It’s looking like a busy Thursday-Sunday this week as the school holidays begin ( yes Scotland we know you’ve been on holiday for 10 days already) and the various caravan axle/tyre problems, overheating people carriers and failing alternator issues conspire to ruin that getaway to Centre Parcs.
Add on some scheduled roadworks, motorway closure, the odd fender bender collision in slow moving traffic, plus a little JSO or XR disruption and you have the perfect storm of breakdowns, recovery, vehicle storage etc.
Here’s the word from the RAC;
Drivers are expected to make an estimated 27m leisure trips by car as the great summer getaway gets drawn out over the course of six days, according to new data from the RAC and transport analytics specialists INRIX.
With most schools closing tomorrow (Tuesday 23), the RAC anticipates that holidaymakers will make 2.4m getaway trips by car on that day alone, with leisure traffic then gradually increasing closer to the weekend. An additional 2.6m separate journeys are likely on Wednesday, 2.5m on Thursday, and a further 5.4m at some point between Monday and Thursday.
These figures bring the total number of getaway journeys between Monday and Thursday to 13m, and that’s before the customary end-of-the week mad rush for the roads even begins. ‘Frantic Friday’ is expected to see a total of 3.2m trips being made as leisure and commuter traffic vie with each other for space on the roads.
The data suggests, however, that it’s likely to be a ‘weekend of woe’ with congestion peaking on Saturday 27 July, with a total of 3.6m journeys expected, only to be followed by another 2.9m trips on Sunday. What’s more, there are a further 4m getaways planned at some point between Friday and Sunday 28 July, which means a total of 13.8m trips could be made throughout the course of the weekend.
The RAC’s records show these three days will be the second busiest summer getaway weekend since 2015. In that time only 2022 saw more trips made, with 18.8m taking to their cars in extremely hot weather following two years of COVID lockdowns.
HOTSPOTS
Transport experts INRIX are warning drivers to avoid travelling between 12pm and 5pm on both Friday and Saturday and between 11am and 1pm on Sunday when the worst delays are expected. The best times to travel will be after 6pm on Friday and Saturday, or 3pm on Sunday. Saturday will see the longest hold-ups, with delays on A-roads and motorways expected to take a third longer than usual.
The INRIX data also shows traffic heading to major UK airports and staycation destinations will build from Thursday 25 July onwards. Delays of over half an hour are expected between the Chiswell Interchange near St Albans southbound to Gatwick Airport and the A303 eastbound between Ilminster and Andover, which carries traffic to London and the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, where ferries leave for the Isle of Wight.
The single worst queue, of over two hours, is predicted on Saturday lunchtime on the M5 heading south between J15 – the M4 and M5 interchange near Bristol – and J23 for Bridgwater, as holidaymakers flock to Devon and Cornwall.
As millions of cars hit the road for summer, separate research by the RAC reveals the extent to which some drivers take a massive gamble before hitting the road with one-in-10 (11%) saying they have driven to a holiday destination knowing there’s a problem with their vehicle, be it a warning light, mechanical issue, fluid leak or poor tread on a tyre.
RAC Breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “Anyone heading off on holiday on Saturday or Sunday should expect a weekend of woe on the roads with journeys taking far longer than normal. If you can’t set off really early, then it’s highly likely you’ll be sitting in traffic for quite some time.”
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