17 Million Drivers Ready for Easter Bank Holiday Road Chaos
Brace yourselves! Up to 17 million leisure trips by car are expected this Easter bank holiday. Good Friday and Easter Sunday could become epic gridlock days, especially in the south and west of the UK, according to fresh data.
Good Friday Set to Be a Traffic Nightmare
Research from the RAC and transport experts INRIX warns Good Friday could be a ‘bad’ Friday for drivers. Around 2.7 million getaway trips are predicted that day. Hotspots for heavy delays include major routes in the South West and the Home Counties.
- The A303 westbound near Stonehenge
- M5 south between Bristol and Bridgwater
- M25 anticlockwise between Hertfordshire and Surrey
Traffic here could be more than double the usual, with vehicle speeds dropping to a crawl of just 12mph during peak times.
Easter Weekend Traffic: When to Hit the Road?
Easter Sunday is also forecast for 2.7 million car journeys, while Saturday and Monday will see slightly fewer at 2.3 million trips each. Many drivers are playing the weather wait-and-see game before jumping in their cars. Potentially another 7 million trips could be spread over the weekend.
Rail Disruptions Push More Drivers Onto the Roads
Planned engineering work means London’s Euston station will be closed all weekend, forcing more travellers onto the roads. The silver lining? National Highways is lifting 1,400 miles of roadworks from Thursday to ease congestion.
But breakdowns could still wreck journeys. RAC urges drivers to get their cars ‘road-ready’ before setting off. Disturbingly, their research shows only 19% routinely check their vehicles ahead of Easter trips, 51% sometimes do, and a worrying 30% never check – increasing the risk of breakdown-induced misery.
RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said:
“With many people keen to make the most of the double bank holiday this Easter weekend, we’re expecting the customary jams across parts of the road network to make this Good Friday a bad Friday for drivers.”
