Average delays on the strategic road network (SRN) increased in all regions of England during 2021-22, as traffic levels recovered after the COVID lockdowns.
Delays remained below pre-pandemic levels; however, one region was still exceeding National Highways' national key performance indicator for the end of Roads Period 2 (RP 2).
In its Benchmarking National Highways – Regional Performance 2021-22 report, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said that traffic levels continue to rise during 2022-23 a further increase in average delay is likely.
The national average traffic delay in 2021-22 was 8.8 seconds per vehicle mile, up from 6.7 seconds in 2020-21. This is just short of National Highways’ KPI for 2024-25 of 9.5 seconds per vehicle mile.
That's my jam: Traffic at the M25/M1 interchange near Watford
The government-owned company has stressed that this KPI, which requires averages delays to be no worse at the end of RP2, which runs from 2020-2025, than at the end of RP 1 (2020), is an ‘ambition’, not a ‘target’ after it ‘worked with the Department for Transport’ to set it.
During 2021-22, the South East region exceeded the national target with an average delay of 9.8 seconds. Similarly, during 2019-20, the region was the only one to exceed the national average, with an average delay of 11.1 seconds.
The North West had the largest increase in average delay compared with 2020-21, rising from 6.0 to 8.8 seconds and thereby leapfrogging the South West, which saw the smallest rise with an increase from 6.2 seconds to 7.2 seconds.
The North West also had the highest level of delays due to roadworks in 2021-22, with the figure more than doubling from 1.1 minutes per hour travelled to 2.4 minutes per hour travelled.
National Highways’ performance on clearing motorway incidents within an hour fell between 2020-21 and 2021-22 as traffic and the number of incidents on the network increased, but each of its regions continued to perform above the national-level 86% target.
Most regions continued to perform at or above the national-level target of 95% for the condition of road surfaces, although the Midlands and the East scored 94.3% and 93.2% respectively. However, the ORR pointed out that these regions have a higher proportion of the country’s ageing concrete roads.
Feras Alshaker, director of highways at the ORR, said: ‘In 2021-22, National Highways’ regions were dealt the challenge of maintaining performance in the face of rising traffic levels. As traffic levels recovered, delays also increased. Nevertheless, we have seen examples of where the regions have improved performance.
‘Our report is an important resource that we expect National Highways to use to explore and understand regional variations in performance and, where practicable, to act on lessons learned to improve performance across the strategic road network.’
