Forecourt operators are set to benefit from a boom in bank holiday traffic, with 18 million trips predicted to be taken on Britain’s roads this weekend.
Friday 23 and Saturday, May 24 are due to be the busiest, with 3.4 million journeys expected to be made on each of those days.
Sunday should see 2.7m take to the road, while a further 3 million journeys are due to be made on Monday, May 26. A futher 5.4 million journeys are expected be taken across the weekend as a whole.
The data, which comes from transport-analytics firm Inrix, and the RAC, is based on a survey taken by 2,064 adults at the beginning of the month. It indicates that 68% of drivers will set off between 5am and 12pm across all days, making afternoons more likely to be quieter; and just 3% of drivers say they will travel between 7pm and 11pm.
On Friday, delays of around 45 minutes are expected on the M25 anticlockwise between J4 and J1 close to the Dartford Crossing, while 35-minute jams are predicted between J10 (Cobham Services) and J6 (Clacket Lane Services).
Saturday is expected to play host to delays on routes to the West Country, particularly on the A30 westbound towards Okehampton; the M5 southbound towards Bridgewater; and the A303 westbound by Stonehenge; this last area is a near-constant source of jams, though drivers may face delays of almost an hour there on Saturday.
Friday week (May 30) is also likely to see traffic levels 35% higher than usual as families return home from half-term breaks.
