Accredited official statistics

Travel time measures for local 'A' roads: April 2025 to March 2026 report

Published 6 August 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

About this release

This statistical release presents information on travel times on Local Highway Authority managed “A” roads in Great Britain.

In line with the importance of coherence and comparable statistics, this series has been expanded from England only to provide statistics for England, Scotland and Wales and headline statistics for Great Britain from January 2025 onwards.

The measures in this release are estimated using in-vehicle Global Positioning Systems (GPS) observations.

In addition to this release,  a separate set of data tables covering statistics on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in England are available.   Due to methodology differences between the local A road and SRN data these are not directly comparable, see the methodology and technicalsection for further details. Please note the geographical coverage of the SRN is  England only.

This publication includes both accredited official statistics ^{[footnote 1]} and official statistics. For more information, see the About these statistics section.

Definitions of key terminology can be found in the glossary.

Notes on the methodology and sample

There has been a step change in congestion statistics due to changes in the underlying vehicle sample for the local ‘A’ roads data across Great Britain from April 2025. 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.

Further information about the impact of this change in sample can be found in the Methodology Note.

1. Headline Statistics

1.1 Great Britain

On local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain for the year ending March 2026, the average speed was 24.6 miles per hour (mph).

The average delay on local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain for the year ending March 2026 was 43.4 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm).

1.2 England

On local ‘A’ roads in England for the year ending March 2026, the average speed was 24.3 miles per hour (mph).

The average delay on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 was 44.5 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm).

1.3 Scotland

On local ‘A’ roads in Scotland for the year ending March 2026, the average speed was 26.5 miles per hour (mph).

The average delay on local ‘A’ roads in Scotland for the year ending March 2026 was 36.8 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm).

1.4 Wales

On local ‘A’ roads in Wales for the year ending March 2026, the average speed was 26.7 miles per hour (mph).

The average delay on local ‘A’ roads in Wales for the year ending March 2026 was 34.6 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm).

2. National Overview

This section presents average speed and delay values for Great Britain and the constituent countries from April 2025 to March 2026.

2.1 Speed

The average speed on Local ‘A’ roads for Great Britain for the year ending March 2026 was estimated to be 24.6 mph.  For the constituent countries in Great Britain, the average speed on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 was 24.3 mph in England, 26.5 mph in Scotland, and 26.7 mph in Wales.

Chart 1: Average speed on Local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain, and the constituent countries (Table CGN0505b)

Table 1: Average speed on local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain (Table CGN0505b)

Nation	Year ending March 2026	Year Ending December 2025
Great Britain	24.6	24.3
England	24.3	24.0
Scotland	26.5	26.3
Wales	26.7	26.4

2.2 Delay

The average delay on Local ‘A’ roads for Great Britain for the year ending March 2026 was estimated to be 43.4 spvpm. For the constituent countries in Great Britain, the average delay on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 was 44.5 spvpm in England, 36.8 spvpm in Scotland, and 34.6 spvpm in Wales.

Chart 2: Average delay on local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain (Table CGN0506b)

Table 2: Average delay on local ‘A’ roads in Great Britain (Table CGN0506b)

Nation	Year ending March 2026	Year Ending December 2025
Great Britain	43.4	44.3
England	44.5	45.4
Scotland	36.8	37.1
Wales	34.6	34.9

It is important to note that delay is affected by free flow speeds. As a result, a fixed absolute decrease in observed speeds will translate into a higher level of delay with a low free flow speed relative to those with a high free flow speed. An example of this is illustrated in Infographic 1.

Infographic 1: Illustrative example of average of delay

3. Peak Times Breakdown

This section contains average speed and delay values for all of Great Britain for the year ending March 2026, split across the following time periods:

• Weekday Morning Peak – 7am to 10am Monday to Friday

• Weekday Inter Peak – 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday

• Weekday Evening Peak – 4pm to 7pm Monday to Friday

• Weekday Off Peak – 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday

In general, the lowest speeds and highest delay values are observed in the morning and evening peak periods.

3.1 Speed

Average speed split by time period for the year ending March 2026 is given in Table 3 below:

Table 3: Average speed on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 split by time period (Table CGN0505b)

Nation	Weekday Morning Peak	Weekday Inter Peak	Weekday Evening Peak	Weekday Off Peak
Great Britain	23.3	23.9	22.1	29.7
England	23.0	23.6	21.8	29.5
Scotland	26.0	25.5	24.7	30.6
Wales	25.8	25.7	24.9	31.2

3.2 Delay

Average delay split by time period is given in the Table 4 below:

Table 4: Average delay on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 split by time period (Table CGN0506b)

Nation	Weekday Morning Peak	Weekday Inter Peak	Weekday Evening Peak	Weekday Off Peak
Great Britain	50.9	47.3	59.3	19.3
England	52.6	48.2	61.2	19.4
Scotland	38.9	41.7	46.3	19.7
Wales	38.8	39.5	43.9	17.0

4. Urban/Rural Split

This section contains average speed and delay values for Great Britain for the year ending March 2026, split between urban and rural roads.

