Please note a break in the statistical time series for local ‘A’ roads travel times has been highlighted beginning January 2019.

Please note that figures for the SRN and local ‘A’ roads are not directly comparable.

Road congestion and travel times

On the Strategic Road Network (SRN) for the year ending March 2021, the average delay is estimated to be 5.9 seconds per vehicle per mile compared to speed limits travel times, a 36.6% decrease compared to the year ending March 2020.

The average speed is estimated to be 62.6mph, 6.3% up on the year ending March 2020.

In the year ending March 2021, on average 34.1% of additional time was needed compared to speed limits travel times, on individual road sections of the SRN to ensure on time arrival. This is down 32.2 percentage points compared to the year ending March 2020, so on average a lower proportion of additional time is required.

On local ‘A’ roads for the year ending March 2021, the average delay is estimated to be 32.0 seconds per vehicle per mile compared to free flow travel times. This is a decrease of 26.8% on March 2020.

The average speed is estimated to be 27.8 mph. This is an increase of 9.9% relative to the year ending March 2020.

The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a marked impact on everyday life, including on congestion on the road network. As these data are affected by the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, caution should be taken when interpreting these statistics and comparing them with previous time periods. The congestion metrics remain below the anticipated levels for March 2021.

Interactive maps showing the annual average delay and average speed on the http://bit.ly/SRN_Congestion_2020">Strategic Road Network and http://bit.ly/LocalA_Congestion_2020">local ‘A’ roads in England, in 2020 are available.

Additional http://bit.ly/COVID_Congestion_Analysis">analysis on the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the road journeys is also available. This story map contains charts and interactive maps for road journeys in England in 2020.

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Please note that figures for the SRN and local ‘A’ roads are not directly comparable.

The Department for Transport went through an open procurement exercise and have changed GPS data providers. This led to a step change in the statistics and inability to compare the local ‘A’ roads data historically. These changes are discussed in the methodology notes.

Road congestion and travel times

Details

Transport Statistics Great Britain provides statistics on:

• the use of different modes of transport
• aviation activity at UK and international airports and of airlines
• transport energy consumption, greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions
• road and rail freight
• port freight and sea passenger traffic at UK sea ports
• use of public transport
• road traffic volumes and congestion
• road and rail accidents and casualties
• licensed vehicles and MOT and driving test rates
• walking and cycling as methods of transport
• the use of transport by people with mobility difficulties
• transport expenditure

The TSGB 2021 report includes a summary of daily domestic transport statistics from 1 March 2020 to the end of the year. Transport usage statistics in 2021 are published weekly.

You can now use our https://maps.dft.gov.uk/tsgb-table-catalogue/index.html">interactive table catalogue to find TSGB tables by title, topic or table number.

Related notes and definitions for each chapter are available.

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These are the final statistics on road collisions and casualties for Great Britain in 2023.

Between 2022 and 2023, there was a small decline in reported road casualties in Great Britain with casualty numbers broadly following the trends observed before the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of fatalities in 2023 is the lowest recorded outside of years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, although fatality figures are relatively small and can fluctuate from year to year. Overall casualties have returned to the steady decline observed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the number of killed or seriously injured casualties has fallen less, particularly since 2017.

In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2023, there were an estimated:

• 1,624 fatalities, a decline of 5% compared to 2022
• 29,711 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties, little change compared to 2022
• 132,977 casualties of all severities, a decline of 2% compared to 2022
• 5 road fatalities per billion vehicle miles travelled, down 7% compared to 2022

Alongside the main publication and full set of detailed road safety statistical tables, we have also published a range of road safety factsheets focussed on specific road users or topics, including the official statistics on e-scooter collisions and casualties, and new analyses looking at the ‘fatal 4’ factors based on the new road safety factors classification, and self-reported driver behaviour based on Crime Survey for England and Wales data.

We have also published an update on progress in implementing the latest STATS19 review and future development roadmap, as well as new tools to download and to map casualty data.

The next reported road casualty statistics, for the year to end June 2024, are scheduled for publication in November.

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To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at https://x.com/dftstats?lang=en">DfTstats.

The recent trends in reported road casualties have been impacted by the national restrictions implemented from March 2020 onwards following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Alongside the release of the high-level trends, we have published a monthly breakdown investigating the impact of COVID-19 on reported road casualties.

Final statistics on reported road casualties in Great Britain for 2020 show that:

• there were 1,460 reported road deaths, a decrease of 17% from 2019 which is not likely to represent an ongoing trend
• there were 115,584 casualties of all severities in 2020, down by 25% from 2019
• casualties saw the greatest monthly percentage decrease of 68% in April 2020, compared to the 3-year average for 2017 to 2019

Alongside this publication we have separately published further analysis including:

• new factsheets including on e-scooters and pedal cyclists
• a brief analysis of road user risk based on STATS19 data
• an initial feasibility study looking at developing statistics on drug-drive fatalities
• a new https://maps.dft.gov.uk/road-casualties/index.html">interactive dashboard which allows users to explore casualty data in more detail

We have also updated methodology notes which provide information relating to the quality of these statistics, including:

• a comparison of different sources of data on road casualties including survey, hospital and compensation claims data
• the impact of the introduction of online reporting on road casualty statistics

The STATS19 review started in autumn 2018 and has made a number of recommendations on changes to STATS19 going forward. Key recommendations can be found in the full STATS19 review report

We have published these statistics in HTML format for the first time this year, and welcome any feedback on this change to inform our future publication plans.

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