As we gear up for a long Bank Holiday weekend, the inevitable trip down the motorway will be made by millions of drivers, but motorists are being warned to avoid certain parts of the road network.

Estimates from the RAC and INRIX suggests that there will be 12 million leisure car journeys from Friday to Monday, with Good Friday traffic hitting the peak and causing drivers to spend an additional hour in their car on average.

The M62 in the North West of England is expected to be the UK’s busiest road with the journey from junction 27 to junction 18 taking 85 minutes if hit at the peak time of 12.45pm, 56 minutes longer than can normally be expected.

The North West is not likely to be a happy place for drivers on Good Friday, with the M6 from junction 31 to junction 34 also likely to be busier than normal as drivers head for the Lake District and beyond. The M25 will also see delays right throughout the Easter weekend, in both directions while the M6 will take further hammer on Easter Monday as all the traffic returns from the break, with peak time expected to be 6pm.

Dan Croft, Incident Group Operations Manager at INRIX, said: “Drivers in the UK are all too familiar with traffic jams.

"In fact, the average UK driver lost more than 170 hours to congestion last year. During peak hours over Easter, journeys could take UK drivers three times longer than usual.

"We are predicting Good Friday will be the worst for traffic from late morning into the afternoon.

"For drivers looking to avoid the worst congestion, the best options are to travel on Saturday, set off early in the morning and keep updated with real-time traffic data.”

With temperatures rising to above 20 Celsius across many areas of the UK, the likelihood of drivers heading for the coast to get some sunshine could increase the traffic on the roads.

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