Bearing in mind the number of occasions that we get delayed in our cars, vans and HGVs due to a traffic jam, perhaps caused by road works or an accident, it probably does not come as a surprise to motorists to hear that the volume of traffic on our roads increased in 2016. This is borne out by the Department for Transport Provisional Road Traffic Estimates Great Britain: January 2016 – December 2016 Statistical Release of the 9th February 2017 from which we highlight below some of the interesting data.
In 2016, it is estimated that motor vehicles covered a distance of 320.5 billion vehicle miles on our road network in Great Britain with this being a record. It is an increase of 1.2% when compared with 2015 so there has been a significant rise in the space of twelve months. When compared with 5 years ago the number of vehicle miles has gone up by 5.5%.
The distance travelled by cars and taxis last year is estimated at 249.5 billion vehicle miles with this being an increase of 0.7% when compared with the previous year.
The distance travelled by HGVs in 2016 is estimated at 17.1 billion vehicle miles with this being a rise of 2.8% in comparison to 2015.
The distance travelled by vans last year is estimated at 48.5 billion vehicle miles with this being an increase of 3.4% when compared with the previous year.
The volume of rolling annual motor vehicle traffic in Great Britain has increased by 5.5% from the year ending December 2013.
The data for the type of roads that these miles were conducted on last year reveal that 67.9 billion miles were on motorways with this being an increase of 2.1% in twelve months, 93.6 billion miles on Rural “A” Roads with this being a rise of 2.5% in a year, 50.2 billion miles on Urban “A” Roads – an increase of 1.1% in twelve months, 44.2 billion miles on Rural Minor Roads with this being a drop of 0.6% and 64.6 billion miles on Urban Minor Roads – a drop of 0.3%.
The reasons why there has been an increase in road traffic in the last three years could be due to the likes of average fuel prices falling during part of the period resulting in more people perhaps going out for the day, a rise in the population and an improvement in the economy.
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