Public satisfaction with efforts to tackle congestion has steadily declined since the early years of the NHT Public Satisfaction Survey. Despite some consistency in perceptions of roadwork management and traffic pollution, the data shows a broad erosion of public confidence in how effectively congestion and road disruption are being managed.
Overall Theme Performance
The Tackling Congestion theme score has fallen gradually but persistently — from around 47 in 2017 to 42 in 2025. This represents a cumulative drop of six points in eight years and reflects the lowest overall satisfaction levels since the survey began. The downward trajectory indicates growing frustration with congestion, roadwork delays, and on-street parking management, even as councils continue to invest in road infrastructure and traffic management measures.
Key Benchmark Indicators (KBIs)
Three KBIs provide an overview of how the public perceives congestion management and related issues:
- Traffic levels and congestion (KBI 17) have shown a steady decline from 49 in 2012 to 40 in 2025, underlining increasing dissatisfaction with the volume of traffic and perceived congestion in local areas.
- Management of roadworks (KBI 18) has followed a similar trend, dropping from 52 in 2012 to 42 in 2025, reflecting concerns over disruption, delays, and coordination.
- Traffic management (KBI 19), introduced later, has remained consistently low at 38, indicating limited confidence in how local authorities handle day-to-day traffic flow.
Collectively, these KBIs show that residents view congestion as a worsening problem, with limited progress in mitigating its impacts.
Key Quality Indicator (KQI)
The Traffic Pollution (KQI 04) measure has been more stable, hovering around 46 since 2020, suggesting that public perceptions of air quality management and emissions control have neither improved nor deteriorated significantly. However, satisfaction remains modest, implying ongoing concern about environmental impacts from traffic.
Benchmark Indicators (BIs)
The detailed Benchmark Indicators highlight several consistent weaknesses in the public’s experience of roadwork management and congestion reduction, along with a few areas of relative stability.
Roadworks and Disruption
- Advanced warning of roadworks (TCBI 01) remains one of the better-performing indicators at 55, though this too has fallen from highs of 61 in the early 2010s.
- Efforts to reduce delays to traffic (TCBI 02) and time taken to complete roadworks (TCBI 03) have both seen sharp declines, dropping to 38 and 33 respectively by 2025. These are now among the lowest-scoring aspects of the entire theme.
- Signposting of road diversions (TCBI 04) has fallen to 49, reflecting ongoing concerns about communication during works.
- Helplines and public information (TCBI 05) have plateaued around 38, suggesting limited improvement in how residents are informed about disruptions.
Taken together, these results indicate that the management and communication of roadworks remain significant pain points for the public.
Impact on Residents
- Efforts to minimise nuisance to residents (TCBI 06) and overall management of roadworks (TCBI 07) both stable at 42 & 39 in 2025, again showing decline from the early 2010s when scores were above 50.
This decline suggests that although councils have improved technical management of works, the public impact — such as noise, accessibility, and delays — remains poorly perceived.
Parking and Traffic Management
- Tackling illegal on-street parking (TCBI 11) has seen one of the steepest long-term declines, from the mid-40s to just 33 in 2025.
- Restrictions on parking on busy roads (TCBI 12) and good park and ride schemes (TCBI 13) also show persistent decline, both now at 40.
- Heavy goods vehicle routing (TCBI 14) remains static at 40, showing no significant progress in managing larger traffic flows through local areas.
Overall, satisfaction with parking management and enforcement has weakened considerably, with most indicators now scoring in the low 30s or 40s.
🌫 Information and Awareness
The single Quality Indicator on local pollution information (TCQI19) remains very low at 38, despite minor improvement from 2020. This indicates limited public awareness or satisfaction with how councils communicate about traffic-related pollution and environmental health impacts.
Overall Analysis
Between 2008 and 2025, the Tackling Congestion theme has shown a sustained downward trend across all measures, with the steepest falls in satisfaction linked to traffic congestion, roadwork delays, and parking enforcement.
While some indicators — such as advance warning of roadworks and speed of pollution management — have remained relatively steady, the overall story is one of public frustration with traffic conditions and disruption.
This decline is consistent across both urban and rural contexts and suggests that increasing vehicle numbers, combined with the pressures of maintaining and upgrading road infrastructure, are continuing to erode satisfaction.
Summary Statement
Since 2008, public satisfaction with tackling congestion has steadily fallen, reflecting growing frustration with traffic levels, disruption from roadworks, and the management of parking and heavy goods vehicles. While communication and pollution management have remained stable, the public perceives little improvement in journey times or coordination of works. By 2025, tackling congestion is one of the lowest-performing themes in the NHT Survey, highlighting the continuing challenge for authorities to manage growing traffic pressures while minimising inconvenience to residents and road users.
