Making things plain: drivers rate their satisfaction with the strategic road network

04 July 2019

Drivers using the A19 through North Yorkshire, Teeside and County Durham were the most satisfied (95 per cent) road users across the strategic road network in the year to 31 March 2018. They gave the best motorway gong (92 per cent overall satisfaction) to the M11 between London to Cambridge and the wooden spoon for least loved routes to three motorways (M20, M6 and M25) and two major ‘A’ roads (A34 and the A52).

Results out today from our new Strategic Roads User Survey (SRUS) offers the most significant and robust picture ever of driver satisfaction on the motorways and major ‘A’ roads maintained by Highways England. There is real detail in this survey – at both a regional and an individual road level – about the experience of all drivers, whether in cars, vans, lorries, coaches or on a motorbike.

One region stands out among the rest – Yorkshire and the North East, which tops the satisfaction ranking for several important ‘drivers of road user satisfaction’: journey time, road surface quality, road works management, and feeling safe. Quite why that part of the world earns all those accolades is worthy of reflection, it cannot all be down to having fewer roadworks, less overall traffic and fabulous scenery.

For Highways England, SRUS is a real departure. It gathers insight from interviews from over 8500 road users across the motorway and major ‘A’ road network managed by them. The results it generates – housed on the Transport Focus Data Hub –  provide a wealth of data about customer satisfaction  at individual road, regional and national level.  Most important of all, SRUS shows where Highways England needs to prioritise improvements and can change the way it works in order to improve the driving experience. What’s more, anyone from a fleet manager to a leisure driver can access and explore the data using comparison tools that are easy to use.

For a vivid summary, scroll through the maps on the report. For a more detailed visit dip into the data hub; you might be surprised by what one can learn.