Speeds on A roads declining, new figures show

Date: 18/5/2012

The speeds at which cars travel on the UK's A roads have declined gradually throughout the year.

This is according to new provisional figures from the government, detailing congestion on locally managed routes.

It was discovered speeds were 2.5 per cent faster in January than they were at the same time in 2011.

However, they were broadly the same in February - with a speed increase of less than 0.1 per cent - and declined by 0.2 per cent in March compared with the previous year.

The government noted weather conditions in January 2012 were far better than in the same month in 2011, which is likely to have affected the results.

Similarly, although speeds during the morning rush hour have been gradually rising since January 2011 (apart from in May last year), they fell in March 2012.

The government also recently released new road traffic estimates and found all motor vehicle traffic was 0.5 per cent higher in the first quarter of 2012 when compared with last year.

Posted by Mary Treen