Road traffic: quality information

These statistics are used to inform government, businesses, media and society and are used internally for policy formulation and monitoring. There are no other comprehensive data sources to enable the production of statistics about traffic for Wales and Great Britain. Some specific uses include: Welsh National Transport Plan monitoring indicators include these traffic flow data. The indicator measures the change in traffic flows for Wales as a whole and for individual local authority areas.

These data will also be used as part of the calculations to meet any requests for the casualty rate per volume of traffic over individual road links.

The national and local CO2 emissions, relating to transport, use these traffic flows estimates. 

Road traffic estimates are based on the results of 12-hour manual counts taken throughout the year which are grossed up to estimates of annual average daily flows using expansion factors based on data from automatic traffic counters on similar roads. These averages are needed so that traffic in off-peak times, at weekends and in the summer and winter months (when only special counts are undertaken) can be taken into account when assessing the traffic at each site. Department for Transport (DfT) now sort roads into 22 groupings (previously there were only 7). This allows a better match of manual count sites with automatic count sites. These groupings were based on detailed analyses of the results from all the individual automatic count sites and take into account regional groupings, road category (i.e. both the urban/rural classification of the road and the road class), and traffic flow levels.

Minor road estimates are calculated differently to major roads. Due to the large number of minor roads it is not possible to count them all, instead a representative sample of minor roads are counted each year. This means that the accuracy of estimates for minor roads is likely to be of a lower quality than for major roads.

Data on motor vehicle registrations are collected by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and published by DfT. The DVLA database is regarded as being virtually complete in terms of the number of licensed vehicles.

DfT published road traffic estimates for Great Britain in 2018 on 14 May 2019. Our release uses data in this publication and normally follows about three months later.

This statistical bulletin is pre-announced and then published on the Statistics & Research website. Road traffic data for Wales will be added to StatsWales.

The statistics presented here are from the DfT data collection and are fully comparable and coherent with the estimates for Great Britain.

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

National Statistics status means that official statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

All official statistics should comply with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics. They are awarded National Statistics status following an assessment by the UK Statistics Authority’s regulatory arm. The Authority considers whether the statistics meet the highest standards of Code compliance, including the value they add to public decisions and debate. The designation of these statistics as National Statistics was confirmed in February 2011 following a full assessment against the Code of Practice.

Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:

• added to and refined information about dimensions of quality and described links to policy.
• improved our understanding of the various data sources and the methodology behind them, including their strengths and limitations.
• added new relevant data sources to provide a broader view of the topic.
• improved visuals by de-cluttering and standardising charts and tables.
• produced the latest release in a new simplified format in HTML for the first time.

It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. National Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. The Act puts in place seven well-being goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the Well-being goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before the National Assembly. The 46 national indicators were laid in March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the well-being goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local well-being assessments and local well-being plans.