A-road
A128 traffic and collisions
The A128 is an A-road of 17.6 miles, from Essex to Thurrock. This page covers its traffic at 7 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 78m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 12,167 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 17,367 Running Waters,Brentwood to A127
- HGV share 3.6% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −11.4% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 144 36.6 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A128?
On an average day in 2025, 12,167 vehicles passed each point on the A128, counting both directions. The busiest section is Running Waters,Brentwood to A127 (Essex), with 17,367 a day; the quietest listed is A113 to Orchard Lane, with 5,924.
Busiest sections, 2025
Running Waters,Brentwood to A127 carries 1.4 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| Running Waters,Brentwood to A127 Essex · 3.0 mi · HGVs 1.4% | 17,367 |
| Orchard Lane to A1023 Essex · 1.7 mi · HGVs 1.7% | 16,847 |
| A414 to A113 Essex · 1.1 mi · HGVs 2.0% | 16,349 |
| A1023 to Running Waters Essex · 1.2 mi · HGVs 1.1% | 15,534 |
| A127 to A13 Essex, Thurrock · 5.8 mi · HGVs 7.8% | 11,782 |
| A113 to Orchard Lane Essex · 4.8 mi · HGVs 2.4% | 5,924 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Essex to Thurrock · 17.6 miles
A128 traffic and collisions by section
6 sections between junctions, in route order. Each is the average of its DfT count points, weighted by length.
Sections Tap a column heading to sort
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A414 to A113Essex | 16,349 | 14 |
| 2 | A113 to Orchard LaneEssex | 5,924 | 28 |
| 3 | Orchard Lane to A1023Essex | 16,847 | 33 |
| 4 | A1023 to Running WatersEssex | 15,534 | 10 |
| 5 | Running Waters,Brentwood to A127Essex | 17,367 | 26 |
| 6 | A127 to A13Essex, Thurrock | 11,782 | 33 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A128 as the first road, placed on the nearest section by their recorded position; rates (per 100 million vehicle miles) are shown for sections of half a mile or more with 10 or more.
A128 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 78.9% of the vehicle miles on the A128. HGVs account for 3.6%, rising to 7.8% on A127 to A13.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 4.9% |
| 2001 | 4.6% |
| 2002 | 5.6% |
| 2003 | 5.6% |
| 2004 | 6.4% |
| 2005 | 6.1% |
| 2006 | 7.0% |
| 2007 | 5.6% |
| 2008 | 5.0% |
| 2009 | 4.6% |
| 2010 | 4.5% |
| 2011 | 4.5% |
| 2012 | 4.3% |
| 2013 | 4.4% |
| 2014 | 4.2% |
| 2015 | 4.2% |
| 2016 | 3.9% |
| 2017 | 4.4% |
| 2018 | 4.5% |
| 2019 | 4.5% |
| 2020 | 5.3% |
| 2021 | 4.3% |
| 2022 | 4.1% |
| 2023 | 3.8% |
| 2024 | 3.7% |
| 2025 | 3.6% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A128 traffic trend
Traffic on the A128 came to 78.2 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 11.4% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 8.4% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is down 10.4% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 86m |
| 2001 | 86m |
| 2002 | 87m |
| 2003 | 86m |
| 2004 | 85m |
| 2005 | 87m |
| 2006 | 88m |
| 2007 | 92m |
| 2008 | 86m |
| 2009 | 87m |
| 2010 | 84m |
| 2011 | 84m |
| 2012 | 79m |
| 2013 | 79m |
| 2014 | 81m |
| 2015 | 84m |
| 2016 | 88m |
| 2017 | 86m |
| 2018 | 89m |
| 2019 | 89m |
| 2020 | 68m |
| 2021 | 74m |
| 2022 | 80m |
| 2023 | 82m |
| 2024 | 80m |
| 2025 | 78m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 13,664 |
| 2001 | 13,622 |
| 2002 | 13,817 |
| 2003 | 13,724 |
| 2004 | 13,597 |
| 2005 | 13,882 |
| 2006 | 13,936 |
| 2007 | 14,691 |
| 2008 | 13,721 |
| 2009 | 13,815 |
| 2010 | 13,347 |
| 2011 | 13,391 |
| 2012 | 12,581 |
| 2013 | 12,587 |
| 2014 | 12,961 |
| 2015 | 13,382 |
| 2016 | 13,942 |
| 2017 | 13,742 |
| 2018 | 13,815 |
| 2019 | 13,860 |
| 2020 | 10,575 |
| 2021 | 11,529 |
| 2022 | 12,417 |
| 2023 | 12,679 |
| 2024 | 12,523 |
| 2025 | 12,167 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
The chart counts the whole road as it was each year, so new or renumbered stretches move it. The percentage changes compare only count points present in both years. In 2025, 1 of the 7 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A128 collisions
Police recorded 144 collisions with the A128 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 41 of them fatal or serious. That is 36.6 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 1.6 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 41.9% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Slight | Fatal or serious |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31 | 12 |
| 2022 | 24 | 9 |
| 2023 | 19 | 4 |
| 2024 | 15 | 5 |
| 2025 | 14 | 11 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
Sections with the highest collision rates
Per 100 million vehicle miles, 2021 to 2025. Sections of half a mile or more with 10 or more collisions.
| Section | Per 100m vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| Orchard Lane to A1023 Essex · 33 collisions | 66.8 |
| A113 to Orchard Lane Essex · 28 collisions | 49.2 |
| A414 to A113 Essex · 14 collisions | 44.4 |
| A127 to A13 Essex, Thurrock · 33 collisions | 32.3 |
| A1023 to Running Waters Essex · 10 collisions | 30.5 |
| Running Waters,Brentwood to A127 Essex · 26 collisions | 25.2 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 15 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A128 was the second road; they are not in the figures above. Fatal or serious uses DfT’s adjusted serious figures. 100.0% of the collisions could be placed on a section. How we count collisions
Council areas on the A128
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Essex
- Thurrock
Data sources and methodology
| Figures | Source | Period | Records | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic counts and vehicle mix | Road traffic statistics (AADF by count point) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2000 to 2025 | 7 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 144 reported collisions | 15 September 2026 |
- Annual average daily flow (AADF) is the average number of vehicles passing a point on a typical day of the year, both directions combined.
- Vehicle miles are AADF multiplied by link length and 365, summed over every count point link on the road.
- Sections join count point links between junctions, using the link lines in DfT’s major road database.
- STATS19 covers personal injury collisions reported to the police. Damage-only collisions are not included, and not every injury collision is reported.
- Serious and slight figures are DfT’s adjusted estimates, which allow for police forces moving to injury-based reporting.
- Counts of one or two collisions below Great Britain level are shown as “fewer than 3”.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.