This year’s road traffic is lower and slower

New government statistics show that UK road traffic has continued to fall, with the biggest reduction in vehicle miles coming from the heavy truck sector.

Overall first-quarter vehicles miles are at the lowest level since 2001 at 74.7 billion, with cars continuing to account for the lion’s share at 59.6 billion, according to new data from the Department for Transport (DfT).

Trucks posted a 3.8 per cent fall compared with the first quarter of 2012 at 3.7 billion, while light commercial vehicles declined for the first time since the first quarter of 2009 with a 1.9 per cent drop to 10.4 billion miles.

The recession is blamed for much of the reduction in traffic, which has seen heavy truck miles down by 18.2 per cent from its 2008 Q1 peak of 4.6 billion miles to levels last seen in 1993. But more freight is being carried than was then, with higher vehicle gross weights and greater loading factors restoring the balance.

Quieter roads are not necessarily more efficient roads: provisional data from the Highways Agency shows that 77.7 per cent of journeys on motorway and A-roads in March were defined as ‘on time’, 6.2 per cent worse than last year.

The figure is established using GPS tracked vehicles and roadside traffic counters to identify what proportion of journeys were ‘completed within a set reference time, based on historic data on that particular section of road.’

Heavy rainfall is blamed for the deterioration in on time journeys, and also for increased congestion on local authority-maintained roads.

The biggest year-on-year fall was in January as speeds fell by 4.4 per cent to 23.8mph, while February was down 1.8 per cent  at 24.4mph and March 1.9 per cent at 25.0mph.