Road traffic estimates in Great Britain, 2023: Traffic on England's road networks
Published 22 May 2024
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
© Crown copyright 2024
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About this release
This release presents the 2023 annual estimates of traffic for England’s strategic and local road networks.
Please see the companion releases for an overview of the 2023 traffic estimates, a breakdown by vehicle type, a breakdown by road type.
Annual traffic statistics are compiled using data from around 8,000 roadside 12-hour manual counts, continuous data from automatic traffic counters, and data on road lengths. Please see our methodology note for more details.
The next annual traffic statistics release is expected to be published in May 2025, reporting 2024 traffic figures.
This publication includes both accredited official statistics[footnote 1] and official statistics. For more information, see the background information section.
Summary
Definition
Strategic Road Network (SRN)
The SRN is made up of the motorways and major trunk roads in England that are managed by National Highways (previously Highways England and Highways Agency). In 2023, the SRN comprised approximately 4,555 miles of road (2.4% of the English network).
The majority of other roads in England are maintained by one of the local highways authorities.
England’s road networks saw an increase in traffic levels during 2023 compared to 2022 and a decrease when comparing 2023 levels to 2019.
Chart 37: Vehicle miles travelled by road type in England, 2019 to 2023
Chart 37 is a bar chart that shows that in 2023:
- Strategic Road Network (SRN) traffic increased by 2.3% compared to 2022, carrying 95.8 billion vehicle miles of traffic. 2023 SRN traffic estimates remain lower than those for before the pandemic (down by 1.0% when compared to 2019)
- traffic on England’s local authority managed roads, compared to 2022, increased by 2.6% on motorways and ‘A’ roads and increased by 1.8% on minor roads
- overall traffic estimates for local authority roads remain lower than those for 2019 pre-pandemic levels. They were 3.5% lower on local authority managed motorways and ‘A’ roads and 2.8% lower on locally managed minor roads
Chart 38: Share of traffic and length by road types in England, 2023
Chart 38 is a bar chart that shows that in 2023:
- the SRN made up 2.4% of England’s road network, and carried 33.9% of all motorised traffic in England
- the SRN is particularly important for freight, with over one third of van miles and over two-thirds of lorry miles in England being driven on the SRN
In 2023 on the Local Road Networks:
- the local motorway and ‘A’ road network (major roads) carried 31.3% of traffic despite being only 9.6% of England’s road length
- the remaining traffic (34.7%) was on England’s local minor road network - ‘B’, classified unnumbered and unclassified - which makes up 88.0% of road length in England
Chart 39: Number of vehicles passing per 24 hours on a typical stretch of road, 2023
Chart 39 is a bar chart that shows over 57,000 vehicles travel along a typical stretch of the strategic road network each day. This is over 4 times greater than the number for a typical stretch of locally managed major roads, at 13,500.
England’s Strategic Road Network traffic
Chart 40: Vehicle miles driven on the Strategic Road Network, 2013 to 2023
Chart 40 is a bar chart that shows that motor vehicle miles travelled on the SRN saw year-on-year growth in all years between 2013 and 2019. This was followed by a sharp decline in 2020 and then increases in 2021 and 2022. Traffic levels between 2022 and 2023 increased by 2.3%. 2023 levels were 1.0% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Chart 41: Vehicle miles driven on the Strategic Road Network by vehicle type, 2019 to 2023
Chart 41 is a bar chart that shows that traffic levels on the SRN for cars, vans and other vehicles (motorcycles and buses and coaches) increased in 2023, whilst traffic for lorries decreased.
Between 2022 and 2023, car traffic increased by 3.0% on the SRN to 67.3 billion vehicle miles, van traffic rose by 1.6% to 17.7 billion vehicle miles, and lorry traffic fell 1.5% to 10.3 billion vehicle miles. Other vehicles traffic increased by 3.5%.
Compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, 2023 traffic for cars and other vehicles remained lower (by -4.9% and -22.5%, respectively), whereas traffic for vans and lorries was above 2019 levels (by 17.2% and 0.7%, respectively).
England’s local road traffic
Chart 42: Vehicle miles driven on England’s locally managed roads, 2013 to 2023
Chart 42 is a bar chart that shows that motor vehicle miles travelled on England’s locally managed major and minor roads saw year-on-year growth in each year between 2013 and 2019. This was followed by a sharp decline in 2020 and then increases in 2021 and 2022. Traffic levels between 2022 and 2023 increased by 2.2%. 2023 levels were 3.1% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Chart 43: Vehicle miles driven England’s locally managed roads by vehicle type, 2019 to 2023
Chart 43 is a bar chart that shows that traffic levels on the locally managed roads for cars increased in 2023, whilst lorry traffic decreased and traffic for vans and other vehicles (motorcycles and buses and coaches) remained at similar levels.
Between 2022 and 2023, car traffic increased by 3.0% on locally managed roads to 147.7 billion vehicle miles, van traffic was relatively unchanged (-0.1%) at 30.9 billion vehicle miles, and lorry traffic fell 4.4% to 4.4 billion vehicle miles. Other vehicles traffic was also broadly similar (a -0.5% change).
Compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, 2023 traffic for cars, lorries and other vehicles remained lower (by -4.3%, -4.3% and -1.4%, respectively), whereas traffic for vans was above 2019 levels (by 2.7%).
Background information
Annual estimates make use of data from around 8,000 manual traffic counts in addition to continuous data from a national network of automatic traffic counters (ATCs). These data sources produce accurate estimates on traffic levels in Great Britain by vehicle type and by road type.
This publication is a compendium of both accredited official statistics[footnote 1] and official statistics. The type of statistics presented is detailed below.
- Accredited official statistics: National and regional road traffic estimates and flow estimates
(Datasets: TRA0101 to TRA0106, TRA0202 to TRA0206, TRA0301 to TRA0303, TRA0401 to TRA0413, TRA3105, TRA4101 to TRA4116, TRA4201 to TRA4216.)
These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
- Other official statistics: Temporal road traffic estimates
(Datasets: TRA0305 to TRA0308)
Traffic temporal distributions are not as robust, as they are based on only the ATC data, and must be treated with caution. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
- Other official statistics: Static road network road traffic estimates
(Datasets: TRA4201 to TRA4216)
Traffic estimates based on a static road management status were developed after the last review of these statistics. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
- Other official statistics: Local authority road traffic estimates
(Datasets: TRA8901 to TRA8907)
Traffic at this level is not as robust, due to the sample size of the minor road data, and must be treated with caution. These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Further information about these statistics is available, including:
- a detailed explanation of the methodology used to produce DfT road traffic statistics can be found online in the annual road traffic estimates: methodology note
- notes and definitions for the road traffic statistics
- the data tables, which give further detail of the key results presented in this statistical release *a geographical website that allows users to view and download estimated traffic flows on every link of the ‘A’ road and motorway network in Great Britain
Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release can be found on the pre-release access page.
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