Navigating Britain’s roads is a perilous task these days. There are more cars driving around than ever before, and when you add to this the seemingly endless amount of “road improvements” that take place on a yearly basis then it’s little wonder that people get so stressed out on even the most inconsequential of journeys.

While no iPhone app is going to totally rectify this sorry situation, Traffic UK does at least attempt to take some of the pain out of your daily drive. It takes your current location and then displays all of the relevant traffic information in the surrounding area, overlaying the data on a map so you can see clearly which roads you need to avoid.

If you’d rather see which events are the most severe, you can switch to a list view which places the most significant jams at the top and the less important events at the bottom. Selecting an event in this view gives you a little more information on what’s actually happened, so in some cases you can decide for yourself if it’s worth risking it.

For example, if it’s a minor incident then you might be able to anticipate when it will be dealt with; by the time you actually get to the site, the coast may well be clear.

In addition to all this, you can choose to filter out roadworks. While this might seem like a foolhardy thing to do, when you consider just how many construction sites there are on our roads, it actually makes sense. Some sites may be marked on the map but not actually be in operation at the time, so it’s likely that traffic is unaffected.

While it all sounds extremely positive, there are some niggles that prevent Traffic UK from being as good as it possibly should be. Firstly, we noticed that some of the traffic info is outdated, with some events being flagged up that actually occurred days ago.

Also, route planning isn’t as intuitive as it could be. When you tell the app what route you wish to take it bombards you with incident reports – many of which aren’t really relevant to your proposed journey.

The reasoning behind this is pretty clear; the app is giving you as wide a picture as possible of the surrounding area, should you wish to try an alternative route – but the trouble is, it all becomes too confusing when you’re trying to use the app in the heat of the moment.

These issues certainly aren’t deal-breakers and once you get used to how things work and how Traffic UK displays information, then chances are you’ll learn to live with its problems. However, for the relatively high asking price we expect a little more, and there are rival apps which offer the same functions for less cash.