Skipton Road slow, slow. Slow slow slow

There was a news story recently that named Skipton Road in Harrogate was one of the most congested roads in the UK outside London. If you use the road you will know that it is pretty busy in rush hour to say the least. Chris Lee from RAM tracking who carried out the study got in touch recently. Here in a guest post he explains how they did the study and he also includes some resources you might find useful.

I recently worked with RAM Tracking to help put together a study that Cycle Harrogate tweeted about recently. The study looked at the most congested non-motorway roads in the UK during rush hour in February this year, and the findings are shown on the interactive map at the bottom:

Since being carried out, this study has attracted media attention from several news outlets, from local publications like the Yorkshire Post and Harrogate News, to nationwide publications like LBC, ITV, and the Daily Mail. I thought I’d write a little bit about how it was carried out, to contextualise the findings.
The large data set of all GPS records from vehicles using RAM’s trackers was compiled for February this year. That was around half a million data points.
A filter was applied so that only records collected between 8 and 9am were shown. This was the rush hour data.
Another filter was applied that added records collected between 11 and 12 noon to be shown as well. This was the comparison data.
The data was then sorted by road, and the roads were calculated which suffered the greatest reduction in speed during rush hour.
The 10 roads found in the final step were added to the map above, along with information about their average speeds. This obviously generated interest – some people attempted to discredit the findings, others found the locations of the roads very interesting (especially in places like Harrogate!). Personally, the study reaffirmed my decision to be a cycling commuter! It’s a nice feeling being able to dodge the traffic jams, although it does annoy me when I see other cyclists jump red lights as if the rules don’t apply to them.
I thought I’d finish with a few resources that can be helpful for planning a cycling commute:
MapMyRide: A website which allows you to record and track the rides you’ve done. You can either enter them manually, or use the MapMyRide app to record them for you via GPS. It’s nice to be able to look over the amount of distance you’ve covered!
 
The Cycle to Work Scheme: this is a scheme offered by many employers, which allows you to purchase a tax free bike and pay it back from your wages over an agreed period of time. It’s great for people who want to cycle but are put off by the initial investment
And possibly my favourite: this one has saved my skin numerous times!

Here is Ram Tracking's map

and here is the original on the RAM Tracking website