Average traffic speeds on three stretches of A1: EIR release

“Under the Freedom of Information Act (2002), I wish to acquire the following information:

• What are average traffic speeds on the A1, between Torness Power Station and the A1107 junction, in both directions, at 0900, 1200, 1800, 2100
• What are average traffic speeds on the A1, between A6112 junction (Grantshouse) and Houndwood, in both directions, at 0900, 1200, 1800, 2100
• What are average traffic speeds on the A1, between B6437 junction and Lamberton, in both directions, at 0900, 1200, 1800, 2100.”

To which to clarified the timeframe of your response as;

“Averages for Years a) 2007 b) 2008 c) 2009 d) 2010 e) 2011 f) 2012 g) 2013 h) 2014 i) 2015

j) 2016 k) 2017 l) 2018.”

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations.  We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. 

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

In response to your request, please refer to the below table. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Transport Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reason why that exception applies is that the system we use to gather this type of information for such specific locations only holds data back to the start of 2014.

Table 1 – Average weekday average traffic speeds on the A1 Trunk Road