UK road users spent over 115 hours stuck in traffic during 2019

The UK is estimated to lose around £6.9 billion every year due to the amount that road users regularly find themselves stuck in traffic. Road commuters on average are said to spend around 115 hours during slow movement on the roads. At an individual cost, this is said to be around £894 per road user. This is according to research from traffic analyst Inrix, with London proving to be the most congested city. Seeing drivers face around 149 hours lost due to the overwhelming levels of traffic.

The second worst ranked city for traffic was Belfast, holding up 112 hours per driver. This is followed by Edinburgh and Manchester. Trevor Reed of Inrix, the transportation analyst firm who carried out the research, spoke on the matter of: “Very little road space and a whole lot of demand.”

He stated: ‘You have very severe congestion and a massive, relatively high earning population. ‘UK cities are quite a bit older and a lot denser than American cities. London is over 2,000 years old. ‘When you develop around walking, and horse and buggy, and everything but cars, the urban environment does not handle (cars) all that well. Cardiff saw the biggest year-on-year growth in congestion (up 5% to 87 hours).

 He continued: ‘You can reach a tipping point with a city. You add just enough cars to make nothing work. ‘Sometimes you add one or two per cent more cars, and it causes a viscous cycle of congestion to set in.’ 
In Nottingham, congestion decreased by 17%, the largest drop in traffic in comparison with the year previous when compared with the UK’s other largest cities. The most congested area is Edgeware Road to Old Street in London, with commuters losing 44 hours each on this route alone. As for slowest city, London and Edinburgh made a tie with an average speed of 10mph.

Speaking on the research, a spokeswoman from the Government said: “This Government is determined to improve journeys for all motorists, which is why we’re investing nearly £29 billion to reduce congestion on our roads up to 2025. Looking to the future, our £2.5 billion Transforming Cities Fund will help develop innovative public transport projects, while the tripling of our investment per head in cycling and walking since 2010 is encouraging people to try other ways of getting around – helping create less congested towns and cities.”

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