There has been a four per cent increase in successful motorway/main road journeys completed on time over the last 12 months. The figure stands at 85.3 per cent and the Highways agency believe that this is down to more and more people leaving their cars at home.
It is believed that due to the increase in fuel costs up and down the country, the general public are choosing car sharing and public transport over feeling the cost of fuel in their back pocket.
In comparison with this the government’s statistics agency have pledged that they believe the figures haven’t changed that greatly as their numbers show that 71 per cent of people are still travelling to work by car.
Measurements that the Highways Agency carry out are worked out by using high tech number plate recognition cameras that allow them to calculate how long a particular journey should take. They take into considerations that journey times may vary due to weather and accidents but they believe that the majority of delayed journeys are down to sheer volume of traffic.
Even the AA have advised that they believe congestion has dropped due to the recession and the rise in fuel. Unleaded fuel now sits at 135.8 pence per litre in comparison to this time last year when it was 120.5 pence per litre. With some basic calculations the AA has advised that this could have potentially increased an average family’s fuel costs by £16.
Less people are using their cars in the capital which may be down to an average commuting time being up to 45 minutes to get to work in a car. Outside the capital less than 9 per cent of people travelling to work are on the road for longer than 45 minutes so the upheaval of being stuck in traffic is not as impacting and therefore the choice to travel to work by car still remains.