Published counts · interactive scenario model

A38 North Petherton traffic flow explorer

Explore how the measured vehicle mix and user-defined changes affect estimated flow, capacity, speed and delay on the indicative A38 30 mph town section.

DfT point 16378 2021 counted 30 mph
Scenario tool, not live traffic: the 2021 option uses observed hourly counts; the 2025 option is an explicitly labelled AADF-scaled estimate. Incidents, roadworks, weather and detailed junction queues are not included.

The line is an indicative centreline for visualisation. Posted signs and traffic regulation orders determine the legal speed-limit boundary.

Modelled result

Busiest-direction road conditions

Two-way traffic veh/h
Capacity used %
Likelihood of material delay % modelled indicator
Estimated added time journey · mph
Busiest-direction capacity

Northbound

Flow
PCU flow
Capacity
Est. speed
Added time

Southbound

Flow
PCU flow
Capacity
Est. speed
Added time
How the data and estimates are calculated

Measured baseline

The hourly profile is the DfT manual count at count point 16378 on 5 May 2021. The published 2021 AADF is 15,697 motor vehicles per day. DfT’s 2025 value is 17,663 and is marked as estimated; the 2025 option scales each 2021 hourly vehicle class by the corresponding AADF change.

Capacity and speed

The default screening capacity is 1,276 PCU/hour in each direction. It converts WebTAG’s 1,200 vehicles/hour small-town reference capacity using the counted 2021 heavy-vehicle share at this DfT point. Cars, vans and motorcycles count as 1 PCU; HGVs and buses count as 2. Speed is estimated with the WebTAG Unit M3.1 small-town relationship, using 80% frontage development and 100% of this modelled section in a 30 mph limit.

Delay and likelihood

Added time is the difference between the modelled journey and the model’s zero-flow journey over the indicative 2.70 km section. Above capacity, WebTAG’s one-hour over-capacity delay relationship is applied. The percentage likelihood is a transparent logistic indicator derived from the volume-to-capacity ratio; it is not an observed probability.

Limits of use

This is a corridor screening and engagement tool. The hourly shape comes from one manual-count day in 2021 and should not be treated as every weekday or current live conditions. It does not include live incidents, roadworks, weather, school-day variation, turning movements, signal timings or detailed queue interaction at junctions. It should not be used for navigation, enforcement or engineering design.

DfT count point 16378 WebTAG Unit M3.1 Open Government Licence v3.0