Yahoo News Delays on England's motorways and A roads are getting worse, figures show
How many times have you told yourself that traffic jams are getting worse?
It turns out it wasn’t all in your imagination.
According to figures from the Department for Transport (DfT), motorists suffered a 3.9% increase in delays on England’s motorways and major A roads last year.
The delays meant journeys on the strategic road network, which is managed by Highways England, took an average of 9.4 seconds per mile longer than if vehicles were able to drive at the speed limit – up from 9.0 seconds the previous year.
The data suggests driving along a 10-mile section of road with a 60mph limit typically took 11 minutes and 34 seconds last year, compared with 10 minutes in free flow conditions.
Average speed on the network was 59mph, the DfT said, which is down 0.6% on the previous year.
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The RAC described the figure as “bad news for drivers” because congestion causes “wasted time and money”.
Head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: “More congestion means more wasted time and money, which is clearly bad news for drivers, but it may be a case of short-term pain for longer term gain.
“Much work is being carried out on our motorways to improve capacity by upgrading them to smart motorways, but this inevitably causes delays.
“Nonetheless, extra capacity is badly needed as Britain now has around 38 million vehicles registered for use, and in the 10 years from 2007 more than four million extra vehicles came on to the road.”
AA president Edmund King said: “Drivers are having to factor in another two-thirds of the expected travel time in case they run into average delays on the strategic road network, and it’s getting worse.
“The key problem is that, with the billions of pounds raised from fuel duty and other motoring taxes, only a third gets re-invested back into the road network.”
