A1(M) Traffic Statistics
How much traffic does the A1(M) carry, and where? The A1(M) is not one motorway but four separate motorway sections of the A1, with ordinary A1 in between. This page gives the headline figures for the whole road and for each section, from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.
The headline numbers
| Measure | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Count points on the A1(M) | 86 |
| Average across all 86 count points | 55,755 vehicles a day |
| Busiest count point (J43 to J44, after the M1 joins) | 142,783 vehicles a day |
| Busiest stretch in Hertfordshire (J8 to J9) | 93,845 vehicles a day |
| Quietest full junction-to-junction stretch (J57 to J58) | 44,487 vehicles a day |
| Highest lorry share on the main line (J45 to J46) | 20.9% |
| Reported injury collisions | 256 over 2024 and 2025 |
The collision figure is 256 reported injury collisions over 2024 and 2025 (Department for Transport, STATS19). It covers the whole A1(M), all four sections, and counts collisions in which someone was injured and which were reported to the police.
The four sections compared
| Section | Length | Busiest main-line count | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junctions 1 to 10, Hertfordshire | 24.14 miles | 93,845 | J8 to J9 |
| Junctions 14 to 17, Peterborough | 12.84 miles | 84,283 | J16 to J17 |
| Junctions 34 to 38, Doncaster Bypass | 15.13 miles | 91,038 | J36 to J37 |
| Junctions 40 to 65, Yorkshire to Tyneside | 93.27 miles | 142,783 | J43 to J44 |
The northern section is by far the longest and holds the busiest point on the road. The single figure that stands out is 142,783 vehicles a day between Junctions 43 and 44, near Bramham. That is the stretch immediately after the M1 ends and its traffic merges into the A1(M), so it carries the flow of two major roads at once.
What an annual average daily flow means
Every figure here is an annual average daily flow: the motor vehicles using that A1(M) stretch in a year, shared out equally over its days, with the northbound and southbound carriageways taken together. Weekday peaks, quiet Sundays and holiday getaways are all smoothed into one number.
Some count points are counted on the road in that year; others are estimated from earlier counts and traffic trends. Both kinds appear on the A1(M). The busiest point, near Bramham, is a counted one.
Who uses which part
The mix of traffic changes sharply along the road. In Hertfordshire, lorries are about one vehicle in twenty. On the Doncaster Bypass and through North Yorkshire they are closer to one in six, and past Wetherby more than one in five. From Durham to Washington the share falls back below one in ten as local car traffic grows around Tyneside.
Look deeper
- How busy is the A1(M)? — every main-line stretch ranked from busiest to quietest.
- A1(M) lorry and freight traffic — where the heavy goods vehicles are.
- A1(M) maps — the same counts on each section page.
A note on duplicates
The Department for Transport sometimes records one stretch at two or three count points where it crosses a council boundary, each with the same figure, and it also counts many slip roads and junction links. Our tables show each main-line measurement once. Of the 86 count points, 24 are slips, spurs or junction links and are left out of the rankings; the average above includes them.
Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.