Does gritter data show a mild winter?

We've recently published a news item that shows the number of total miles driven by our highway's gritter teams, and it's quite interesting.

It shows that the number of miles that the teams have been out in force are less than they were three years ago, which was generally considered a mild winter, and less than half of last year's total mileage.

The data, released by the Met Office, shows that so far this winter has been quite kind to our roads, with less gritters being sent out to grit our highways.

The graph, published on our site, is available here: http://www.traffic-update.co.uk/news/gritter-data-predicts-mildest-start-to-winter-for-three-years/2164/

Does this mean that we may not be in for a white Christmas?  Only time will tell.

Where are our savings?

The AA reports that although the cost of petrol has fallen by around £2.37 a tank over the course of the last month, we motorists aren't seeing the full savings from the huge drops in the cost of a barrel of oil during the same period.

Per barrel, the cost of oil has dropped by over 11% over the last six weeks, meaning that in theory it should cost the same to fill up as it did back in 2010, when the price was the same.  Despite the introduction of the new VAT rate in 2010, the cost per litre is still 1.5p more than it should be.

Although many (including the Government) are pointing their fingers at the retailers (i.e. the forecourts), even the boss of the AA, Edmund King, is left feeling in the dark, stating that,

European motoring organisations, representing 35 million motorists, still haven’t had a satisfactory answer as to why petrol's commodity price hit $1200 a tonne with oil at $147 a barrel in 2008 but then returned to $1200 in 2011 with oil at only $125 a barrel.

If King is feeling that there should be more transparency in the industry (from producers all the way to retailers), what chance is there for us motorists to understand why we're not seeing some of our hard-earned cash make our way back into our pockets?  And if there is so much confusion as to who is to blame, surely we're more likely to dismiss it as 'fluctuations' in market forces.

One thing's for sure - we NEED more transparency throughout the system, and motorists need some answers.

Live traffic cameras

We're beginning to roll out integrated traffic cameras across the road and motorway network maps on our site, which will greatly improve the service we offer.

When visiting any of our map pages you'll see a 'View Cams' button at the top if the map.  Clicking this button will display available camera locations which you will display live cameras covering the location.

Central London, Wales, M25, M1, M62 and the M54 are all now available, and the rest due to be rolled out over the coming days.

Camera photos are supplied by official sources including Traffic Scotland, TfL, Traffic Wales and others.

We hope you find them a useful and valuable new feature.

Some cameras may be unavailable at any given time as the agencies may need control of them to protect personally identifiable information.

As usual, if you have any suggestions for improvement, please let us know.

Automatic language translations now available

We've just successfully added a Google Translation service into our website, so no matter what language you're most comfortable with, you can use our traffic update site without having to struggle to read the latest conditions.

To use it, just go to any of our website's pages, and click on the 'Select Language' dropdown on the top right hand side of any page.  Choose your native language and the page will automatically be translated.

Stay one step ahead of the traffic with our email alerts

Be the first to become aware of incidents on your route.

Do you make regular journeys and get fed up with traffic jams on your route?

Stay one step ahead of congestion, accidents and roadworks with our email alerts, which will send you notification of any incidents that happen on roads you travel.

Sign up at www.traffic-update.co.uk/alerts/ with our free, popular service.

Just specify what roads you wish us to monitor and the times of day you want to receive alerts and let us do the rest.

Whenever an incident happens on your route our system will automatically inform you by email, meaning you can make alternative plans to avoid the traffic jams.

Our traffic alert service has been in testing for the last six weeks, and it's proving popular.  With more than 600 people using us, it's already demonstrated that it's a useful service.

Spread the word!

Get your own traffic map

Add our traffic widget to your website - free!

If you've got a website and want to display the latest traffic and travel conditions on it, then you can now add our 'widget' to your site free of charge.

Just a few lines of code embedded on your site will magically show traffic for any area, postcode or town in Britain.

As a nation, we make 61 billion journeys a year, costing us between £7 - 8 billion every year.  Motorway closures alone cost £1bn each year - a huge impact on our economy.

By using our traffic 'widget' on your website, your visitors can take alternative routes or select a different mode of transport, meaning there is less of a financial impact resulting from delays on their journey.

Get it free at www.traffic-update.co.uk/embed/

Single carriageways 'Seven Times The Risk of Motorways'

The A285 is the most dangerous road in Britain, according to the Road Safety Foundation.

A new report listing the most dangerous British roads has revealed some interesting facts, including you are seven times more likely to have an accident on motorways than you are on rural roads.

The report, published by The Road Safety Foundation, includes statistics about how safe our roads are, breaks down the most dangerous highways in the country, and they're not where you'd think they were.

Coming top of the list is the A285 that runs from Chichester to Petworth.

You can see the full list of the most dangerous roads in Britain over at our news page, as well as downloading the full report:  http://www.traffic-update.co.uk/news/top-10-dangerous-roads-in-britain-revealed/2132/