Commuters in central London are now driving at an average speed of 5mph
According to a new report, commuters in central London have been reduced to an average speed of 5mph, whilst across the country, other cities have seen a drop in the average speed in and around their city centre.
Experts believe the slowdown is due to the fact that there’s more traffic on the roads, tighter speed restrictions being introduced, an increased number of bus and cycle lanes popping up and more pedestrian crossings than ever before.
The only city to show an increase on the overall average speed was in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Commuters in central London are now driving at an average speed of 5mph © Copyright Des Blenkinsopp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
New measures have been introduced across the country in a bid to cut air pollution, with different councils trying various ways to lower the levels of pollution in their area.
The slowest city was London, where vehicles travelling within one mile of the centre moved at an average speed of 5.13mph – compared to the same three-month period in 2016 when the average speed was 6.35mph.
The average speed also fell in the centre of Glasgow from 8.56mph to 6.82mph, with the same happening in Manchester, falling from 8.14mph to 6.57mph.
However, according to data gathered by In-Car Cleverness, the average speed of traffic in Bradford jumped from 9.48mph to 10.08mph.
Data was gathered by the telematics company based on around 400,000 journeys who discovered that speeds had also slowed down in areas within a five mile radius of the centre of Birmingham, London and Manchester.
This year however, traffic was moving faster in this radius around Bradford, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool compared to the same period last year.
New released figures from the Department for Transport (DfT), shows how the volume of traffic in the UK has now reached record levels.
Motorists in the UK managed to do 324.3billion vehicles miles in the year up to March, a rise of 1.7% compared to the year before.
The DfT believes around 68% of working people drive as part of the daily commute and as a result spend way too many hours of their life sat in traffic.
“The figures paint a stark picture of how everyday commuters, drivers and even businesses are struggling to get around or operate in some of the biggest hubs in the UK. The widespread reduction of average speeds in city centre’s is surprising and is likely the result of a few factors,” said sales manager at In-Car Cleverness, Paul O’Dowd.
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