Christmas: Roads expected to be BUSIEST in years
The UK’s roads are expected to be the busiest they’ve been over the festive season in more than 5 years, according to recent data.
More than 27 million trips will be taken by car as people head off to see friends and family for Christmas.
That’s just between 17th December and Christmas Eve, where it’s expected to be the busiest in years due to pent-up demand from the restrictions that were in place last year…
Because of those restrictions, many people didn’t visit family and friends, but with fewer COVID restrictions currently in place, many are heading to see their loved ones for the festive period.
So just how busy will it be?
Recent analysis indicated that there will be an average of 4.1 million journeys every day before road traffic culminates on Christmas Eve, where there’s expected to be 5.3 million journeys made.,
That domestic traffic coupled with a build-up in commercial traffic for last-minute deliveries and fulfilling orders before Christmas means we can expect the roads to be the busiest they’ve been in some time.
As a result, experts are warning drivers to take extra precautions, particularly as temperatures drop and driving conditions become hazardous due to fog, ice, and adverse weather.
How will working from home measures affect things?
Despite fears over the Omicron COVID variant, it appears that traffic won’t subside before Christmas, with any drop-off in traffic expect post-Christmas when working from home measures will kick in properly.
There is a school of thought that due to fewer people heading into work this week, it could offset the increase in traffic due to travel…
That might mean that despite fears over an increased load on the roads, the overall capacity might not be at the same level it otherwise would have been.
All in all, experts believe that the overall levels of congestion might be at lower levels than a typical pre-Christmas period, though naturally higher than in recent years.
Where can I expect delays?
The main areas for concern are all motorways, with the always busy M25 expected to experience significant delays.
Otherwise, key routes including the clockwise M60 in Manchester, southbound M40 in Oxfordshire, and parts of the M6 will experience significant volumes of traffic – so it might be worth factoring this into any route planning.
There might also be an increase in road use between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this year, with people expected to make the most of their ability to travel, so long as no further restrictions are introduced.
The reality is that the combination of people taking more time off for the festive period and children finishing school means that more traffic will be on the road…
The worst congestion is likely to be for inner-city travel and on main motorway routes, so it’s worth taking this into consideration.
How does the festive traffic affect your fleet? Do you take additional safety precautions? Do you alter your route planning based on the density of traffic on key routes? Let us know at [email protected]
