins village
SALLINS has featured in a new study on the impact of, and behaviours and attitudes towards, workplace commuting.
More than 1,000 people living in nine communities across Ireland, Northern Ireland and the State of Maryland in United States, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, 102 of them in Sallins.
The report looked at the manifestations of long-distance commuting for people living in towns and villages that are between 30km and 60km from major metropolitan centres.
The International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) conducted the InPLACE - Investigating Planning, Placemaking and Commuting research during the unique historical backdrop of COVID-19 in two phases, June 2021 to September 2022, and October 2022 to December 2023. Commuters, community leaders and local stakeholders contributed, with local authority planners and policy experts informing the findings and policy implications.
Key findings show that only 12 per cent of such commuters use public transport, while almost half of respondents (47%) have one-way commutes of greater than 45 minutes duration - more than twice the percentage of long-duration commuters recorded for Ireland in the 2022 Census.
A quarter (25 per cent) of those studied frequently experience difficulties fulfilling family responsibilities as a result of time spent commuting, a figure that grew for commuters travelling longer distances.
Feeling safe, the natural environment, a sense of community, and community engagement were the highest-rated attributes that people associated with their towns in Ireland.
Parking, facilities and amenities - all linked either directly or indirectly to commuting - were ranked the least satisfactory.
Almost one-quarter of the Ireland and Northern Ireland respondents moved to their current place of residence within the previous five years, with the primary motivating factor being housing affordability, followed by family considerations.
Commenting on the research study findings, Professor Des McCafferty, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Geography, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, part of the ICLRD research team said: “The aim of this study was to examine the impacts of pre-and post-COVID-19 commuting on people and place by examining its effects on home, community and workplace in nine rural villages with shared characteristics. Commuting has grown rapidly in recent years, partly driven by the effects of house prices ‘pushing’ workers to live further from their places of work, but also as a result of the ‘pull’ of rural settlements".
