A-road
A186 traffic and collisions
The A186 is an A-road of 13.9 miles, from Newcastle upon Tyne to North Tyneside. This page covers its traffic at 20 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 70m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 13,835 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 23,315 A19 to A192
- HGV share 1.3% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −6.5% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 257 74.5 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A186?
On an average day in 2025, 13,835 vehicles passed each point on the A186, counting both directions. The busiest section is A19 to A192 (North Tyneside), with 23,315 a day; the quietest listed is B1314 to A187, with 9,461.
Busiest sections, 2025
A19 to A192 carries 1.7 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A19 to A192 North Tyneside · 2.4 mi · HGVs 0.4% | 23,315 |
| A1058 Coast Road to A191 Whitley Road North Tyneside · 1.2 mi · HGVs 1.1% | 16,944 |
| A191 to A189 Newcastle upon Tyne · 2.6 mi · HGVs 0.7% | 14,135 |
| At A186 Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside · 0.5 mi · HGVs 2.8% | 10,879 |
| A193 to A1058 North Tyneside · 0.8 mi · HGVs 1.0% | 10,623 |
| A167(M) to B1314 Newcastle upon Tyne · 2.1 mi · HGVs 3.0% | 9,972 |
| B1314 to A187 Newcastle upon Tyne · 2.2 mi · HGVs 3.0% | 9,461 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Newcastle upon Tyne to North Tyneside · 13.9 miles
A186 traffic and collisions by section
14 sections between junctions, in route order. Each is the average of its DfT count points, weighted by length. 5 short link roads and spurs (0.7 miles) count in the road’s totals but are not listed.
Sections Tap a column heading to sort
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A1(T) to A191Newcastle upon Tyne | 25,294 | 14 |
| 2 | A191 to A189Newcastle upon Tyne | 14,135 | 80 |
| 3 | A189 Blenheim St to A189 Bath LaneNewcastle upon Tyne | 5,188 | 0 |
| 4 | Bath Lane to A186 Clayton St WestNewcastle upon Tyne | 5,188 | 0 |
| 5 | Clayton Street to Neville StreetNewcastle upon Tyne | 5,153 | 4 |
| 6 | Near Stephenson's Monument to St Nicholas StreetNewcastle upon Tyne | 7,767 | 8 |
| 7 | B1307 to A167(M)Newcastle upon Tyne | 16,874 | 26 |
| 8 | A167(M) to B1314Newcastle upon Tyne | 9,972 | 28 |
| 9 | B1314 to A187Newcastle upon Tyne | 9,461 | 16 |
| 10 | At A186Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside | 10,879 | 3 |
| 11 | A187 to A193North Tyneside | 4,637 | 4 |
| 12 | A193 to A1058North Tyneside | 10,623 | 16 |
| 13 | A1058 Coast Road to A191 Whitley RoadNorth Tyneside | 16,944 | 14 |
| 14 | A19 to A192North Tyneside | 23,315 | 14 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A186 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.
A186 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 83.6% of the vehicle miles on the A186. HGVs account for 1.3%, rising to 3.0% on A167(M) to B1314.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 3.2% |
| 2001 | 3.1% |
| 2002 | 2.7% |
| 2003 | 2.4% |
| 2004 | 2.8% |
| 2005 | 3.0% |
| 2006 | 2.7% |
| 2007 | 2.6% |
| 2008 | 2.5% |
| 2009 | 2.6% |
| 2010 | 2.1% |
| 2011 | 2.2% |
| 2012 | 2.3% |
| 2013 | 2.3% |
| 2014 | 2.3% |
| 2015 | 2.2% |
| 2016 | 2.1% |
| 2017 | 1.9% |
| 2018 | 1.8% |
| 2019 | 1.9% |
| 2020 | 2.0% |
| 2021 | 2.0% |
| 2022 | 1.9% |
| 2023 | 1.9% |
| 2024 | 1.4% |
| 2025 | 1.3% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A186 traffic trend
Traffic on the A186 came to 70.2 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 6.5% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 12.8% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is down 8.0% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 61m |
| 2001 | 65m |
| 2002 | 64m |
| 2003 | 63m |
| 2004 | 64m |
| 2005 | 63m |
| 2006 | 62m |
| 2007 | 63m |
| 2008 | 63m |
| 2009 | 61m |
| 2010 | 67m |
| 2011 | 68m |
| 2012 | 69m |
| 2013 | 69m |
| 2014 | 71m |
| 2015 | 73m |
| 2016 | 74m |
| 2017 | 71m |
| 2018 | 75m |
| 2019 | 77m |
| 2020 | 61m |
| 2021 | 67m |
| 2022 | 71m |
| 2023 | 67m |
| 2024 | 70m |
| 2025 | 70m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 13,496 |
| 2001 | 14,508 |
| 2002 | 14,293 |
| 2003 | 14,231 |
| 2004 | 14,295 |
| 2005 | 13,955 |
| 2006 | 13,578 |
| 2007 | 13,895 |
| 2008 | 14,012 |
| 2009 | 13,288 |
| 2010 | 14,548 |
| 2011 | 14,843 |
| 2012 | 14,967 |
| 2013 | 14,957 |
| 2014 | 15,385 |
| 2015 | 15,759 |
| 2016 | 15,679 |
| 2017 | 15,039 |
| 2018 | 15,012 |
| 2019 | 14,921 |
| 2020 | 11,900 |
| 2021 | 13,069 |
| 2022 | 13,932 |
| 2023 | 13,259 |
| 2024 | 13,726 |
| 2025 | 13,835 |
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 (86.3% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 3 of the 20 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A186 collisions
Police recorded 257 collisions with the A186 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 66 of them fatal or serious, including 5 fatal. That is 74.5 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 3.7 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Up 3.8% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Slight | Fatal or serious |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 42 | 10 |
| 2022 | 47 | 17 |
| 2023 | 29 | 16 |
| 2024 | 31 | 11 |
| 2025 | 42 | 12 |
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 |
|---|---|
| A191 to A189 Newcastle upon Tyne · 80 collisions | 127.2 |
| A193 to A1058 North Tyneside · 16 collisions | 118.2 |
| A167(M) to B1314 Newcastle upon Tyne · 28 collisions | 74.4 |
| A1058 Coast Road to A191 Whitley Road North Tyneside · 14 collisions | 47.3 |
| B1314 to A187 Newcastle upon Tyne · 16 collisions | 45.0 |
| A19 to A192 North Tyneside · 14 collisions | 13.4 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 49 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A186 was the second road; they are not in the figures above. Fatal or serious uses DfT’s adjusted serious figures. 88.3% of the collisions could be placed on a section. How we count collisions
Council areas on the A186
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
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 | 20 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 257 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.