Figures extracted from automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) logs indicate that five million vehicles are set to pull into motorway service areas over the long Easter weekend.
An average of a million vehicles a day are predicted to use MSAs between Thursday 17 April and Easter Monday, with 62,000 an hour visiting services during peak hours, which are expected to be between 11am and 1pm each day.
The busiest sites are likely to be Welcome Break’s Membury services, and Roadchef’s Maidstone, and Taunton Deane MSAs, which are due to experience respective increases in custom of 64%, 57% and 56% as people head east and west. Extra’s Cobham, and Beaconsfield services, and Moto’s Wetherby, are set to be the busiest MSAs overall.
The data comes from i-media, which operates digital advertising screens at MSAs, and uses ANPR cameras to measure audiences. The firm says 2024 saw traffic increase by 28% on the Thursday preceding Easter, which was the busiest day overall.
Midday on Good Friday was also busy, with 60,000 cars an hour pulling off the motorway to stop at a services. Lunchtime on Easter Sunday was the quietest period, while the peak hour was 11am on Easter Monday as travellers returned home, with 62,000 of stopping at an MSA over those 60 minutes.
All told, around a quarter of the 21 million leisure journeys the RAC expects to be made this Easter will see travellers pull into an MSA, while average vehicle occupancy rates indicate around half the country will be on the road over the period.
It’s not just sheer volumes that will increase over Easter, either: i-media says that MSA dwell times were up 8% over the period in 2024, with the average traveller stopping for just under 25 minutes. Sales at MSAs rose by 35% overall, with grocery volumes increasing by 68%, and suncream sales by 91%.
Drivers seeking to avoid the rush are advised to try to keep their stops to the early-morning or mid-afternoon, when footfall will be lowest over the break’s daylight hours.
ANPR data has long been used to track traffic volumes. The technology, which dates back to 1976, uses cameras to scan vehicle number plates, with optical character recognition software extracting registraions. As well as being used by advertising firms to measure audiences, filling-station operators deploy ANPR cameras to deter crimes such as drive-offs, while police and other agencies make extensive use of the technology.
An investigation conducted in 2019 by Auto Express found that ANPR cameras operated by police and local councils make 10 billon number-plate scans a year, generating 203 million ‘hits’ on vehicles of interest, often due to vehicles being untaxed or having no registered keeper.
The research also found that 6.96m penalty notices were issued over five years thanks to ANPR tech, generating up to £472m in fines. Schemes like London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) rely on ANPR, as do local councils, which use the cameras to enforce parking, box-junction and bus-lane rules..
