Traffic soars in Portsmouth to higher than pre-pandemic levels

Portsmouth City Council officers said furlough, good weather and staycations had seen a return to a ‘near normal’ level with sometimes levels reaching higher than this.

The report by three senior health officers at the council said Covid-19 saw a dramatic drop in traffic, ‘and associated improvements in roadside air quality, seen consistently across the UK’.

Their report said: The transport team have run a number of sensitivity tests on air quality and transport modelling to consider the impact of changes in travel behaviour/patterns following the pandemic and associated impact on NO2 concentrations.

‘Traffic volumes have now reverted to near normal, with Portsmouth at times seeing traffic volumes higher than pre-lockdown levels as a result of good weather, furlough and staycations.’

It added more people in the city were willing to walk or cycle.

The report said: ‘Emerging evidence from residents indicates an appetite for increased active travel opportunities, with 50 per cent of residents in the Portsmouth survey walking more since lockdown, and 78 per cent keen to retain temporary road closures and other travel measures.’

The council reopened Eastney Esplanade on September 13.

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