We spend 140m hours each year stuck in traffic
MOTORISTS spent a total of 140 million hours in traffic jams last year, Government figures revealed yesterday.
Each of Britain’s 35 million drivers endured, on average, more than four hours caught in congestion.[>
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Last night leading motoring organisations called the wasted hours “criminal” and said motorists were trapped in traffic jams day after day. [>
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Time spent wasted in jams has risen 11 per cent in three years, causing drivers to be stuck at a standstill for more than 16 minutes for every 10 miles during the worst 10 per cent of journeys, the figures showed. [>
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Britain’s most heavily congested roads were the A453 from Kegworth to Nottingham, the M1 at Barnsley and the M1 from Milton Keynes to Hemel Hempstead. [>
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Tory transport spokesman Theresa Villiers said: “It is astonishing that as drivers spend more of their valuable time stuck in traffic jams, all they have to look forward to are more tax hikes around the corner. [>
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“The only solution this Government has to tackle congestion is to hit motorists harder, with more excise duty and national road pricing.[>
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“All this, on top of the 56 per cent increase in the cost of motoring since 1997, is yet more proof of the Government’s war on motorists.”[>
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A spokesman for the RAC said: “We are calling for the Government to invest a lot of time and money on finding solutions to the bottlenecks and congestion that are plaguing this country.” [>
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A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “To help meet growing demand for travel the Government has increased transport spending by 60 per cent since 1997. [>
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“We are making record investments in public transport, building new road capacity and opening up hard shoulders to ease congestion.”[>