Frequently Asked Questions

Traffic England is a free website which is available to the public 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It provides live traffic information about the motorways and A-Roads in England (it does not include Scotland and Wales). The service is run by the National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC) of the Highways Agency.

Data about the traffic volumes, speed and travel times is collected from the motorways and major A-Roads using sensors and readers such as inductive loops and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras. This data is collated and compiled by the Agency’s National Traffic Control Centre and presented on Traffic England. The information is continually updated and is therefore an accurate picture of the current situation on the roads.

Many companies and individuals use this service to:

• Monitor regular commutes
• Find the current congestion hotspots and avoid unnecessary queues and delays
• See how busy the roads are by viewing the live CCTV
• Check out your route using the interactive map and motorway traffic flows
• Identify the roadworks that are causing delays
• Plan business trips, deliveries and family holidays, by checking future roadworks and events that are expected to cause delays

Typical users include daily commuters, haulage companies, emergency services and tourists.

Traffic England covers all the motorways and major A-Roads in England. The motorways covered are – M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M6 Toll, M11, M18, M180, M181, M20, M23, M25, M26, M27, M271, M275, M32, M40, M42, M45, M48, M49, M50, M53, M54, M55, M56, M57, M58, M60, M602, M606, M61, M62, M621, M65, M66, M67 and the M69.

The A-Roads covered are – A1, A1(M), A1033, A1053, A1089, A11, A12, A120, A13, A14, A14 SPUR, A160, A168, A174, A180, A184, A19, A194(M), A2, A20, A2070, A21, A23, A249, A259, A26, A260, A27, A3, A3(M), A30, A303, A308(M), A31, A3113, A34, A35, A38, A4, A40, A404, A404(M), A405, A4097, A41, A414, A417, A419, A42, A421, A428, A43, A446, A449, A45, A452, A453, A458, A46, A460, A47, A483, A49, A5, A50, A500, A5036, A5103, A5111, A5117, A5148, A52, A55, A550, A556, A56, A560, A57, A585, A590, A595, A6, A601(M), A61, A6144(M), A616, A627(M), A628, A63, A639, A64, A66, A66(M), A663, A69 and the A696.

This network is a system of strategic routes of national importance that caters for the through movement of long distance traffic. The network includes motorways (“M”) and major all-purpose (“A”) roads of England. The Highways Agency is responsible for the maintenance and operation of this network.

During an average month, the service is used by 350,000 customers.

Check that pop-ups have been enabled in your Internet browser.

Live traffic information is also available via:

• Traffic England phone line – interactive telephone service providing you with delays and disruptions on the roads
• HA Radio – can be listened to over the internet and on digital radios
• RSS Feeds – enables you to keep up-to-date with any incidents by providing a news feed direct to your computer or website
• Local and national radio stations are kept up-to-date and broadcast this information on their Traffic News updates

A traffic camera is a video camera positioned at strategic locations across the trunk road network to provide an immediate view of the traffic and any incidents. These cameras are managed by operators in the National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC) and Regional Control Centre (RCC) control rooms. Images are centrally stored on the Agency network HANET and accessed by operators, emergency services and information services through the high speed dedicated National Road Telecommunication System (NRTS). Traffic England provides links to the latest camera images in the HANET database. Images are refreshed every 30 seconds and a new image can be obtained by clicking on the word ‘Refresh’ in the pop up box.

Occasionally an image will not be available because the image is not suitable for display on a public service such as Traffic England. When this occurs, the Camera Unavailable/Fault image will appear in the pop up box instead of the image. Only one image can be displayed at any one time to limit the load on HANET.

The camera locations are not the same as the monitoring equipment which provides speed information. Hence these two sources can sometimes appear to provide different information. This is because the traffic conditions visible on a traffic camera are much localised, whereas the speed information is averaged across larger stretches of the road network.

The traffic camera images remain the property of the Highways Agency. They are available to the public to allow accurate journey planning. Any abuse through excessive loading will affect the service performance and the Agency reserves the right to take action against such abuse.

Pictograms are shown on Variable Message Signs on the network but appear on Traffic England as codes e.g. SY02. Work is underway to allow Traffic England to show these pictograms and is expected to be completed by mid 2010.

These codes refer to pictograms appearing on Variable Message Signs on the network. Work is currently underway to allow Traffic England to show these pictograms and is expected to be completed by mid 2010.