Louth motorists warned of increased traffic volumes as schools return

AA Ireland is warning motorists in Louth to allow additional time when commuting to work moving forward, as schools reopen after the summer break.

Between the start of the new school year and the end of the holiday season commuting volumes are known to increase significantly from late August into the start of September.

“Regular commuters into cities across Ireland will have noticed a drop off in traffic over the summer months, and particularly in August, but with schools returning over the next few weeks, traffic volumes will start to increase this week,” Arwen Foley, Editor of AA Roadwatch stated. 

“While we can all expect our morning commutes to take a little longer moving forward, it may be the end of September when we start to see a significant change in rush hour patterns upon the return of colleges across Ireland.”

As well as the start of a new school year, August/September represents the start of a new traffic year with the number of cars on Irish roads increasing in line with schools and colleges re-opening and the end of the holiday season for workers.”

“Over the summer months, traffic levels reduce quite significant because of a number of factors including primary and secondary school holidays.

"As well as this, during July and August you likely have up to 10% of the workforce on holidays in any given week which contributes to the speedier commutes we’ve all experienced recently,” Arwen added. 

“A significant amount of this traffic will return from Monday and as conditions start to deteriorate over the coming months we can expect more and more people to turn to the car for the school run over alternative modes of transport," she said, "this year, however, the big spike in traffic could come later in September when college students return.