Drivers wasting 38 hours per year to road delays
A total of 1.3 billion hours are wasted each year due to delays.
Drivers in England waste an average of 38 hours on the road due to delays each year, new research has found.
Equivalent to over 2,200 minutes or 136,000 seconds, the wasted time combines to mean that a total of 1.3 billion hours are wasted by all motorists each year due to delays.
The study, by comparison site Go Compare, used Department for Transport figures on the average road delay per delivery mile alongside DVLA mileage data from 2022 to find out how much time is lost each year. This figure was then applied to the estimated number of licensed vehicles in England.
Looking at delays on major motorways, A- and B-roads, it found that most hours are lost on the latter. However, an average of six hours are wasted by each motorist on the motorway and A-road network managed by National Highways, with each driver losing a day and a half on these roads due to delays in 2022.
Tom Banks, car insurance expert at Go Compare, said: “There’s never a good time to be caught in traffic and losing such a huge amount of time while going nowhere is extremely frustrating.
“Although navigating traffic is stressful, it’s important to stay as calm and alert as possible, making sure to keep an eye on all the vehicles around you. Otherwise, you risk colliding with another driver.”
Overall, the total amount of time lost to delays by all drivers during a year is 55 million days or 1.3 billion hours. As the person lives for around 28,000 days in a lifetime, it’s the equivalent of over 19,000 lifetimes spent waiting in traffic.
