Traffic in Great Britain: Quarter 2 2003

Summary

• Estimated traffic volume on Britain's roads rose by one per cent between the second quarter of 2002 and the same quarter of 2003. This follows similar growth in Q1 leaving the traffic in the first half of 2003 1.2 per cent higher than the same period last year.
• These figures, and analyses by vehicle type and road class, are published today in Traffic in Great Britain - 2nd Quarter 2003. Key points include:
• Traffic on motorways has seen little change for the second quarter of 2003 compared to the same time last year.
• Traffic on minor rural and major urban roads went down by 2.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively whilst traffic went up on major rural (3.1 per cent) and minor urban roads (3.2 per cent) compared to the second quarter last year.
• There was little change between the second quarter of 2002 and the second quarter of 2003 in the overall volume of car traffic, which accounts for about 80 per cent of all traffic.
• Goods vehicles traffic in urban areas between Q2 2002 and the same quarter this year has increased on major roads by 6.2 per cent and gone down on minor roads by 1.2 per cent.
• Light van traffic, representing 11 per cent of all motor vehicles, increased by 5.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2003 compared to the same time last year following the general trend for the last 10 years.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Traffic estimates have been revised back to 1993 and estimates by road type are now classified as either urban or rural. An explanation about the change in methodology is in the Transport Statistics Road Traffic Statistics for Great Britain: 2002 published on 31st July 2003 and the Traffic in Great Britain - 1st Quarter 2003 published on 8^th May 2003.

The quarterly estimates are based mainly on data from 180 automatic traffic counters. This includes motorways that use a traffic counter for each direction.

Road traffic is one of the Government's headline indicators of sustainable development. These are a 'quality of life barometer' measuring everyday concerns and are intended to focus public attention on what sustainable development means and to give a broad overview of whether we are "achieving a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come".

The next quarterly bulletin will be published on Thursday 6 November 2003.

Publication details

Published quarterly by DfT Transport Statistics

Available by telephone order on +44 (0)20 7890 3095

ISSN: 0-269-0993, price £-free.

E-mail: roadtraff.stats@dft.gov.uk for queries concerning road traffic statistics

For information about release of this product see National Statistics Online