Case Study: Highways England reduces motorway congestion with PA Consulting

Reducing traffic congestion caused by motorway incidents using ‘dark data’ insights

PA Consulting worked with Highways England, which needed to improve how often its traffic officers cleared motorway incidents in under one hour. Nearly 7,000 incidents a year were missing this target, causing congestion and reducing the efficiency of its operations.

PA Consulting analyzed Highways England’s “dark data” and operational patterns to turn instinct into actionable insight. The team uncovered a 10% performance drop at certain times in a patrol shift, traced the issue to officer travel times, and helped optimize deployment from new and existing base sites. This cut clear-up times by up to 15 minutes per incident, freed over 100,000 hours for other operational activities, improved the one-hour target rate by up to 2.5%, and could save motorists an estimated £17.3 million a year.

Highways England

Richard Marshall

Regional Director