A collective 21.46 million leisure trips are being planned by British drivers for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
After two years of the pandemic curtailing travel, drivers are keen to make up for lost time. The RAC expects it to be the busiest Easter break on the roads since it began tracking travel plans in 2014.
Problems with trains and railways, including potential strike action, are likely to add to the overall number of drivers hitting the road.
The Good Friday getaway
Good Friday is set to be the busiest day of all, with an estimated 4.62 million leisure trips expected to start the weekend. Easter Monday is likely to see 3.96 million trips, with Saturday and Sunday accounting for 3.63 million car journeys each.
A further 5.6 million other car journeys are expected to take place across the four-day weekend.
However, surging fuel prices have led one in five drivers (20 percent) to plan shorter journeys this year for Easter.
More than a quarter of drivers (28 percent) will use their cars less, with a third (33 percent) aiming to drive more economically.
All the ingredients for jams
The RAC has named the roads likely to experience the worst Bank Holiday congestion. Using data from INRIX, these are:
- M6 north J26 Liverpool to J36 South Lakes
- M6 south J20 to J16 Stoke-on-Trent
- A303 approaching Stonehenge
- M25 clockwise J8 to J16
RAC traffic spokesperson Rod Dennis said: “After two years of relatively quiet Easter Bank Holidays on the roads, our research suggests a return to traffic levels that are much more typical of this time of year, and it’s very possible this weekend could turn out to be one of the busiest for leisure journeys for many years.
“Add in the impact of disruption on the rail network and one of the biggest fixtures of the sporting calendar taking place this weekend, and you have all the ingredients needed for problems on the roads. Traffic volumes will likely be even higher if some warm spring sunshine makes an appearance.”
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