Congestion is improving according to official figures released this week, which also show that rush hour journeys by road are also getting faster.

The latest provisional statistics on congestion in urban areas in England were released by the Department for Transport and show that across the 10 largest urban areas in the country, the average road journey time is now four minutes 10 seconds per mile during the morning peak period, which is an improvement of six seconds per mile.

The statistics also show that six out of the 10 urban areas showed a decrease in congestion.

The figures are calculated using vehicle journey times for cars, light vans and heavy goods vehicles, which are collected nationally from in-vehicle Global Positioning System (GPS) devices.