Busiest and quietest stretches of road from each width category

[Uncle Buck]

Can I hazard a guess at the A68 between the junction with the A697 at Carfraemill and the Edinburgh bypass as including the busiest S2+1? A count point in the village of Pathhead- which is on this section but not on the actual S2+1- has 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A68 is a terribly overloaded road, a nightmare for getting stuck behind lorries and tractors, which is a shame because it’s a cracking drive- and shoud be seen as a major route. That’s why the S2+1 section is such a relief to get to.

[NICK 647063]

Can I hazard a guess at the A68 between the junction with the A697 at Carfraemill and the Edinburgh bypass as including the busiest S2+1? A count point in the village of Pathhead- which is on this section but not on the actual S2+1- has 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A68 is a terribly overloaded road, a nightmare for getting stuck behind lorries and tractors, which is a shame because it’s a cracking drive- and shoud be seen as a major route. That’s why the S2+1 section is such a relief to get to.

I wouldn’t say 10,000 vehicles per day is overloaded at all! If you want to see an overloaded S2 the A1237 around York between the A19 and A59 is over 30k.

In summer 2019 we were doing some work for Highways England east of York on the A64 as Starbucks are trying to convert the old Four All’s pub, the access is causing real problems on the A64 so Highways England wanted very detailed flow data, the average flows on the S2 A64 are around 24K in that location but we also had to get data for the August bank holiday which on the Monday the 24hr flow was 36k this is likely the busiest day of the year here, this is now causing major issues in the planning as and also causing problems for the A64 upgrade as highways England have revised forecasts for this section and realised the suppressed demand so all the D2 has to have high standard GSJ instead of lower spec crossings, obviously things have changed with Covid but the A64 will likely have higher flows as it’s more a holiday route whereas the more commuter routes around will have less traffic in future.

[SouthWest Philip]

Can I hazard a guess at the A68 between the junction with the A697 at Carfraemill and the Edinburgh bypass as including the busiest S2+1? A count point in the village of Pathhead- which is on this section but not on the actual S2+1- has 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A68 is a terribly overloaded road, a nightmare for getting stuck behind lorries and tractors, which is a shame because it’s a cracking drive- and shoud be seen as a major route. That’s why the S2+1 section is such a relief to get to.

I wouldn’t say 10,000 vehicles per day is overloaded at all! If you want to see an overloaded S2 the A1237 around York between the A19 and A59 is over 30k.

And if we're talking S2+1, the A417 west of the Air Balloon is pushing 40k vehicles a day.

[tomuk]

Shrewsbury Bypass A49 S2 between A5 Preston Boats and B5062 roundabouts 30.6k AADT

[KeithW]

Can I hazard a guess at the A68 between the junction with the A697 at Carfraemill and the Edinburgh bypass as including the busiest S2+1? A count point in the village of Pathhead- which is on this section but not on the actual S2+1- has 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A68 is a terribly overloaded road, a nightmare for getting stuck behind lorries and tractors, which is a shame because it’s a cracking drive- and shoud be seen as a major route. That’s why the S2+1 section is such a relief to get to.

That's not even close. The S2 A172 through Marton-In-Cleveland has an AADF of around 22k, around James Cook hospital its over 23k take a look on Sabre Maps. Its known locally as The Marton Crawl.

The A68 is relatively lightly loaded. Between the A69 and the Scottish border its well under 5k and is only 3k at Jedburgh. The busy section is St Boswells into Edinburgh and that is mostly commuter traffic

[Chris5156]

Can I hazard a guess at the A68 between the junction with the A697 at Carfraemill and the Edinburgh bypass as including the busiest S2+1? A count point in the village of Pathhead- which is on this section but not on the actual S2+1- has 10,000 vehicles per day.

The A68 is a terribly overloaded road, a nightmare for getting stuck behind lorries and tractors, which is a shame because it’s a cracking drive- and shoud be seen as a major route. That’s why the S2+1 section is such a relief to get to.

That's not even close. The S2 A172 through Marton-In-Cleveland has an AADF of around 22k, around James Cook hospital its over 23k take a look on Sabre Maps. Its known locally as The Marton Crawl.

The A68 is relatively lightly loaded. Between the A69 and the Scottish border its well under 5k and is only 3k at Jedburgh. The busy section is St Boswells into Edinburgh and that is mostly commuter traffic

Uncle Buck was aiming for the busiest S2+1, rather than the busiest S2. I'd say the busiest S2+1 will be the A303 Ilminster Bypass, which carries about 30k AADT.

For the busiest S2 I will offer you:
A27 Warren Road in Worthing: 35k AADT
A3 West Hill in Wandsworth: 45k AADT

[WHBM]

A3 West Hill in Wandsworth: 45k AADT

Numbers like this always surprise me; because A3 West Hill (at least inbound) is jammed all day, it is ... jammed all day. So how does it get the flow when all is waiting at the signals.

For the highest flow S1 I offer the A120 through Little Hadham, Hertfordshire. A Primary route which is significantly dual elsewhere reduced to a notably lengthy S1 section through the village, controlled by signals. Extraordinary it's never been bypassed in the last 100 years.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8843804 ... 384!8i8192

[ChrisH]

A3 West Hill in Wandsworth: 45k AADT

Numbers like this always surprise me; because A3 West Hill (at least inbound) is jammed all day, it is ... jammed all day. So how does it get the flow when all is waiting at the signals.

For the highest flow S1 I offer the A120 through Little Hadham, Hertfordshire. A Primary route which is significantly dual elsewhere reduced to a notably lengthy S1 section through the village, controlled by signals. Extraordinary it's never been bypassed in the last 100 years.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8843804 ... 384!8i8192

It is of course being bypassed at the moment. Your Google Maps link in satellite view shows it.

[jackal]

I made a list of the 125 busiest sections of road in Great Britain here.

Busiest for each category:

Six lane
1 M25 14 15 D6M 18320 216108

Five lane
4 M25 12 13 D5M 14431 186335
27 M8 15 14 D5 6563 160484

Four lane
2 M25 12 11 D4M 14887 200854
37 A2 B262 A227 D4H 10951 155800
23 M4 4B 4 D4* 8217 161807
30 M1 11A 12 D4ALR 22532 159866
15 M1 11 11A D3DHS* 24975 168763 (in practical terms more four lane than three)

Three lane
41 M60 2 1 D3M 8634 153636
117 A27 A3 A2030 D3H 6112 130949
95 M60 1 27 D3 7452 135796

(Excludes roads with more lanes in one direction than the other or C/D lanes.)