A-road
A296 traffic and collisions
The A296 is an A-road of 3.2 miles, in Kent. This page covers its traffic at 6 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 19m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 16,107 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 22,460 B2174 St James Lane roundabout to Bean Lane roundabout
- HGV share 1.7% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −8.4% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 51 57.0 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A296?
On an average day in 2025, 16,107 vehicles passed each point on the A296, counting both directions. The busiest section is B2174 St James Lane roundabout to Bean Lane roundabout (Kent), with 22,460 a day; the quietest listed is Bean Lane roundabout to A2, with 11,051.
Busiest sections, 2025
B2174 St James Lane roundabout to Bean Lane roundabout carries 1.4 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| B2174 St James Lane roundabout to Bean Lane roundabout Kent · 0.7 mi · HGVs 1.3% | 22,460 |
| A282(T) to B2500 Watling St roundabout Kent · 0.7 mi · HGVs 2.1% | 13,376 |
| Bean Lane roundabout to A2 Kent · 0.9 mi · HGVs 1.4% | 11,051 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
In Kent · 3.2 miles
A296 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 | A226 to A225Kent | 8,227 | 7 |
| 2 | A296 to A282(T)Kent | 33,472 | 11 |
| 3 | A282(T) to B2500 Watling St roundaboutKent | 13,376 | 8 |
| 4 | B2500 roundabout to B2174 St James LaneKent | 24,681 | 3 |
| 5 | B2174 St James Lane roundabout to Bean Lane roundaboutKent | 22,460 | 8 |
| 6 | Bean Lane roundabout to A2Kent | 11,051 | 14 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A296 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.
A296 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 82.9% of the vehicle miles on the A296. HGVs account for 1.7%.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 4.2% |
| 2001 | 4.1% |
| 2002 | 3.3% |
| 2003 | 3.2% |
| 2004 | 3.5% |
| 2005 | 3.8% |
| 2006 | 3.8% |
| 2007 | 3.7% |
| 2008 | 3.8% |
| 2009 | 2.6% |
| 2010 | 2.7% |
| 2011 | 2.7% |
| 2012 | 2.8% |
| 2013 | 4.0% |
| 2014 | 4.2% |
| 2015 | 4.1% |
| 2016 | 4.3% |
| 2017 | 4.3% |
| 2018 | 4.0% |
| 2019 | 4.1% |
| 2020 | 3.0% |
| 2021 | 3.0% |
| 2022 | 2.2% |
| 2023 | 2.1% |
| 2024 | 1.8% |
| 2025 | 1.7% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A296 traffic trend
Traffic on the A296 came to 18.8 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 8.4% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 5.0% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 9.5% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 17m |
| 2001 | 17m |
| 2002 | 20m |
| 2003 | 20m |
| 2004 | 21m |
| 2005 | 19m |
| 2006 | 19m |
| 2007 | 19m |
| 2008 | 19m |
| 2009 | 20m |
| 2010 | 19m |
| 2011 | 19m |
| 2012 | 19m |
| 2013 | 19m |
| 2014 | 20m |
| 2015 | 20m |
| 2016 | 20m |
| 2017 | 21m |
| 2018 | 20m |
| 2019 | 20m |
| 2020 | 16m |
| 2021 | 17m |
| 2022 | 17m |
| 2023 | 18m |
| 2024 | 19m |
| 2025 | 19m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 14,029 |
| 2001 | 13,769 |
| 2002 | 15,737 |
| 2003 | 16,257 |
| 2004 | 16,486 |
| 2005 | 15,553 |
| 2006 | 15,467 |
| 2007 | 15,343 |
| 2008 | 15,129 |
| 2009 | 16,133 |
| 2010 | 15,319 |
| 2011 | 15,320 |
| 2012 | 15,262 |
| 2013 | 15,475 |
| 2014 | 15,779 |
| 2015 | 15,939 |
| 2016 | 16,323 |
| 2017 | 16,514 |
| 2018 | 16,242 |
| 2019 | 16,254 |
| 2020 | 12,934 |
| 2021 | 14,461 |
| 2022 | 14,889 |
| 2023 | 15,193 |
| 2024 | 15,942 |
| 2025 | 16,107 |
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 (65.6% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 1 of the 6 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A296 collisions
Police recorded 51 collisions with the A296 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 8 of them fatal or serious. That is 57.0 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 3.2 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Up 11.1% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2023 | 12 |
| 2024 | 12 |
| 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 |
|---|---|
| Bean Lane roundabout to A2 Kent · 14 collisions | 75.4 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 12 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A296 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 A296
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Kent
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 | 6 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 51 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.