Coronavirus: Boris Johnson pleads with motorists to stay at home

Boris Johnson has pleaded with motorists to stay at home after a second consecutive day of higher than expected road traffic amid fears some drivers are not taking the coronavirus lockdown seriously enough.

The latest data for the amount of motor vehicles on the UK’s roads shows that numbers have been just under 40 per cent of pre-lockdown levels in the past two days.

That represents a significant spike on the previous day when numbers had sunk to a lockdown low of approximately 25 per cent. 

Mr Johnson responded to the uptick in traffic figures today by pleading with motorists not to go out unless they absolutely must. 

He tweeted: ‘Yesterday’s data showed more people were using transport than in previous days. 

‘Please do not leave your house unless absolutely necessary. It really will save lives.’  

The government has banned all non-essential travel during the lockdown but the Department for Transport’s statistics suggest some motorists are flaunting the rules. 

Health bosses issued a warning on the issue yesterday after the initial surge was revealed. 

The statistics are reported on a two day lag which means the government will find out tomorrow if yesterday’s warnings have had any impact on the behaviour of drivers. 

Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, today told the daily Downing Street coronavirus press conference, that ‘we continue to see a large reduction in the usage of public transport which is a good thing’. 

But he expressed concern about the road traffic numbers. 

He said: ‘Unfortunately motor vehicle usage went up a couple of days ago but it has not gone up any further. 

‘Personally I would like to see that come down a bit more.’

It is unclear what is driving the spike, but there have been signs of heavy traffic remaining in some cities like London in recent days despite pleas for people not to leave their homes.

At the daily press conference yesterday, Yvonne Doyle, director of health protection for Public Health England, said: ‘(It’s a) slightly concerning trend, because we have seen an uptick in motor vehicle traffic.

‘The message here really is people do need to stay at home, and most are doing the right thing as you can see from the rapid decline in public transport use.

‘So everyone needs to do that, the message here is: we need to save lives and to protect the NHS. So please stay at home.’ 

Photographs yesterday morning showed heavy traffic on a main road in Wapping, East London, heading into the capital during rush hour despite the UK being in lockdown. 

London has higher traffic levels than other major European capitals, suggesting that motorists are still making unnecessary journeys despite the coronavirus crisis. 

Drivers in the UK capital are not leaving the roads as quickly as their European counterparts and traffic levels are also higher than in New York, according to some analysis.

That found that 20 per cent of London’s roads were congested on average between Monday to Friday last week, against the usual figure of 40 per cent.

The number of vehicles on the roads in the capital and across Britain dropped sharply last month as people followed government guidelines to stop non-essential journeys.

The reduction is also reflective of advice to work from home along with the closure of schools, pubs, restaurants, theatres, gyms and most shops over the past fortnight.

But traffic in London has not fallen as fast as in Paris, New York and Madrid where congestion was down from the usual 40 per cent to about 5 per cent last week. 

In London the figure is only down to 20 per cent, according to research conducted by the Financial Times using figures Netherlands-based traffic data firm TomTom.