Harrogate has the second most gridlocked road outside of London

Outside of London, Harrogate has the 2nd most congested major non-motorway road at morning rush hour.

The findings have been produced from research undertaken by RAM, who supply vehicle tracking systems. After examining the speeds and locations of business drivers across the country on more than 440,000 individual journeys in February 2013. GPS data from seven million individual report points has been analysed as part of the research, comparing distanced travelled during the rush hour commute of 8am to 9am, compared with the later time of 11am to 12pm.

Nine of the top ten peak period black spots, and thirteen of the top twenty, are in London, with Jamaica Road, Southwark coming top of the poll, with drivers posting an average near-standstill speed of a tenth of a mile an hour on certain points of the road at peak times. This was closely followed by Bedford Road (B221) in Clapham, which pulled up to the bumper in second place, with drivers recording an average of 0.13 miles an hour at congestion hotspots during the rush hour.

The most gridlocked road outside the capital is Park Way, Trafford Park, Manchester, where traffic crawl hit a low at 0.69mph in this area. Skipton Road, Harrogate is the next ‘staycation’ on the list, leaving commuters and business drivers dawdling at an average speed of 1.43 mph.

Top 10 most congested roads at rush hour outside London (Feb 2013):

The research has found that on average, the breakfast rush hour commute adds at least 50% to driver journey times, although some roads, such as Skipton Road, do record consistently slow speeds, suggesting that local authorities need to look at what can be done to solve a chronic problem.

Headington, in Oxford, appears twice in the top 20, while Birmingham is the most congested location outside London, with six of the top 20 congested roads away from the capital being based in or around the city

The top five most congested motorways at morning rush hour. They are the M6 at Ward End, West Midlands (27mph); M62 at Hunsworth, West Yorkshire (34mph); the M4 at Brentford (37mph); the M11 at Chigwell, Essex (38mph); and the M25 at Downside, Essex (38mph).

Cost estimates of road traffic congestion for the British economy vary widely, but there is general agreement that it represents a considerable chunk of the national deficit.

Top 10 most congested roads at rush hour inside London (Feb 2013:

The Highways Term Maintenance Association recently stated that the financial impact of wasted time and resources and lost business on UK PLC comes to some £20bn a year, with a prediction that this will rise to £32bn by 2025. The RAC Foundation has forecast up to 25% more traffic and delays by the same year, as the country’s population grows along with an increasing need to travel.

The Highways Agency says that 65% of delays on England’s trunk roads and motorways are due to volume of traffic.