Motorway roadworks leads to decline in driver satisfaction in new survey

10 July 2025

• M1 rated England’s worst motorway in survey of more than 9000 drivers. 

• Decline in overall satisfaction attributed to miles of roadworks to install new emergency areas on smart motorways. 

• The M40, which runs between London and Birmingham, retains its place as the highest rated motorway. 

Extensive roadworks to add extra emergency areas to smart motorways has led to a drop in satisfaction with England’s motorways and major ‘A’ roads.

In its latest annual survey from the independent watchdog, Transport Focus, 69 per cent of road users were satisfied with their journey, a drop from 71 per cent last year.  

The Strategic Roads User Survey asked more than 9000 road users about their last journey on a motorway or major ‘A’ road managed by National Highways. 

Drivers rated the M1 as England’s worst motorway. The M1’s place at the bottom of the league table comes after just 57 per cent of drivers said they were satisfied with their journey (down from 69 per cent in 2023/24). Motorists on the M1 have faced miles of roadworks and 50mph average speed limits as extra smart motorway emergency areas were built. 

One respondent travelling on the M1 complained of “Miles of coned off road with little or no sign of actual work being done.” Another said: “Roadworks and average speed checks. M1 is a very difficult road to plan time wise.” 

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.  

Stretches of all lane running smart motorways with roadworks showed a steep drop in overall satisfaction during the retrofit roadworks (from 61 per cent in 2023/24 to 48 per cent in 2024/25). While the NEAR programme is now complete National Highways must consider how to consistently manage future roadworks to minimise the impact on road users. 

A number of drivers commented specifically on the management of the smart motorway emergency areas retrofit roadworks. The main issues raised related to the works taking a long time to complete and affecting long stretches of road, not seeing work being done or that they didn’t actually know what was being done. 

Ranked and rated: England’s best and worst motorways 

The M40, which runs between London and Birmingham, retains its place as the highest rated motorway with 75 per cent 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 A30 from Exeter to Penzance was rated the best ‘A’ road in England with the highest overall satisfaction at 85 per cent. On the A30 a driver said: “Recently upgraded to dual carriageway with new surfacing. Journey time improved.” 

The A47 received the lowest overall satisfaction rating from road users. A common cause of complaint was the surface of the road. One driver said: “Some parts of the road were in poor condition with evident potholes and gouges. Roundabouts were particularly poor.”
 

Louise Collins, Director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus said:  

“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.”
 

Key findings 

• Overall, 69 per cent of road users were satisfied with their journey, a drop from 71 per cent last year.   

• Management of roadworks continues to be one of the weaker performing areas with 46 per cent of those passing through roadworks on their journey satisfied, a drop from 49 per cent last year. 

• 67 per cent of road users were satisfied with journey time, this remains the aspect that has the greatest impact on overall satisfaction. 

• Journeys involving a smart motorway section continue to be rated lower for feeling safe (smart 75 per cent; not smart 83 per cent). 

• 68 per cent of drivers were satisfied with quality of the road surface with driver feedback citing the poor state of some roads and number of potholes as a key issue.   

• Only 55 per cent of lorry drivers were satisfied with their journey making them the least satisfied of all road users. 

• Regionally from the seven National Highways regions it was the South West that was the highest rated with an overall user satisfaction score of 75 per cent. The M25 region is lowest at 63 per cent.   
   

Smart motorway roadworks – what drivers say

Some who knew what work was being done were still dissatisfied. For example, one driver on the M3 said: “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 going to take months to complete.”

Another, who had driven on the M27 said: “There was not a single worker on site at all during the journey. The completion could be accelerated massively if they worked around the clock.”

The Strategic Roads User Survey is the formal measure of user satisfaction for those driving on England’s motorways and major ‘A’ roads; the roads managed by National Highways on behalf of the Government. The survey helps National Highways develop initiatives and target investments to improve the driver experience.
 

Background

In 2024/25 9419 people completed the Strategic Roads User Survey about their last journey using a motorway or major ‘A’ road managed by National Highways.  

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