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Highways: Motorways serving top UK cities ‘least efficient’ report claims
Some of the most important motorways connecting or surrounding the UK’s biggest cities have been found to be the least efficient, according to a new study.
The M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh, the M60 in Manchester, London’s M25 and the M42 in Birmingham are the four slowest motorways, according to the Congestion Report, released last week by traffic monitoring network Trafficmaster and the RAC Foundation.
Trafficmaster used more than 7,500 cameras and sensors across 12,900km of the UK’s roads to monitor traffic flow. It found the average speed of the M8 was about 85km per hour, trailing behind the national average speed of 108.5km per hour. Vehicles on the M60 and M25 averaged 89km per hour, and the average speed of the M42 was 96.5km per hour.
The western sector of London’s M25, from junctions 9 to 20, was also revealed as the nation’s worst congestion hotspot. The stretch, where three major motorways meet, had 154,384 traffic alerts – up 9% on last year’s statistics – despite recent widening work to relieve pressure around the M4-M3 stretch. It faces even more congestion with Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 yet to open.
The second-busiest motorway was the M1 stretch through the Home Counties, from junction 6a to 11, owing to long-term road works in the area.
The major motorways in southeast England still account for the majority of motorway congestion hotspots.
Trafficmaster and the RAC Foundation recommended more careful planning of car journeys, urging drivers to consider alternative routes before they travelled.
