It will come as no surprise that official figures from the Department of Transport have revealed that almost 22% fewer miles were driven on the Isle of Wight last year compared to 2019.
In the year of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of miles clocked up across the Island fell from 435million to 340million – a drop of 21.8%. It means that the Isle of Wight’s roads were the quietest they’ve been in 27 years.
Mileage carried out by car drivers – including taxis – fell by 24% from 352million to 267million, whilst heavy goods traffic fell by just 15% from 7million to 6million. Light commercial traffic clocked up 65million miles in 2019, but last year that fell by nearly 11% to 58million.
The figures reveal that the Isle of Wight has seen significant growth in the number of miles being driven in recent years. Between 2009 and 2019 – just a 10-year period – the mileage racked up by cars alone increased by 12.8%, whilst the overall mileage went up by 12.4%.
Over a 20-year period, the total mileage has soared 16.6% although that means between 1999 and 2009 mileage crept up by 3.75% but in the following 10 years, between 2009 and 2019, shot up by 12.4% – more than 3x the rate of growth in the previous decade.
This photo is NOT Isle of Wight! Surely you have a local photo you can use…
Wtf, it is people like you ,who give caulk heads a bad name, you gurt numpty, x
Maybe you should change your username. Shame on you for not knowing it’s Newport.
Individual mileages might be down officially, but accidents do APPEAR to be at an abnormally high level!!
Anybody got any data on the number of miles driven per ‘accident’, bet that number has gone up. Less miles driven but just as many ‘accidents’ if not more.
Very true.
Many more accidents than usual.
I doubt these figures are accurate. The department of transport could estimate the IW mileage of locally owned vehicles from MOT test figures but how could they estimate the extra mileage covered by delivery vehicles during the covid panic?
Be a lot less traffic this time next year! Great!
Not any more, maybe when it was lock down but definitely not now if anything it’s busier
Are the council that thick saying fewer car in 2020 have they forgotten we where in a lockdown