Thousands of road users are now planning their journeys by tuning in to live broadcasts from the Highways Agency's digital Traffic Radio service on their mobile phone before they set off.

A new free i-phone application has been downloaded by more than 200,000 people since its launch a few weeks ago.  It pinpoints the user’s current location, gives a breakdown of any planned roadworks and displays live traffic updates as well as allowing users to tune in to the Highways Agency's DAB radio service.

A mobile version of the Highways Agency website launched last year had already proved one of most popular ways for people to use the internet to check the road ahead.

Highways Agency director of traffic management Simon Sheldon-Wilson said:  “We are constantly looking for new ways to get our live traffic information out to road-users in the ways that are most useful to them.  By using these innovative approaches it means people can now check on the state of the roads whenever they take a break – which they should do every couple of hours on a long journey.”