Driving myths investigated: drive for 80 minutes on a minor rural road and you'll get stuck behind a tractor

27 May 2011

• But it only adds between one and two per cent to your journey time and you’ll have to follow the tractor for three to six minutes
• Green Flag Breakdown Cover and UCL explain the theory of tractor delays

Drive on minor rural roads for just 80 minutes and you will end up stuck behind a tractor according to new analysis undertaken by Green Flag Breakdown Cover and University College London.

However, the transport experts have also determined that if you end up behind one of the UK’s 250,000 tractors, on any of the UK’s 132,352 miles of rural minor roads, it will only be for between 1.2 and 3.1 miles. It will only add just one-two per cent to your journey time.

Statisticians have calculated a motorist will end up behind a tractor on average only about once every one hour twenty minutes of driving on rural minor roads during the spring and summer months and have devised an equation to prove it!.

The study focused on the period March to September, when the majority of road usage by tractors is undertaken. Overall, drivers will end up behind a tractor during these months between two and four minutes, for every hour they drive on minor rural roads.

Henry Topham, Head of Green Flag said: “Many of us end up behind a tractor either directly or as part of a queue of traffic. Whilst it can be frustrating, it's worth noting that it won’t delay your journey for too long so getting impatient and undertaking risky manoeuvres to overtake the vehicle on a narrow, rural road is not worth it. With blind bends, narrow roads and overgrown foliage obscuring visibility, overtaking in rural areas can be fraught with danger.”

Professor Benjamin Heydecker at the Centre for Transport Studies, University College London said: “Our calculations have enabled us to prove that drivers are indeed likely to end up stuck behind a tractor on a country drive through minor rural roads. However, we have shown that when this does happen, it typically causes only small delays to a journey.”

Notes to editors

Green Flag
With 40 years experience, Green Flag provides customers with rapid breakdown cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Customers have access to a national network of thousands of independent recovery agents in the UK and mainland Europe.

Green Flag is part of RBS Insurance, the second largest general insurer in the UK and is wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Customers can find out more about Green Flag products or get a quote by calling 0845 246 1557, connecting via the Green Flag Rescue Me Application, or visiting Green Flag.

Green Flag Motoring Assistance breakdown cover is underwritten by Direct Line Insurance plc which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered office: 3 Edridge Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 1AG. Registered in England No. 1810801. FSA registered No. 202684. The Financial Services Authority's Register can be accessed through http://www.fsa.gov.uk.

About UCL
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. UCL is among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. Alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay. UCL currently has over 13,000 undergraduate and 9,000 postgraduate students. Its annual income is over £700 million. www.ucl.ac.uk