UK’s worst motorway revealed as dreaded & ‘aggressive’ 117-mile road 200,000 drivers use EVERY day

NEARLY half of voters have agreed on the worst motorway in the UK – unsurprisingly in the capital.

The M25 has been crowned the UK’s most hated motorway by 40 per cent of drivers from a survey of 14,000 by AA.

PA:Press Association

Thousands of drivers in traffic jam on the M25[/caption]

It holds this title 12 years later, when the last poll was last conducted by the motoring organisation, with disdain from Britons even increasing towards it.

In 2013, 30% of respondents ranked the M25 at the bottom.

The 117-mile-long ring road, also known as the London Orbital Motorway, sees around 200,000 vehicles on its roads each day, making it the busiest motorway in the UK.

Head of roads policy at AA, Jack Cousens, said: “The M25 is notorious for its heavy traffic and frequent delays.

“As one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the country, it is no surprise that drivers find it frustrating.”

Beyond the heavy congestion, respondents also cited the “aggressive drivers changing several lanes impulsively, at speed, without indicating”, noise, and poor surface of the motorway.

Nine of the top ten worst ranked motorways contain ‘smart’ sections of road which have been converted in recent years.

With the purpose of using technology to manage traffic flow by employing varying speed limits and extra lanes, smart motorways instead often caused further stress for drivers, as well as long periods of roadworks.

Another respondent to the AA survey said: “Any smart motorway scares me.

“I count the miles until the end and heave a sigh of relief.”

Another survey recently done by the AA found a third of drivers feel significantly less safe on smart motoways than they did three years ago.

Following the M25 at the bottom of the ranks was the M6, from 21 per cent of respondents, then the M1 by 13 per cent.

The findings of this AA survey come just weeks after National Highways published its fourth Stocktake report on the safety of “smart” motorways.

It revealed a third of radar detection schemes which were tested failed to meet the standard requirement.

On a stretch of the M62, between J10 and J12, the motorway incident detection software was out of service for 28 days last August.

National Highways was forced to lower the speed limit for almost nien miles of the M62 until it was fixed.

As a result, there was an “unplanned” loss of safety through the “software fault” and it was unable to accurately use automated signalling software to detect broken down cars.