Traffic speeds getting slower, new data says

Traffic on gridlocked local A roads in Bath and North East Somerset is getting even slower - with average speeds dropping below 23mph in 2018. New data from the Department for Transport shows motorists can expect to travel no quicker than 10mph on some key routes. The average speed on all local A roads in Bath and North Somerset at all times - not just morning and evening peaks - fell from 23.0mph at the end of 2017 to 22.4mph at the end of 2018. It is the second year in a row that average speeds have dropped. The slowest local A road in our area was the A3039 - with an average speed of just 9.7mph. Traffic on the A36 moved at just 13.9mph (down from 15.8mph in 2017), while on the A3062 the average speed was 16.7mph (down from 16.7mph). The only local A roads in Bath and North East Somerset that saw average speeds increase were the A4175 (up from 26.0mph in 2017 to 27.1mph in 2018), and the A3039 (which had an average of just 7.5mph in 2017). The DFT data is based on annual counts that take place over 24-hour periods on weekdays, weekends and Bank Holidays. The aim is to produce an overall average for all motorists at all times. Across England, the figures show, average speeds on local A roads dropped from 25.2mph in 2017 to 24.9mph in 2018. That means the decline in speeds in Bath and North East Somerset was worse than the decline across the country as a whole. The A road with the slowest overall speed in England in the A400 in Westminster. The average there is just 4.6mph - barely faster than a human walks. Outside London, the slowest A road was the A6042 in Salford, where the average was 8.4mph.