Help

Personalisation of Traffic England is the ability to deliver dynamic and customised traffic information every time you access the website. It is easier to check your regularly accessed route information and you can now save customised information as views for the existing generic Traffic Map, Motorway Traffic Flow and Disruptions Search pages thereby allowing faster access for routes that are of regular interest. You can also choose to browse the website every time starting with your favourite customised page instead of the homepage. Perhaps you would like to be able to quickly see several motorways you use, or select your route home from work as your default map view. It’s a simple process, just follow these steps.

NB: We do not use any of your details for anything other than for the sole purpose of this website and will not share the supplied information with anyone else.

To start using personalisation please read the following instructions for the existing pages.

As you look at the Traffic Map view you will see a new button labelled ‘Save Map View’ toward the top right hand corner of the map tool.



Selecting this option will take you through the process of registering if you are a new user, or prompt you to sign in to continue if you have already registered to use the personalisation features.

When you make a selection via the MTF tool, the output of your selection can be saved for convenient recall later. An additional ‘Save This MTF View’ button can be found to the right of the information key.

To save a disruptions search couldn’t be simpler, first you only need to enter your desired search criteria and await the results. Above the results table we have added a ‘Save This DS View’ button to allow you to save disruption searches for quick retrieval.

The registration process is accessed once you have attempted to save a view on the Traffic Map, Motorway Traffic Flow or Disruptions Search pages.



Username – This can be any made up name and will be displayed on the top banner every time you are logged into the site.

Email – this can be your personal or work email and will be used to log you in and send you reminders of forgotten passwords. We only capture the minimum details required to perform site personalisation, these details can be easily updated from the 'My Settings' panel once you have signed in.

Once registered you will be able to save, and name your personalised views for quick recognition and retrieval. Simply click to save a view and follow the prompts to give the view a memorable name.

Depending on how you like to browse the website, it is possible to set your new personalised view to be the first page you view each time you visit the site – or configure it to be the default view of the map, disruptions search or motorway traffic flow. Once saved, you will receive instant notification that this new view is saved to your profile.

At any time you may also access further settings via the 'My Settings' link to review your saved views, make changes or even delete.

To update your personal details, or make any changes to your saved personalised views simply click the ‘My Settings’ link for further options. You can decide to either change your personal settings or personalised views.

To update your personal details that you supplied when you registered simply complete the relevant form elements and click update. You can even change your email address if this has changed.

On this screen you can select what your default view is to be when you enter the site, and also the default views for each page. In the event that you no longer need a particular saved view, you can delete it here.

You can make your favourite pages or views the default when you enter the site.
For example,
• You can make the Motorway Traffic Flow page your default each time you log in.
• You can make your favourite Motorway Traffic Flow view your default each time you select this page.

Using this feature:
1. Select your preferred default page when you arrive at Traffic England. This will be the default page each time you log in.
2. Click the button "Update My Traffic Maps".

Using this feature
1. Select your favourite view and click "Set as Default View". This will be the default view for that page.
2. Click the appropriate button to update; either "Update My Traffic Maps", "Update My Motorway Traffic Flows" or "Update My Disruptions".

When you click on a Map Information Selection option what information are we actually providing you with?

Speed & Delays Delays are displayed (where available) by the different road colours. Where delays are displayed, a speed icon will show the average speed along the measured section of road.
Road / Slip Closures Shows current and future road and slip road closures that could impact your journey. These are usually due to roadworks or incidents that lead to a road/slip road being closed.	Major Disruption An event that represents a major incident or significant delays. You may wish to seek an alternative route.
Incidents & Congestion / Future Events Current unplanned events causing delays e.g. accidents or obstructions, and future planned events that may have an impact on your journey.	Roadworks / Future Roadworks Shows current and future scheduled works that may affect your journey.
Adverse Weather Current weather conditions that have the potential to cause a delay e.g. if it is raining, snowing, wind speed is 25mph or higher, or if the temperature is 3 degrees C or below. This information is frequently refreshed to ensure that the current conditions are always available.	Roadside Message Signs This displays the information on the roadside message signs. These signs have been set by the Highways Agency to keep you informed about any incidents ahead whilst driving.
Traffic Cameras The traffic camera images can be updated every 30 seconds. They provide you with a still image rather than a live stream of information. You will sometimes come across cameras which are listed as ‘unavailable’. There are a number of reasons for this e.g. the camera may be broken or we are not receiving information from it. However, if there has been an accident we may stop the image from being broadcast. If you click on View Camera Image – but you don’t see the image ensure popups have been enabled in your Internet browser.

