Provisional road traffic estimates, Great Britain: January 2016 to December 2016

Provisional estimates show that motor vehicle traffic in Great Britain was at a record high in 2016, with the biggest increase seen in mileage covered by vans.

Published by the DfT on 9 February, the provisional figure of 320.5bn vehicle miles travelled was a year-on-year rise of 1.2%.

The figure is also 2% higher than the pre-recession peak in the year ending September 2007 and means that rolling annual traffic levels have now increased for each quarter in succession for more than three years.

In terms of vehicle type, car traffic recorded a year-on-year rise of 0.7% to a record 249.5bn vehicle miles. This is 1.3bn more vehicle miles than the pre-recession peak in 2007.

Van traffic (LGV) continues to rise, increasing by 3.4% year-on-year to a new peak of 48.5 billion vehicle miles, while HGV traffic grew by 2.8% to 17.1bn vehicle miles.

Focusing on road type, traffic on both motorways and rural ‘A’ roads increased to new record levels. Motorway traffic rose by 2.1% to 67.9bn, while rural ‘A’ roads saw a 2.5% year-on-year rise.

Traffic was broadly stable on minor roads, with rural roads experiencing a 0.6% fall to 44.2bn vehicle miles and urban roads experiencing a 0.3% year-on-year fall to 64.6bn.