The Thursday before Easter was the busiest day of the year so far on UK roads with many people travelling to visit family or going away on holiday. It was estimated by the AA that over 16,000,000 cars were used over the Easter weekend.
Due to the surge in traffic the AA put out 20% extra patrol cars on Britain’s roads over the weekend. As expected the M6 and M25 were some of the worst areas for traffic pile ups. Issues in the channel tunnel also caused traffic problems in the south of Kent. The channel tunnel also cause problems for rail travellers with a Eurostar shuttle breaking down in the tunnel causing significant delays.
2007 still remains a record year for miles driven on the UK’s road with an estimated total of 314.1 billion miles. This dropped to 302.6 in 2012 due to increases in tax but climbed again to 306 in 2013 and looks set to continue its climb this year.