4.1 Speed

Average speed split by urban and rural is given in the Table 5 below:

Table 5: Average speed on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 split by urban and rural (Table CGN0506b)

Nation	Urban	Rural
Great Britain	17.6	34.4
England	17.4	34.4
Scotland	19.4	36.6
Wales	19.6	31.7

4.2 Delay

Average delay split by urban and rural is given in the Table 6 below:

Table 6: Average delay on local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2026 split by urban and rural (Table CGN0506b)

Nation	Urban	Rural
Great Britain	74.1	21.5
England	75.8	21.6
Scotland	61.1	18.4
Wales	58.1	24.4

It is important to note that urban roads generally have lower free flow speeds than rural roads. As a result, a fixed absolute decrease in observed speeds will generally translate into a higher level of delay on urban roads relative to rural roads.

5. Local Authority Breakdown

This section contains average speed and delay values for the year ending March 2026, split by Local Highway Authority.

The highest speeds, and correspondingly the lowest delay values, are generally found in rural Local Authorities.

Those local authorities that are urban see the associated increase in delay and decrease in speed over more rural authorities.

Average delay on Local ‘A’ Roads split by Local Highway Authority is shown in Map 1.

Map 1: Average delay on local ‘A’ roads by Local Highway Authority in Great Britain, April 2025 to March 2026

6. Further Geographic Breakdowns

Further geographic breakdown of speed and delay on Local ‘A’ Roads are included in the data tables as described below.

6.1 Road Level

Travel time measures for individual Local ‘A’ roads are available from 2025 onwards. The annual average speed and average delay for individual roads can be found in Tables CGN0503e (England), CGN0504e (England), CGN0507c (Scotland), CGN0508c (Scotland), CGN0509c (Wales), and CGN0510c (Wales).

7. Context and user feedback

The local ‘A’ road measures presented in this release were developed to provide a more complete picture of travel times on local ‘A’ roads and to align with measures introduced for the SRN.

This release includes Great Britain headline measures for local ‘A’ roads for the first time. This responds to user demand for a broader national view of congestion while preserving the existing England series for continuity. Users can now compare Great Britain alongside the individual country’s measures within a single publication. The interactive maps will be updated to include the new geographies at the next annual release in 2027.

We will continue to review the content and presentation of these statistics, which we expect to develop further over time. Please contact us with any feedback you have, or if you would like further information.

8. Methodology and technical details

Average Speed and Delays are calculated from in-vehicle GPS units and weighted by road traffic flows to better represent the volume of traffic at different locations and times of day. For the Local ‘A’ roads data, the sample includes cars and vans.

It is important to note that although figures are produced for average speed and average delay on both the Local ‘A’ and SRN networks, they are not directly comparable. The methodological differences between the Local ‘A’ road and SRN data prevent comparisons between the 2 road types. A full explanation and further information on the data used, methodology, quality assurance and other sources of data can be found in the Background Quality Report. Data throughout this release is compared on an annual basis, rather than quarterly within year, due to seasonality.

Due to sample changes in the purchased GPS dataset a break in the timeseries has been introduced from April 2025. A comparison of the consistent sample from 2023 and the complete sample has been calculated to understand the impact of this change on the average speed and delay statistics. Further information on this change can be found in the methodology note.

9. Glossary

The glossary below contains some key terms utilised in this statistical release and how these are defined.

Term	Definition
Average Speed	Speed is measured in miles per hour and is an estimate of the physical level of congestion across the entire day (24-hour period). The metric weights speed observations from a sample of vehicles so that it is representative of traffic volumes. The weighting for local ‘A’ roads accounts for associated traffic flows, time period, month, urban or rural classification, and local authority.
Average Delay	Delay is measured in seconds per vehicle per mile and is the difference between free flow travel times and recorded average journey times across the entire day (24-hour period). This metric is indicative of relative congestion on the network. Road users do not typically expect free flow conditions and will perceive delay relative to their expected conditions.
Free Flow Speed	Free Flow for Local ‘A’ roads is measured as the 85th percentile speed observation for each individual road section. Free flow speeds are ‘capped’ at national speed limits to give an estimated speed of traffic if there was no congestion.
Urban and Rural Roads	For statistical purposes, DfT defines ‘urban’ roads to be those within a settlement of 10,000 people or more. This is consistent with the Rural and Urban Area Classification 2011. All other roads are defined as ‘rural’.

10. About these statistics

This publication is a compendium of both accredited official statistics ^{[footnote 1]} and official statistics. The type of statistics presented is detailed below.

10.1 Accredited Official Statistics: Travel times on Local Highway Authority managed “A” roads in England

These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

10.2 Other official statistics: Travel times on Local Highway Authority managed “A” roads in Great Britain, Scotland and Wales

These new statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

11. Next update

The next quarterly table update in this series is expected to be published in September 2026. This will contain monthly, and annual (year ending) figures, for the period July 2025 to June 2026. This will include new figures for the period April 2026 to June 2026.

The next annual written report is expected to be published in February/March 2027 and will contain annual figures for 2026.

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14. Contact us

Road congestion and travel times

Email congestion.stats@dft.gov.uk

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1. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Accredited Official Statistics Policy – Office for Statistics Regulation ↩ ↩²