There’s a lot of media coverage of extreme commuters, but these people make up small percentages of all commuters. The vast bulk of people in Dublin City, Co Dublin and even the Greater Dublin Area live in easy to cycle distances and most people live in and around the M50.
The average cycling speed in Dublin is around 14km/h. Some people go slower and some go much faster, but using this speed as a guide, a trip of 5km would only take around 20mins, 7km would only take 30mins, and a trip of 10km would only take a little over 40mins.
Census 2016
The CSO has Census data online including interactive graphs of average straight-line distances. While some might say the point-to-point data would be better if the CSO made route calculations, this is hard to calculate on a population level and the new data is more accurate than guess work previously done by people who filled out Census forums
Unfortunately the average is increasing nationally but is still within cycling distance within most urban areas and the suggested is never that cycling will suit everybody, but cycling can suit a lot of people, especially in cities where cycling commute times are faster per km than most public transport and many car commuters.
Greater Dublin Area 2016 data
Here’s some graphs by the National Transport Authority (NTA) from its draft strategy for the Greater Dublin Area showing the distances people travel:
Journey purpose and distance travelled
Based on a DTO (now NTA) 2006 survey:

Distance travelled in the Greater Dublin Area by area
Based on 2006 census data. These following graphs are split into three images for easier viewing, click on each one to zoom in. (Note: We also adjusted these graphs to show the shorter distances in green and the larger distances in red — the NTA had two light blues representing one of the shortest and the longest distances, which were harder to read).
Data and charts from the National Transport Authority:
Inside the M50:
Outer suburban and hinterland towns:
Population share by area
Percentage of trips in areas and across areas
Here’s how it differed in 2011:
And finally, distances people travel into Dublin City Centre, from the DublinBikes expansion report by Dublin City Council:
Could be clearer – where do you call ‘inner suburbs’, ‘outer suburbs’, etc?
There is a map with the article that explains these terms
I have recently started cycling to work a couple of days per week from Hansfield (Dublin 15, bordering county Meath) to Drumcondra. It’s 16km. I’m not very fit but it’s only taking me 45-55 minutes each way depending on wind and traffic. I didn’t think that distance would be doable but happily it is, especially with the Royal Canal greenway. Stick you’re commute into google maps and press the bike icon and cycle routes will show up along with estimated time.
Also try using the Dublin Cycling Buddy app – it includes the option to get e-bike times which equal to using 25kmh assist. It also allows you to see alternate routes based on different criteria of “comfort” with using the roads/quiet streets etc.