Introduction

COVID-19: how the coronavirus pandemic has been affecting road traffic

Back in March, the UK was plunged into a lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, with the government placing a nationwide ban on unnecessary travel. It’s no surprise that this dramatic change would impact our roads - but what do the numbers say?

In a recent statistical release published by the Department of Transport detailing provisional road traffic estimates for the period running from July 2019 to June 2020, analysis showed that, due to the imposed restrictions on travel, there has been a significant decrease in road traffic levels.

According to provisional data, car and taxi traffic has decreased by 15.2%. The report’s analysis suggests that without the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on travel, car traffic would have increased by 0.7%. The report also shows that van and lorry traffic decreased by 7.3% and 7.8% respectively.

While the official figures for 2020 have not yet been released, the number of road traffic accidents is expected to see a decrease, with a potential further fall on the number of casualties too.