Road traffic has fallen for the first time in 30 years after high fuel prices and the recession prompted millions of drivers to leave their cars at home.

The 34 million vehicles on Britain’s roads travelled 3.1 billion fewer miles last year, the equivalent of 125,000 around-the-world trips or 33 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It was the biggest decrease on record. The average motorist drove 90 fewer miles last year than in 2007, costing the Exchequer £165 million in reduced income from fuel duty.

The fall contributed to a record reduction in road deaths, which fell by more than 400 to 2,610 in the 12 months to the end of September 2008.

The number killed fell by the same amount in one year as it had over the whole of the previous five years.

Cyclists were the only type of road user among whom deaths and serious injuries increased, possibly because of an increase in inexperienced riders seeking a cheaper alternative to car travel.

Falling new-car sales in the last quarter of 2008 are also likely to have contributed to the decline in traffic. The slump continued last month, with a 30.9 per cent drop in sales, the lowest January figure since 1974. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said: “With jobs being lost, consumers appear unwilling to spend on large discretionary items like cars.”

The society predicted that the new-car market would decline by 19.3 per cent this year to 1.72 million, 410,000 fewer than last year and 685,000 down on 2007. All segments of the car market showed a fall in January except the mini segment, which was up 40.8 per cent.

Ford announced that it was cutting up to 850 jobs in the UK, including 400 to 500 at its Transit van plant in Southampton. Yet vans were the only type of vehicle to record a rise in traffic last year, with the growth in internet deliveries pushing their total distance up 2.8 per cent. Car mileage fell 1.7 per cent and HGV mileage by 2 per cent, producing an overall decline of 1 per cent in motor traffic.

The fall in miles driven was greater than during the oil crisis of 1973 and 1974, when traffic fell by 2.7 billion miles. However, this fall was higher in percentage terms than last year’s because the total level of traffic in the early 1970s was only half what it is now.

The fall last year was steepest between July and September, when petrol prices peaked at £1.20 a litre. But the reduction in traffic continued in the final three months of the year, when petrol prices dropped below £1 a litre. Rising unemployment will have contributed to the drop in traffic but some transport observers believe that this is the beginning of a longer-term trend towards lower levels of mobility.

The Campaign for Better Transport said that the Government should respond to the fall in traffic by reviewing its road expansion programme, including the plan to add an extra lane to 500 miles of motorway. It said that funding should be switched from road building into more buses and trains.

Stephen Joseph, the director of the campaign, said that the historic link between traffic levels and economic growth had been broken and the end of the recession would not necessarily result in a return to the relentless rise in traffic.

“Future economic growth is going to be much less dependent on car and air travel because people are finding alternative ways of doing business. For example, the quality of video conferencing has hugely improved.”

But the RAC Foundation said that the fall was merely a blip and argued that traffic levels would eventually return to the trend since 1950 of 4 per cent annual growth.

Stephen Glaister, the director of the foundation, said: “The appetite for mobility will always grow. It is irresponsible not to think about how we are going to meet that need on the road network.”

An AA poll in December found that 52 per cent of people were cutting back on car use and 67 per cent had changed the way they drove to try to conserve fuel.

Delays caused by heavy traffic also fell sharply last year, according to Department for Transport figures. The time wasted in traffic queues on the most congested parts of the motorway and trunk road network declined by 10 per cent. Time lost in congestion on city streets also fell by about 5 per cent in Bristol, London, Newcastle and Sheffield.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety said that the fall in deaths was not only because of less traffic but also better focus by police on the actions mostly likely to kill: speeding, failure to wear seatbelts and drinking and driving.

Robert Gifford, the director of the council, said that special measures were needed to tackle the increase in cyclist casualties. “We need to both encourage cycling and make it safer through slowing down vehicles, ensuring the cycling infrastructure where provided is completed and encouraging the take-up of Bikeability training courses to create a generation of cyclist-aware car drivers.”

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive