Wednesday 14 December 2016 9:22 am  |  Updated:  Tuesday 22 October 2019 5:17 pm

The worst days and routes to travel over Christmas and how to avoid them

By: Rebecca Smith

Everyone knows journeys can take a bit longer over the festive period, but there are some times you really don’t want to hit the road.

Transportation analytics firm INRIX has found that some trips on major routes will take around four times as long over Christmas compared to other times of the year and the busiest days on UK roads are expected to be Friday 16 December and Tuesday 20 December.

The Friday is expected to have the worst delays – peaking around 4pm, as travellers get a double whammy of Christmas traffic as well as the usual Friday peak evening wave of traffic. Throw into the mix a planned strike on Southern rail (talks are happening today in a bid to avoid this), and INRIX has forecast a higher number of vehicles taking to the roads in the south of England.

Read more: Plan to stop traffic moving through Bank junction set for Spring 2017

The worst affected roads are, as you’d expect, major motorways. Drivers on a 32-mile stretch of the M25 can expect delays of up to two hours 20 minutes both ways and an average speed of 11 miles per hour.

As for the 20 December, that’s expected to be the second worst day for delays as it’ll be the favoured day for people working into the final week before Christmas to take to the roads. There’s also another Southern rail strike planned for the day, just to add in another headache.

Delays are predicted to peak from 12.30pm to 1pm and then again at 4pm. The same 32-mile stretch of the M25 will see delays of up to 1 hour 10 minutes. Elsewhere, delays of approximately 55 minutes are expected on the A4, and 45 minutes on the M5 and M6. Congestion on the M60 will delay drivers by around 30 minutes.

Read more: More Britons will travel for Christmas and New Year than ever before

Highways England is trying to bring a bit of cheer to the proceedings: it’s intending to complete or lift 448 miles of roadworks between 6am on Friday 23 December and Tuesday 3 January, so 98 per cent of its 9,534 mile network will be free of roadworks over the festive period. Hooray!

The expected worst delays on 16 December (and how to avoid them)