Congestion on local authority managed ‘A’ roads: January to March 2013

This statistical release presents provisional information about congestion on local authority managed ‘A’ roads in England between January and March 2013, and suggests that speeds on some roads at certain times of the day fell.

The provisional data shows that average speeds during the weekday morning peak on locally managed ‘A’ roads were slower in January 2013 (down 4.4%), February 2013 (down 1.8%) and March 2013 (down 1.9%) compared with the same months in 2012.

Other key points include:
• Following a long period of increases since December 2010, there has been a downward trend in annual average weekday morning speeds on locally managed ‘A’ roads in England over the last year. Annual average speeds generally decreased between the years ending March 2012 and March 2013.
• The decreases in average speed over the last year are likely to have been influenced by the increase in rainfall in each of the months over this period compared to the same months in the previous year. The larger decrease in average speeds observed in January 2013 is likely to be explained by a period of significant snowfall across much of the country in that month, which caused considerable disruption on the roads.