Covid rules saw traffic fall but more cycling in Wales

25 August 2021

Traffic on Welsh roads dropped by nearly a quarter last year as Covid rules restricted how, where and why people could travel.

Figures from the UK Department for Transport (DfT) showed in 2020 overall motor traffic fell 23.4% compared with the previous year.

The volume of car and taxi traffic fell by more than 26% and bus and coach traffic was halved.

There was far more cycling - a rise of 68.4% compared with 2019.

The total volume of motor traffic was calculated as 24.6 billion kilometres in Wales - the equivalent of 7,760km or 4,822 miles per person.

Of all local authorities in Wales, Cardiff registered the highest traffic volume with 2.6 billion kilometres, but this was 22% down on 2019.

What restrictions led to the traffic fall?

On 23 March 2020 First Minister Mark Drakeford announced a national lockdown in Wales and everyone was told to stay home to save lives.

The "stay local" guidance, asking people to stay within five miles of home, ended on 6 July, with no limits on travel.

Then on 8 September Caerphilly became the first part of Wales to go into a local lockdown, with no-one allowed to leave the county borough without good reason.

Another 10 counties followed before an all-Wales 17-day firebreak lockdown began on 23 October, where people were again told to stay at home.

"Stay home" guidance ended and was replaced with "stay local" on 12 March this year.

Wales became the first UK nation to lift travel restrictions within its borders on 27 March.

Travel in and out of Wales into England has been allowed since 12 April.

Traffic volume is estimated using traffic counts data collected by the DfT.

Data from manual traffic counts are combined with data from automatic traffic counters to calculate annual average daily flows.

These are combined with road lengths to calculate the number of vehicle miles travelled each year by vehicle type, road category and area.