Hertfordshire's roads are among the most congested in the country, new research has shown.

Car Sloth, an electric vehicle subscription provider, analysed government data from 2021 and 2022 to show that Hertfordshire is the fourth most traffic-heavy area in the UK, outside of London.

They came to the conclusion by looking at the delay in SPVPM, or seconds per vehicle per mile - i.e. the difference between the speed limit and the actual recorded journey time.

In Hertfordshire, the average SPVPM was 106.4 - meaning drivers were, on average, travelling at 106.4 seconds slower per mile than if they were able to travel at the speed limit.

Outside of London, only Lancashire, Kent and Surrey were found to have more heavily congested roads than Hertfordshire.

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Nik Andreev, a director of Car Sloth, said: “During the pandemic, it felt as though rush hour was a thing of the past.

"Road traffic dropped to 1955 levels at one point, and, with it, CO2 emissions fell drastically.

"It didn’t take long for all that to be reversed, though. As the world (and roads) opened up, we saw the return of rush hour and then some.”