Dublin, Ireland: Using data to expand safe active travel

Published: October 2025

On a typical day in the Irish city of Dublin, residents make around 220,000 return trips by walking and cycling. The national government is investing heavily in active travel, a and public investment of this scale has afforded an opportunity for local authorities to implement significant shifts in transport systems across cities and towns in Ireland. Aligned with the National Sustainable Mobility Policy, Dublin City Council aims to put 95% of Dubliners within a 5-minute walk of a safe route for active travel.

However, measuring the impact of investments thus far has been a challenge due to patchy and scattered data. The use of technology for data collection has often been an afterthought, which means that cities find it difficult to assess and communicate the effect of these projects.

To address this issue, in March 2024 Dublin City Council launched its 'Data Insights for Active Travel' project, with support from the Partnership for Healthy Cities. The project aims to pilot new technologies and community engagement for evaluating the impact of the city’s active travel investments. It connects a range of public sector partners, and its objective is to replace an ad-hoc approach to data collection with a systematic and integrated process. It also aligns local and national sustainable mobility strategies with WHO-recommended interventions to increase physical activity, strengthening policies and practice connected to safe walking and cycling.

Read the full case study: Using data to expand safe active travel