THE number of miles covered by cars in Cumbria plummeted by nearly a third last year with travel impacted by the coronavirus lockdown, figures show.
Data from the Department for Transport (DfT) shows cars and taxis covered an estimated 2.1 billion miles on Cumbria's roads during 2020.
That was 31 per cent fewer than in 2019 when 3 billion miles were covered.
It was a similar picture across Great Britain with the number of miles of car journeys down 25 per cent.
The DfT said the figures were heavily impacted by the effects of the coronavirus, with restrictions on travel in place through many months of last year.
Yet early indications from the Government show traffic could return to 2019 levels as lockdown is eased.
The figures from the DfT also show car travel made up 70 per cent of all road miles in Cumbria in 2020, with lorries and commercial vans making up the rest.
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