National statistics

Travel time measures for the Strategic Road Network and local ‘A’ roads: January to December 2021

Travel time statistics on the Strategic Road Network and on locally managed ‘A’ roads for the year ending December 2021.

Applies to England

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Details

Explore the interactive maps showing the average delay and average speed on the Strategic Road Network and Local ‘A’ Roads in England, in 2021.

On the Strategic Road Network (SRN) for 2021, the average delay is estimated to be 8.5 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm), compared to free flow, a 16.4% increase on the previous year.

The average speed is estimated to be 58.9 mph, down 1.8% from 2020.

On local ‘A’ roads for 2021, the average delay is estimated to be 46.1 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm) compared to free flow.

The average speed is estimated to be 24.1 mph.

Please note that figures for the SRN and local ‘A’ roads are not directly comparable.

The Department for Transport (DfT) went through an open procurement exercise and have changed GPS data providers. This led to a step change in the statistics and inability to compare the local ‘A’ roads data historically. These changes are discussed in the methodology notes.

The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a marked impact on everyday life, including on congestion on the road network. As these data are affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, caution should be taken when interpreting these statistics and comparing them with previous time periods. Additional analysis on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on road journeys in 2020 is also available. This Storymap contains charts and interactive maps for road journeys in England in 2020.

Published 2 March 2022