Road Transport up 0.6% Between 2006 and 2007

The Department for Transport has published National Statistics on Traffic in Great Britain for the fourth quarter of 2007 and for 2007 as a whole. Comparing the whole of 2007 with 2006, traffic is provisionally estimated to have increased by 0.6 per cent. This is lower than the underlying annual rate of increase of 1.3 per cent from 2001 to 2006.

The 198-page report goes into significant detail, but reveals that, comparing 2007 with 2006 as a whole, car traffic decreased by 1 per cent.; light van traffic was 9 per cent higher; and heavy goods vehicle traffic was 1 per cent higher. This means, according to the report, cars account for 78 per cent of all motor vehicle traffic, light vans (14 per cent), good vehicles (6 per cent) and other vehicles (2 per cent).

Interestingly, there were also signs that journeys are getting slower. The average vehicle delay on the slowest 10 per cent of journeys rose from 3.78 to 4.05 minutes per 10 miles. The average journey time on these journeys rose from 13.4 to 13.7 minutes per 10 miles.