Number of motorists using Dartford Crossing hits all time low (From This Is Local London)

Number of motorists using Dartford Crossing hits all time low

4:18pm Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News By Alan Woods

HAVE THE hefty Dartford Crossing toll hikes encouraged motorists to find an alternative route?

Figures released by the Highways Agency this week suggest so, as the number of drivers using the crossing has continued to fall during the past 12 months.

The amount of motorists using the crossing has been falling year on year since 2006, hitting an all time low between April 2011 and March 2012 of 50.8 million.

This is more than 15,000 less than the same dates in 2010 and 2011 and nearly four million less than the 2005/2006 period.

An average of 138,760 vehicles passed through the toll booths every day last year, fewer than the 139,545 using the crossing daily during the previous year.

The figures come just two months before the tolls are due to be hiked up to £2.00 for cars, a 50p rise on the current charge.

A further hike is planned for 2014 when free-flow electronic charging is introduced.

Last year, the busiest day at the crossing was July 8, when 167,708 vehicles – nearly 30,000 more than the average– travelled between Kent and Essex.

When the Dartford Crossing first opened in 1963, just 3.9 million motorists used it between October 1963 and September 1964, an average of 12,472 daily.

Do the figures surprise you? Have you decided the crossing is no longer cost-effective and found an alternate route? Email your thoughts to awoods@london.newsquest.co.uk.