The purpose of this page is to provide you with a map overview of the traffic conditions on the motorways and major A-Roads.

The roads have been colour coded to help you to quickly identify where any potential delays are:

• Yellow implies delays of 15-30 minutes
• Red implies more severe delays of 30 minutes and over
• Grey means that we don’t have traffic information about that road currently

The system has been designed to make it quick and easy for you to find out the information you are looking for. The following features should help you to do this:

• Right-click and drag your mouse to select a specific area you want to zoom into
• Use the scale key in the top left hand corner to zoom in and out
• Use the arrow keys in the top left hand corner to move North, South, East and West. Alternatively, left-click on the map to ‘grab and drag’ the map in the required direction.
• Right-click the mouse anywhere on the map and the map view will change to position that point in the centre of the screen

You can decide what information you want to see about the roads by selecting the appropriate options from the Map Information Selections on the right hand side of the screen. To select or de-select an option, simply click on the on/off options provided. There is no need to refresh your screen. Icons should then appear on/disappear from the map.

To see the details of any icons on the map, simply move your cursor over the icon. There is no need to click on it. An information box will appear providing you with all of the necessary details.

To view another icon, simply move your cursor over it and the last information box will disappear and the new one will be displayed.

All of the options are best viewed when the map is zoomed in on a particular area. This is particularly true for the Road Message Signs, Traffic Cameras and Roadworks as there are so many of them. The greater the zoom, the easier it is to see specific information.

Auto-Expand Feature
When icons are clustered, an Auto-Expand cursor icon (4-directions arrows) will appear. Hovering this cursor over an event cluster will display the underlying event's details for 2 seconds only. Click on the event cluster to disperse all the underlying icons, then click on the required event to view its details.

Map cursor icons
The cursor icon will change when used in the map depending upon what is the underlying data. The cursor can be either an arrow (for normal click/drag), auto-expand (to disperse event clusters) or select (to view event detail).

Traffic England has been built to work with and tested against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 8, Opera 10 and Safari 5. Users of other browser versions may experience minor compatibility problems and where possible it is recommended that users may wish to configure their browsers to emulate Internet Explorer to use this site.

In order to use the Traffic England mapping page, please ensure that you have Javascript enabled. Javascript is also known as active scripting and it can be enabled through the browser menus -

Internet Explorer: Go to Tools->Options->Security
Safari: Go to Edit->Preferences->Security
Firefox: Go to Tools->Options

There are two types of map; basic and advanced. The advanced map is viewable only if Sun Java 1.6 is installed and enabled. This will depend on your firewall and/or corporate network security.

If you are continuing to experience map loading problems you can set the map to basic mode for all future visits by taking advantage of the new Traffic England Personalisation features - find out more. This will prevent the Java applet from being downloaded.

The two map types require a Javascript download. The file is downloaded automatically and may be updated when there is a functional update (expected once or twice a year). This activity will happen in the background on all machines.

If running Java 1.6 or above and you have not set the map to basic mode, a Java applet is downloaded automatically to enable a full screen display option.

Some machines may have a 3rd party security/firewall application set to alert on any download. If you are asked to download a file, you will need to authorise the request otherwise the mapping functionality will not be available. The Java applet is from Navteq (owned by Nokia) and is therefore from a trusted source.

This feature displays detailed information for your selected motorway. It does not cover the A-Roads. Incidents, roadworks, adverse weather, speed, roadside message and matrix signs are shown for each of the junctions. CCTV cameras can also be viewed.

