Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 22nd November 2016
Date published/launched: November 2016
Published by the Department for Transport (DfT) on 10 November, the provisional figure of 320bn vehicle miles travelled represents a year-on-year rise of 1.4%. It is also 1.8% higher than the pre-recession peak in the year ending September 2007.
The new figures also mean that the rolling quarterly figure has now increased for 15 quarters in succession.
In terms of vehicle type, car traffic increased by 0.9% to a record 249.4bn vehicle miles, 1.2bn more than the 2007 pre-recession peak. Van traffic (LGV) also continued to rise, increasing by 3.8% to a new peak of 48.2bn miles, while HGV traffic saw a year-on-year rise of 3.4% to 17.1bn miles. HGVs also reached a new peak on motorways of 7.9bn miles.
Focussing on road type, motorway traffic increased by 2.5% to 67.7bn vehicle miles. Over the last six years, motorway traffic has increased on average by 1.7% per year. ‘A’ road traffic showed an increase of 2.1%, a figure which was mainly driven by traffic on rural ‘A’ roads (which grew by 2.8% to 93.1bn miles). Traffic on urban ‘A’ roads increased
by 0.9% to 50.2bn miles.
However, traffic was broadly stable on minor roads, with minor rural roads accounting for 44.4bn miles and urban minor roads 64.7bn miles.
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