Delays on England’s most important roads ‘increasing’

Drivers are being delayed for longer and travelling at slower speeds, according to new figures published by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The statistics, for the strategic road network (SRN), show that the average speed was 57mph in 2023, a 1.9% reduction on the average of 58.1 mph reported in 2022 and down 1.7% from 58mph in 2019.

Source:DfT

Meanwhile, the average delay on roads managed by National Highways in 2023 was 10.5 seconds per vehicle per mile – a 12.9% increase from 9.3 seconds in 2022 and up 10.5% from 9.5 seconds in 2019.

Average annual speed and annual delay on the SRN per year

Source:DfT

Separate data for England’s local ‘A’ roads shows that the average speed was 23mph, a 2.1% reduction from 23.5 mph reported in 2022 and up 0.4% from 22.9mph in 2019.

The average delay on local ‘A’ roads in England in 2023 was 47.9 seconds per vehicle per mile – a 5.3% increase from 45.5 seconds in 2022 and down 0.6% from 48.2 seconds in 2019.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “It’s very concerning to see delays on our most important roads increasing to above pre-pandemic levels and average speeds are dropping.

“With more people than ever working from home at least part of the week and no growth in the number of cars on the road since then, we’re struggling to see what the cause can be other than roadworks.” 

He continued: “We’re aware safety concerns relating to the all-lane-running smart motorway experiment have required lots of retrofitting of emergency refuge areas which has limited capacity on these key routes.

“While this is necessary, it is also frustrating as it could easily have been avoided had the distance between them not been quietly reduced as more schemes were rolled out over the years.”

Considering these figures, Williams says that it is more important than ever that National Highways is given sufficient funds in the next five-year road investment settlement to tackle these issues head on.

“As this is just about to be agreed time is of the essence,” he added.