13mph...the snail pace crawl for commuters

THE speed of drivers in Oldham only just reaches double figures in the morning rush-hour, new Government figures show.

The Department for Transport has revealed that average traffic speeds between 7am and 9.30am on the major roads around Greater Manchester are the slowest in the country — only 13mph.

Vehicle speeds in Greater Manchester are 4mph slower than the major arterial routes of each other city region studied outside London.

The DfT used global positioning system (GPS) tracking on vehicles in Greater Manchester, Bristol, Leicester, London, Merseyside, Nottingham, South Yorkshire, Tyne & Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

The A62 Oldham Road between Oldham and Manchester was one the roads used by researchers to monitor speeds. Others included the A58 Halifax Road in Rochdale, Bury Old Road past Heaton Park, and the A635 in Tameside.

Although the figures are for last year and traffic is thought to be much lighter this year because of high fuel prices, the figures were immediately seized on by supporters of Greater Manchester’s plans to introduce congestion charging in 2013 in return for £3bn of public transport improvements.

Ken Knott, founder member of the business pressure group, United City, which is supporting the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid, said: “This latest research shows Greater Manchester has the slowest rush hour roads in the country — and this will only get worse, further damaging our economy and quality of life.”

“We are currently bottom of the pile nationally when it comes to road congestion”

The statistics show that cars still account for the most significant share of the overall traffic, making up 79 per cent of all vehicles on the road. In 2007 car traffic totalled 404 billion vehicle kilometres — a 0.4 per cent increase from 2006.