Trunk A-road
A162 traffic and collisions
The A162 is a trunk A-road of 16.5 miles, from Wakefield to North Yorkshire. This page covers its traffic at 11 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 71m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 11,715 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 18,676 M62 Junction 33 to A645
- HGV share 12.0% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −0.8% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 42 12.1 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A162?
On an average day in 2025, 11,715 vehicles passed each point on the A162, counting both directions. The busiest section is M62 Junction 33 to A645 (Wakefield), with 18,676 a day; the quietest listed is A1(T) to A63, with 6,145.
Busiest sections, 2025
M62 Junction 33 to A645 carries 1.6 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| M62 Junction 33 to A645 Wakefield · 0.7 mi · HGVs 9.8% | 18,676 |
| A645 to A1 spur Dish Hill Flyover Wakefield, North Yorkshire · 1.3 mi · HGVs 6.3% | 15,320 |
| A1(M) to M62 Wakefield · 1.3 mi · HGVs 17.2% | 13,932 |
| A63(T) to A612 spur North Yorkshire · 9.0 mi · HGVs 14.7% | 12,136 |
| A162 spur to A659 North Yorkshire · 0.5 mi · HGVs 4.2% | 7,130 |
| A1(T) to A63 North Yorkshire · 2.7 mi · HGVs 1.2% | 6,145 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Wakefield to North Yorkshire · 16.5 miles
A162 traffic and collisions by section
8 sections between junctions, in route order. Each is the average of its DfT count points, weighted by length. 2 short link roads and spurs (0.4 miles) count in the road’s totals but are not listed.
Sections Tap a column heading to sort
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A1(M) to M62Wakefield | 13,932 | 6 |
| 2 | M62 Junction 33 to A645Wakefield | 18,676 | 3 |
| 3 | A645 to M62 Junction 33Wakefield | 20,394 | fewer than 3 |
| 4 | A645 to A1 spur Dish Hill FlyoverWakefield, North Yorkshire | 15,320 | 6 |
| 5 | A1 main route to A162North Yorkshire | 6,145 | 0 |
| 6 | A1(T) to A63North Yorkshire | 6,145 | 3 |
| 7 | A63(T) to A612 spurNorth Yorkshire | 12,136 | 18 |
| 8 | A162 spur to A659North Yorkshire | 7,130 | fewer than 3 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A162 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.
A162 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 70.8% of the vehicle miles on the A162. HGVs account for 12.0%, rising to 17.2% on A1(M) to M62.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 10.3% |
| 2001 | 12.1% |
| 2002 | 13.0% |
| 2003 | 11.3% |
| 2004 | 12.9% |
| 2005 | 13.1% |
| 2006 | 13.1% |
| 2007 | 12.1% |
| 2008 | 13.4% |
| 2009 | 11.4% |
| 2010 | 11.1% |
| 2011 | 9.5% |
| 2012 | 9.5% |
| 2013 | 9.9% |
| 2014 | 9.7% |
| 2015 | 9.9% |
| 2016 | 9.9% |
| 2017 | 10.1% |
| 2018 | 13.7% |
| 2019 | 13.9% |
| 2020 | 16.5% |
| 2021 | 15.9% |
| 2022 | 13.0% |
| 2023 | 12.3% |
| 2024 | 12.0% |
| 2025 | 12.0% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A162 traffic trend
Traffic on the A162 came to 70.6 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 0.8% on 2019, before the pandemic, and up 21.5% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 31.3% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 36m |
| 2001 | 39m |
| 2002 | 39m |
| 2003 | 40m |
| 2004 | 36m |
| 2005 | 38m |
| 2006 | 68m |
| 2007 | 64m |
| 2008 | 75m |
| 2009 | 65m |
| 2010 | 64m |
| 2011 | 56m |
| 2012 | 56m |
| 2013 | 53m |
| 2014 | 55m |
| 2015 | 56m |
| 2016 | 57m |
| 2017 | 62m |
| 2018 | 73m |
| 2019 | 73m |
| 2020 | 56m |
| 2021 | 63m |
| 2022 | 71m |
| 2023 | 71m |
| 2024 | 72m |
| 2025 | 71m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 7,882 |
| 2001 | 8,480 |
| 2002 | 8,586 |
| 2003 | 8,705 |
| 2004 | 7,971 |
| 2005 | 8,217 |
| 2006 | 11,885 |
| 2007 | 11,092 |
| 2008 | 12,617 |
| 2009 | 10,941 |
| 2010 | 10,773 |
| 2011 | 9,417 |
| 2012 | 9,435 |
| 2013 | 8,990 |
| 2014 | 9,225 |
| 2015 | 9,448 |
| 2016 | 9,877 |
| 2017 | 10,388 |
| 2018 | 11,912 |
| 2019 | 11,961 |
| 2020 | 9,173 |
| 2021 | 10,289 |
| 2022 | 11,491 |
| 2023 | 11,629 |
| 2024 | 11,749 |
| 2025 | 11,715 |
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, 0 of the 11 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A162 collisions
Police recorded 42 collisions with the A162 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 15 of them fatal or serious. That is 12.1 per 100 million vehicle miles, lower than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 0.5 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Up 25.0% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 |
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 9 |
| 2024 | 10 |
| 2025 | 10 |
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 |
|---|---|
| A63(T) to A612 spur North Yorkshire · 18 collisions | 9.4 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 17 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A162 was the second road; they are not in the figures above. Fatal or serious uses DfT’s adjusted serious figures. How we count collisions
Council areas on the A162
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Wakefield
- North Yorkshire
Planned closures on the A162 in England
National Highways has 4 planned closures on the A162 between 16 September 2026 and 30 September 2026, all of them starting in that period., and 4 start between 7pm and 6am.
-
Lane or slip M62 eastbound Jct 33 exit slip lane 2 closure
-
Lane or slip M62 westbound Jct 33 exit slip lane 2 closure
-
Lane or slip M62 eastbound Jct 33 exit slip lane 2 closure
-
Lane or slip M62 westbound Jct 33 exit slip lane 2 closure
Planned closures only: National Highways can cancel or change them, and closures caused by incidents are not shown. Council roads in England are not covered. Roadworks and closures across the UK
Source:National Highways 2026-09-16 to 2026-09-30 Updated
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 | 11 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 42 reported collisions | 15 September 2026 |
| Planned closures | Transport Data Feeds (DATEX II) National Highways | 2026-09-16 to 2026-09-30 | 2,304 planned closure schemes | 16 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.
Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds