National statistics

Road Traffic Estimates in Great Britain, 2022: Traffic on England's road networks

Published 13 July 2023

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

About this release

This release presents the 2022 annual estimates of traffic for England’s strategic and local road networks.

Please see the companion releases for an overview of the 2022 traffic estimates, a breakdown by vehicle type, a breakdown by road type.

Annual traffic statistics are compiled using data from around 8,000 roadside 12-hour manual counts, continuous data from automatic traffic counters, and data on road lengths. Please see our methodology note for more details.

The next annual traffic statistics release is expected to be published in May 2024, reporting 2023 traffic figures.

Summary

Definition

Strategic Road Network (SRN) The SRN is made up of the motorways and major trunk roads in England that are managed by National Highways (previously Highways England and Highways Agency). In 2022, the SRN comprised approximately 4,551 miles of road (2.4% of the English network).

The majority of other roads in England are maintained by one of the local highways authorities.

England’s road networks saw an increase in traffic levels during 2022 compared to 2021 and a decrease when comparing 2022 levels to 2019.

Chart 37: Vehicle miles travelled by road type in England, 2019 to 2022

Chart 37 is a bar chart that shows that in 2022:

• the Strategic Road Network (SRN) traffic increased by 12.7% compared to 2021, carrying 93.7 billion vehicle miles of traffic. 2022 SRN traffic estimates remain lower than those for before the pandemic (-3.2% when compared to 2019)
• traffic on England’s local authority managed roads, compared to 2021, increased by 8.3% on motorways and ‘A’ roads and 5.4% on minor roads
• 2022 traffic estimates for local authority roads remain lower than those for 2019 pre-pandemic levels, by -6.0% on local authority managed motorways and ‘A’ roads and by -4.4% on locally managed minor roads

Chart 38: Share of traffic and length by road types in England, 2022

Chart 38 is a bar chart that shows that in 2022:

• the SRN made up 2.4% of England’s road network, and carried 33.9% of all motorised traffic in England
• the SRN is particularly important for freight, with over one third of van miles and over two-thirds of lorry miles in England being driven on the SRN

In 2022 on the Local Road Networks:

• the local motorway and ‘A’ road network (major roads) carried 31.2% of traffic despite being only 9.6% of England’s road length
• the remaining traffic (34.9%) was on England’s local minor road network - ‘B’, classified unnumbered and unclassified - which makes up 88.0% of road length in England

Chart 39: Number of vehicles passing per 24 hours on a typical stretch of road, 2022

Chart 39 is a bar chart that shows over 56 thousand vehicles travel along a typical stretch of the strategic road network each day. This is over 4 times greater than the number for a typical stretch of locally managed major roads, at 13,200.

Background Information

Annual estimates make use of data from around 8,000 manual traffic counts in addition to continuous data from a national network of automatic traffic counters. These data sources produce accurate estimates on traffic levels in Great Britain by vehicle type and by road type.

Whilst road traffic data is accurate at a high level of aggregation, it should be noted that:

• Although we produce traffic breakdowns by local authorities, traffic at this level is not as robust, due to the sample size of the minor road data, and must be treated with caution

• Estimates for pedal cycle traffic only include cycling on roads, or paths directly adjacent to the road, and do not include estimates of cycling on other routes such as canal paths. Therefore, they may not give a complete representation of cycling

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

• a detailed explanation of the methodology used to produce DfT road traffic statistics can be found online in the annual road traffic estimates: methodology note
• notes and definitions for the road traffic statistics
• the data tables, which give further detail of the key results presented in this statistical release
• a geographical website that allows users to view and download estimated traffic flows on every link of the ‘A’ road and motorway network in Great Britain

Further Information

National Statistics are produced to high professional standards, as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. These statistics were designated as National Statistics in February 2013, details of which can be found on the road traffic statistics information page.

Details of Ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access page.

To hear more about DfT statistics publications as they are released, please follow us on Twitter.

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Contact details

Road traffic and vehicle speed compliance statistics

Email roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk

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