The car is the dominant form of inland transport in all Member States compared with journeys by train, coach or bus and Cyprus is no exception where cars accounted for 81% of passenger kilometres in 2017, according to figures released by Eurostat.
This is actually below the EU 28 average of 83.8%. Among the EU Member States, the highest proportion of passenger-kilometres travelled by car was in Lithuania (91.1 %), followed by Portugal (88.5%) and Slovenia (86.5%).
Given the ongoing debate on the need for more public transport to ease traffic congestion on the island’s roads, Eurostat’s figures show Cyprus had the second highest proportion of passenger kilometres for coaches, buses and trolley buses. The EU average was 8.8% and Cyprus was more than double that at 19%.
Hungary had the highest rate with 21.1% and Malta came in third with 17.5%.
Cyprus has no trains and therefore does not even figure on the chart. According to Eurostat, the EU 28 average is 7.9%.  For train travel, Austria had the highest proportion of passenger-kilometres (11.9%), followed by the Netherlands with 11.4% and France with 10.8%.
This news item marks European Mobility Week celebrated each year from September 16 to 22.
A passenger kilometre is the unit of measurement representing the transport of one passenger by a defined method of transport over one kilometre.
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