Travel time measures for the Strategic Road Network, England and local ‘A’ roads, Great Britain: April 2025 to March 2026
Congestion on the Strategic Road Network (motorways and ‘A’ roads managed by National Highways), and on locally managed ‘A’ roads for April 2025 to March 2026. This is the first local ‘A’ roads congestion publication to cover Great Britain and not just England.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Documents
Details
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly by emailing congestion statistics with any comments about how we meet these standards.
There has been a step change in congestion statistics due to changes in the underlying vehicle sample for the local ‘A’ roads data from April 2025. It is therefore not possible to compare this new data over a longer time period. The change in the sample is not consistent across the country. The areas with the largest changes in sample have shown the largest changes in average speed and delay.
Data up to June 2026 for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) will be published in the next quarterly release. Following this, there will then be a pause in the regular publication schedule for the SRN as National Highways make changes to the methodology. Updates on when SRN publication will resume will be announced in advance with the publication schedule.
On the Strategic Road Network (SRN) for the year ending March 2026, the average delay is estimated to be 10.9 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm), compared to free flow, a 7.6% decrease on year ending March 2025.
The average speed is estimated to be 56.6 mph for the year ending December 2025, up 1.4% from March 2026.
On local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain for the year ending March 2026, the average delay is estimated to be 43.4 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm) compared to free flow.
The average speed is estimated to be 24.6 mph for the year ending March 2026.
On local ‘A’ roads in England for the year ending March 2026, the average delay is estimated to be 44.5 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm) compared to free flow.
The average speed is estimated to be 24.3 mph for the year ending March 2026.
Scotland and Wales data from January 2025 to March 2026 is also available for the first time in this release.
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Road congestion and travel times
Email congestion.stats@dft.gov.uk
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