Holidays at home will bring heavy bank holiday traffic

Traditionally the Friday before the start of the school summer half term break has been a ‘Black Friday’ for traffic congestion on routes to airports and ferry terminals as people head for the sun. However, this year Trafficmaster - the UK’s leading provider of real-time traffic information – is predicting heavy traffic as usual, but this time on the popular holiday routes in the UK – as families choose to stay at home for a recession-busting break instead.

This year, the recession appears to be changing leisure travel habits with Trafficmaster monitoring increased traffic congestion on some holiday routes each Friday afternoon, with returning traffic on Sunday afternoon and evenings as people take short weekend breaks, closer to home.

For the late Spring Bank Holiday this trend will be significantly increased with very heavy traffic expected on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 May. This will affect not only holiday routes, but key commuter routes and long distance routes such as the M1, M6 and M25, although the following week will see much reduced commuter traffic and no school traffic during the half term break.

Graham Smith, Data Manager at Trafficmaster comments: “Predicting traffic levels is never clear-cut but it seems the recession is creating different holiday traffic patterns. Families are opting for short breaks in the UK rather than going abroad and we expect to see heavier traffic this Bank Holiday from lunchtime Friday onwards on the popular holiday routes.”

With over 20 years monitoring the UK’s traffic levels, Trafficmaster’s data shows that congestion problems are caused at the start of Bank Holiday weekends because there is a higher than usual mix of commuter and holiday traffic, occurring over a short time in the day from lunchtime onwards as people make an early getaway.