§ Mr. BrakeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many cars per mile there were on Britain's roads in(a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998 and (d) 1999. [106688]
§ Mr. HillThe calculations are shown in the table. Data for road length in 1999 are not available.
1996 1997 1998 1999 Total road length (miles) 229,185 229,835 230,914 — Number of cars 21,639,462 22,298,304 22,984,336 23,458,476 Cars per mile 94.4 97.0 99.5 — Road lengths are as of 1 April each year. For the number of cars, figures are from 31 March for 1997, 1998 and 1999 but the 1996 figure is an estimate based upon figures from the end of 1995 and the end of June 1996. The road lengths do not necessarily reflect the amount of carriageway available to cars. For example, a mile of motorway is treated the same as a mile of minor road.