Frustrated Fatal Fridays
Published: 16th August 2005
Those on the western section of the M25 should be prepared for even longer delays - as this is the most congested time and place on the UK motorway network.
National Motorway Month is a joint initiative by RAC Foundation, Auto Express Magazine, IAM and BSM to encourage safer driving on our motorways. The campaign will run through the busy holiday month of August.
The RAC Foundation has analysed the Government’s "Road Casualties Great Britain Report:2003" and found that more car users are killed or seriously injured on Friday late afternoon / early evening than at any other time during the week. The figures show that on Fridays:
- Between 8 - 9 am 95 car users killed or seriously injured
- Between 9 - 10 am 115 car users killed or seriously injured
- Between 4 - 5 pm 205 car users killed or seriously injured
- Between 5 - 6 pm 175 car users killed or seriously injured
- Between 6 - 7 pm 182 car users killed or seriously injured.
The average numbers killed or seriously injured between 4 - 5 pm Monday - Friday is 158, which is 25 per cent lower than the Friday figure. This "fatal Friday phenomenon" may be due to motorists switching off early, fatigue after a long week and lack of concentration due to the: "Thank God It's Friday" effect.
The RAC Foundation and Trafficmaster have found that: the worst days of the week for congestion are:
- Friday
- Thursday
- Wednesday
- Tuesday
- Monday
- Sunday
- Saturday
Around seven per cent of the motorway and trunk road network suffers heavy congestion at peak times and a further 13 per cent does so on at least half the days of the year, according to the National Motorway Month research. August is the busiest month on the motorways.
The busiest single link on the motorway network in 2003 was the western section of the M25 (junctions 13 - 14) with 196,000 vehicles per day. However, due to road works on this section, in 2004 the busiest motorway link (carrying 181,000 vehicles per day) was between junctions 16 and 17 on the M60.
The average flow for the M25 as a whole was considerably higher than that of the next busiest motorways, the M60, M27, M1, M6 (south of the M62) and M62 (east of the Pennines at junction 22). The M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh was the busiest motorway in Scotland.
In 2004, motorways accounted for less than one per cent of road length, but carried 19 per cent of all traffic in England. In Scotland and Wales, motorways carried 14 and 12 per cent of traffic respectively. The North West and South East had the highest percentages of traffic on motorways at 31 and 26 per cent respectively, with the North East and London motorways carrying the lowest percentage of traffic (five and six per cent respectively). Average traffic speeds on trunk roads (including motorways) fell between 1995 and 2003 at all times of the day*, and recent research has shown that congestion on motorways is a serious problem for nearly one third of people**.
In a recent survey***, road works were considered to be the main and most annoying cause of congestion, followed by the overall level of traffic. However research has found that actually only 10 per cent of congestion is caused by road works, whereas 25 per cent is caused by accidents, and 65 per cent by volume of traffic. The average time taken to clear motorways after a major incident, or accident is currently around 5.5 hours.****
The survey also revealed that of those who had used a motorway in the last six months, almost half said they had experienced congestion at some point during their last journey and the majority said they had experienced some or all of this congestion on the motorway section of their journey.
Forty eight per cent of those who had experienced congestion on their last journey involving a motorway said the congestion had added over half an hour to their journey time.
