Monday saw a large change in easing of public health restrictions, but if there were more people out and about, it wasn’t reflected in the traffic levels of Galway City.
From Monday, a phased return to offices was set to begin, as advice no longer recommended working from home, and allowing organised indoor activities meant that many businesses could reopen for the first time in a year and a half.
Students have also begun returning to NUI Galway and GMIT, but despite these factors there was no noticeable increase in Galway City traffic on Monday.
There were 3,933 cars counted on the N6 Bothar na dTreabh between 7am and 10am on Monday, usually one of the busiest routes in the city.
This was completely unchanged from the same day the week before, and remains 20% lower than the same day in 2019.
Of the fifteen major routes around the country where traffic levels are monitored by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, only two others did not see their car numbers go up. There was also no change on the N7 Citywest, and there was actually a small drop in the number of cars on the N3 north of Belturbet.
It remains to be seen if traffic levels in Galway City will make their way back up to pre-pandemic levels as time progresses, and more businesses may opt to send people back into the office, or if remote working could lead to a permanent drop in the number of cars on the road each morning and evening.
