Written question asked by Eric Illsley (Labour) on Thursday, 1 July 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 July 2004. It was answered by David Jamieson (Labour) on Thursday, 8 July 2004 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Dept for Transport

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what studies have been undertaken by the Highways Agency into traffic flow and leisure vehicles using the M5 motorway, south of Bristol.

Answer: Mr. Illsley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what studies have been undertaken by the Highways Agency into traffic flow and leisure vehicles using the M5 motorway, south of Bristol. [R] [182448] Mr. Jamieson: The Highways Agency monitors traffic flow on the M5 motorway, south of Bristol by using traffic counters installed on the Avonmouth Bridge. While these counters are not able to identify leisure vehicles, they are able to distinguish between cars, vans, cars and vans with trailers, buses and coaches and heavy goods vehicles. Output from these counters shows that when the number of cars and vans with trailers increases, the speed of all traffic crossing the bridge drops significantly.

Secondary information