Use the right tool for the question
How our traffic data compares
Live apps tell you what the road is doing now. This site tells you what each road usually does at every hour of the week, measured rather than estimated, so you can choose when to go before you set off. Most drivers will want both.
What each tool does best
From each service’s own public descriptions| Service | What it is | Live? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | Maps, routing and live traffic, mostly from anonymised phone location data | Yes | Your route today, live delays, and a “typical traffic” view for any area by day and time |
| Waze | Navigation with live reports from drivers | Yes | Live hazards and police reports; Planned Drives suggests when to leave for an arrival time |
| Traffic England | National Highways’ own live information for motorways and major A roads | Yes | The official picture right now: incidents, roadworks and traffic cameras on National Highways roads |
| AA and RAC | Route planners and live traffic news | Yes | Live traffic news by place or route, and breakdown help |
| TomTom Traffic Index | A yearly ranking of congestion in cities worldwide | No (yearly) | Comparing cities: its 2025 index named London the world’s slowest capital for average travel time |
| INRIX Traffic Scorecard | A yearly estimate of hours lost to congestion per city | No (yearly) | The cost of congestion: INRIX reported London drivers lost 91 hours to traffic in 2025 |
| one.network | A roadworks map used by councils and utilities, with free alerts | Updated as works are planned | Council and utility roadworks on local roads, which this site does not cover |
| This site | Hour-by-hour patterns for 417 National Highways roadside sensors on 41 motorways and major A roads, plus planned closures | No. Patterns from the sensor archive; closures refreshed every few hours | Choosing the day and hour to travel, road by road and direction by direction, with the method published |
Where this site is different
- Measured, and it shows its working. Every figure comes from named National Highways roadside sensors over a stated period, and the method is published, including what we leave out and why.
- Road by road, hour by hour. City indexes give one number per city. Here every measured road has its own week, its own rush hours, each direction and each day.
- Real days, not forecasts. Bank holidays and Christmas are measured on the actual days, with their dates, rather than predicted.
- Free and open. No account or app. Built on open data under the Open Government Licence, with figures you can quote and link.
Where the others are better
- Right now. We are not live. For today’s accidents and queues use Traffic England, Google Maps, Waze or AA and RAC traffic news.
- Your exact route. We cover National Highways motorways and major A roads, not local streets. The route apps plan door to door.
- Local roadworks. Council and utility works are on one.network and council websites, not here.
- Longer history and more places. Our patterns come from a measured window (1 May 2026 to 15 June 2026); the big apps draw on years of data across every road.
A good habit: pick your day and hour here, then check a live app before you leave. More links are on traffic resources.