As more freight traffic competes for space on UK roads attempts to deal with motorway congestion are failing, according to the latest government figures. Department for Transport (DfT) statistics for the second quarter of 2007 show there were 1% more goods vehicles on the roads than during Q2 2006. Light CV traffic rose by 9%.
Average vehicle delays on the slowest 10% of journeys on motorways and trunk roads rose from 3.78 minutes to 4.10
minutes between 2004/05 and 2006/07. Over the same period, the average journey time rose from 13.4 to 13.7 minutes per 10 miles.
The increase in delays on major roads indicates that the Highways Agency is missing its target of making journeys more reliable on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in 2007/08 than they were in 2004/2005, although it still has a few months to reverse that position.
Susan Kramer, Liberal Democrat transport spokeswoman, says: "These figures highlight yet again the government's failure to tackle congestion - 10 years ago ministers promised to reduce traffic levels but we have seen the exact opposite."
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