Roads and transport are a huge topic of contention, not just in Greater Manchester, but across the country. It can ruin our day if the traffic is unexpectedly bad, or if temporary traffic lights pop up, not to mention the daily discovery of brand new potholes. Now, the Strategic Roads User Survey (SRUS) by independent watchdog Transport Focus has asked more than 9000 drivers about their last journey on a motorway or major ‘A’ road managed by National Highways.
Overall, 69% of road users were satisfised with their recent journey down from 71% last year, as satisfaction across all seven National Highways regions also fell with the decline being attributed to miles of roadworks to install emergency areas on smart motorways.
Impact of roadworks
Analysis of the data shows a key reason for the decline in overall satisfaction across England is the roadworks required to install more than 150 new emergency areas on smart motorways, as part of National Highways’ National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) programme.
National Highways completed the NEAR roadworks on time in March and there are promising early signs that satisfaction is recovering after completion of these safety improvements. While road users recognise this work was needed to install more places to safely stop in an emergency, the survey findings show they have felt the impact of the roadworks.
Greater Manchester’s M60 motorway ranked 18th on driver satisfaction
Despite the North West ranking second only to the South West for overall satisfaction, our very own M60 was named in 18th position – hardly leaving the region with a smile on our faces. With 65% satisfaction, the Manchester outer ring road is one of the lower-scored roads in the study, with complaints relating to difficulty joining traffic and closures due to roadworks – not least the Simister Island junction closure coming up.
Although the M60 ranked fairly poorly in the study, its M61 offshoot did pretty well, coming in at number 11 with 70% satisfaction. The branch heads north to Preston, through Bolton, Horwich and Chorley, linking to the M6, which happened to rank at number 14. The M62 came in at number 16, with 66%.
The highest and lowest rated motorways in the UK
The M40, which runs between London and Birmingham, retains its place as the highest rated motorway with 75% of drivers satisfied. Commenting on the M40 one driver said: “Nice and well-spaced service stations. Good road surface.” Another said: “Road surface was good, lighting was good, no road works or hold ups.”
The annual survey, which began in 2018, also ranks the M1 at the bottom of the table after just 57% of drivers said they were satisfied with their journey. In comparison, in last year’s survey overall satisfaction for drivers on the M1 was 69%, however drivers have reported less satisfaction with every aspect of their journey including road surface and journey time.
UK road satisfaction
- A30 — 85%
- A19 — 81%
- A14 — 76%
- M40 — 75%
- A38 — 75%
- A1(M) — 73%
- A1 — 72%
- A2 — 71%
- M5 — 71%
- A5 — 70%
- M61 — 70%
- M3 — 69%
- M11 — 69%
- M6 — 69%
- A46 — 69%
- M62 — 66%
- A3 — 66%
- M60 — 65%
- A12 — 63%
- A27 — 62%
- M42 — 62%
- M4 — 62%
- M25 — 60%
- M27 — 60%
- M1 — 57%
- A47 — 56%
National Highways regions ranking – overall satisfaction (previous year) %
- South West 75 (76)
- North West – 71 (73)
- East – 69 (71)
- Yorkshire and North East – 66 (71)
- Midlands – 66 (70)
- South East – 66 (70)
- M25 region – 63 (68)