1. Select the motorway and the junction numbers you want information about (note – this defaults to all of the junctions)
2. Select / de-select the information you require from the options available
3. Click the Search button

Traffic Speed
The speed information provides the measured speed at a specific point on the road. The road is colour coded to give a graphic indication of speed banding to help visualise where the lowest speeds are being experienced:
• Red - speed is less than 30mph
• Orange - speed is between 30mph and 50mph
• Blue - speed is above 50mph
• Grey - no speed data is available

Road / Slip Closures Shows current road and slip road closures that could impact your journey. These are usually due to roadworks or incidents that lead to a road/slip road being closed.	Major Disruption An event that represents a major incident or significant delays. You may wish to seek an alternative route.
Incidents & Congestion Current unplanned events causing delays e.g. accidents or obstructions, that may have an impact on your journey.	Roadworks Shows current roadworks that may affect your journey.
Adverse Weather Current weather conditions that have the potential to cause a delay e.g. if it is raining, snowing, wind speed is 25mph or higher, or if the temperature is 3 degrees C or below. This information is frequently refreshed to ensure that the current conditions are always available.	Roadside Message Signs This displays the information on the roadside message signs. These signs have been set by the Highways Agency to keep you informed about any incidents ahead whilst driving.
Traffic Cameras The traffic camera images can be updated every 30 seconds. They provide you with a still image rather than a live stream of information. You will sometimes come across cameras which are listed as ‘unavailable’. There are a number of reasons for this e.g. the camera may be broken or we are not receiving information from it. However, if there has been an accident we may stop the image from being broadcast. If you click on View Camera Image – but you don’t see the image ensure popups have been enabled in your Internet browser.

You can check up to 5 sections of motorway at a time by using the facility to add roads. This works best when your journey travels in the same direction of each road.
For example,
• M6 south onto M5 south (enter the most northerly section first)
• M40 north onto M42 north (enter the most northerly section first)

Using this feature
1. Select the most northerly section of road first and click the Search button.
2. In the section "Add another road to these results", select the next section of road and click the Add Road button.

If you are planning a journey in the future, why not try typing in the date of your trip to see if there are any planned roadworks or events that are expected to cause delays? It could save you a lot of time.

The Disruptions Search provides you with a complete list of all known current and expected disruptions on the motorways and major A-roads. You can search for disruptions on specific roads which are due to current and future roadworks, planned events (such as music festivals and major sporting events) and/or adverse weather conditions. It is a particularly useful feature when planning your journeys.

The information is displayed in a table in order of the junction numbers. It highlights the expected amount of delay, location and dates between which this disruption is planned.

1. Select the road type (i.e. motorway or major A-road) motorway; the specific road from the list (if the road you require is not on the list, it is not a road maintained by the Highways Agency); and the direction you want information about.
2. Select the required times and delays:
- start date from when you wish to check for known disruptions. Typically this will be the planned date of your journey.
- the number of days from that date that you want to check. This can only be selected from the options provided.
- the delay times you are interested in.
3. Select / de-select the information you require from the options available
4. Click the Search button

Road / Slip Closures Shows current and future road and slip road closures that could impact your journey. These are usually due to roadworks or incidents that lead to a road/slip road being closed.	Major Disruption An event that represents a major incident or significant delays. You may wish to seek an alternative route.
Incidents & Congestion / Future Events Current unplanned events causing delays e.g. accidents or obstructions, and future planned events that may have an impact on your journey.	Roadworks / Future Roadworks Shows current and future scheduled works that may affect your journey.
Adverse Weather Current weather conditions that have the potential to cause a delay e.g. if it is raining, snowing, wind speed is 25mph or higher, or if the temperature is 3 degrees C or below. This information is frequently refreshed to ensure that the current conditions are always available.

Traffic Alerts lists the unplanned incidents, accidents and congestion that are currently affecting England’s motorways and major A-Roads. These can be listed either by Severity or by Road.

1. Select how you would like to see the information displayed i.e. by Severity of delay or by Road.
2. Select how many results you would like to display per page. The results will now be automatically displayed.
3. To view the location of an incident on the map, click on the title.
4. To return to the Traffic Alerts results table use the back button in your internet browser
5. To print the results, click on the Print Traffic Alerts button at the top or bottom of the results.

You can receive an update of incidents, accidents and congestion automatically to your computer using the RSS data feeds. You can receive updates for the whole of England or for a specific region or major road. You will need a News Reader or similar software.

To set this feature up on your computer, click on the RSS feed link at the top of the Traffic Alerts page or on the button link at the bottom of the page. This links you to the Highways Agency’s main website where you will find all of the required information to install and use the RSS data feeds for live traffic information.

To subscribe to a feed, choose one from the list and click the button or drag it into your News Reader.