England’s worst motorway has been revealed in a new survey which also finds that overall driver satisfaction has declined over the last year.
The M1 is officially the country’s least-favourite motorway, with just 57 per cent of drivers satisfied with their journey on the road.
Motorists have faced miles of roadworks and 50mph speed limits on the M1 due to the construction of smart motorway emergency areas.
A survey respondent moans: ‘Miles of coned off road with little or no sign of actual work being done’ while another driver says: ‘Roadworks and average speed checks. M1 is a very difficult road to plan time wise.’
Roadworks are a consistent issue across England’s motorways with only 69 per cent of drivers overall satisfied with their journey, a two per cent fall from last year.
Transport Focus’ Strategic Roads User Survey finds that although road users ‘recognise’ that the emergency areas are needed, they have felt ‘the impact of roadworks’.
A driver on the M3 complains: ‘Speed restrictions on 15-mile section of road for refuge area work.
‘This causes massive delays as traffic queues for the M25. Why close off such a long section of road when it’s going to take months to complete.’
The M1 is officially the country’s least favourite motorway with just 57 per cent of drivers satisfied with their journey on the road
Motorists have faced miles of roadworks and 50mph speed limits on the M1 due to the construction of smart motorway emergency areas
Meanwhile, an M27 driver rages that there wasn’t a ‘single worker on site at all during the journey’.
They add: ‘The completion could be accelerated massively if they worked around the clock.’
The A47 received the lowest A road rating overall with just 56 per cent of road users satisfied with their experience.
A road user says: ‘Some parts of the road were in poor condition with evident potholes and gouges. Roundabouts were particularly poor.’
At the other end of the scale, the A30 from Exeter to Penzance is rated as England’s best road.
‘Recently upgraded to dual carriageway with new surfacing. Journey time improved,’ says one happy road user.
The South West is rated the best of England’s seven National Highways regions with the M25 region at the bottom of the table.
Lorry drivers are the most unhappy on the road with only 55 per cent happy with their journey.
Roadworks are a consistent issue across England’s motorways with only 69 per cent of drivers overall satisfied with their journey, a two per cent fall from last year
| Rank | Road | Satisfaction Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A47 | 56% |
| 2 | M1 | 57% |
| 3 | M27 | 60% |
| 4 | M25 | 60% |
| 5 | M4 | 62% |
| 6 | M42 | 62% |
| 7 | A27 | 62% |
| 8 | A12 | 63% |
| 9 | M60 | 65% |
| 10 | A3 | 66% |
Transport Focus’ Strategic Roads User Survey finds that although road users ‘recognise’ that the emergency areas are needed, they have felt ‘the impact of roadworks’
Louise Collins, director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus says: ‘Long stretches of roadworks, sometimes one after another, and miles of cones have had a significant impact on road user satisfaction with England’s motorways, with a disappointing downward trend over the past couple of years.
‘While roadworks are necessary to help maintain roads and drive improvements in user experience, the decrease in road user satisfaction reinforces the importance of National Highways learning the lessons from the smart motorway emergency area retrofit programme.
‘We’ll be working with National Highways to help them use these survey findings as they plan future roadworks to make sure the impact on users is minimised.’
National Highways finished its installation of emergency areas in March with Transport Focus reporting there are ‘early signs’ that satisfaction is recovering after the completion of the works.
A National Highways spokesperson said: ‘Installing more than 150 extra motorway emergency areas was a commitment made by the previous government in 2022, with a stretching deadline of Spring 2025, to support drivers’ confidence whilst travelling on smart motorways.
‘We successfully completed this work in March, delivering around five years’ worth of work in just over three.
‘Drivers should now experience fewer delays and the M1 is now entirely free of major roadworks for the first time since 2008.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .