MOTORISTS in Poole are delayed by 52.5 seconds per mile due to traffic, figures reveal.

What’s more, they chugged along at only 23mph on average, slower than Usain Bolt over the 100m and three per cent slower than in 2015.

The stats for A roads in 2016 from the Department for Transport (DfT) show that drivers in Bournemouth face a similar delay of 49.4 seconds per mile spent in traffic, while in the wider county the delay is only 24 seconds.

For Poole, the figures show a rise in congestion since 2015. The figure is above the national average delay time of 45.9 seconds per mile, which was itself a 2.8 per cent increase on 2015.

While the DfT hasn’t yet released localised data for 2017, it has unveiled the England-wide numbers which show the average delay has increased once again to 46.4 seconds.

So a driver in Poole or Bournemouth facing a five mile journey should add around four minutes to the journey to get to work on time, on average. Anyone travelling 20 miles can expect a delay of around 18 minutes.

In the Dorset County Council area things are slightly more forgiving. An extra two minutes will, on average, help a driver with a five minute journey avoid being late. The county did see a seven per cent rise in congestion from 2015 however.

Motorists in Dorset drove along A roads at 34.3mph on average, remarkably some of the fastest drivers in England, yet still slower than the previous year by two per cent.

In Bournemouth the average speed was 23.6mph, slightly faster than Olympic legend Mr Bolt.

Queues can be caused by anything from crashes, fuel spills, emergency repairs and broken down lorries, to congestion during peak times.

And the figures appear to show that traffic jams, one of Britain’s least popular national pastimes, are getting worse.

England’s average speed on A roads is 25mph despite speed limits ranging between 30mph to 70mph on anything from small urban roads to dual carriageways.

In October the government wrote to Highways England, which runs major A roads and motorways, demanding a reduction in delays after the transport data company Inrix revealed traffic jams on UK roads cost the economy £9 billion a year.