Trunk A-road
A42 traffic and collisions
The A42 is a trunk A-road of 15.0 miles, in Leicestershire. This page covers its traffic at 6 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 305m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 55,706 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 67,172 B5006 to A511/A512
- HGV share 13.8% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 +6.0% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 29 2.0 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A42?
On an average day in 2025, 55,706 vehicles passed each point on the A42, counting both directions. The busiest section is B5006 to A511/A512 (Leicestershire), with 67,172 a day; the quietest listed is M1 to A453(T), with 17,385.
Busiest sections, 2025
B5006 to A511/A512 carries 1.2 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| B5006 to A511/A512 Leicestershire · 2.4 mi · HGVs 13.3% | 67,172 |
| M42 to B5006 Leicestershire · 3.6 mi · HGVs 13.9% | 59,479 |
| A511 to A453 Leicestershire · 5.0 mi · HGVs 14.0% | 54,649 |
| A453 to M1 Leicestershire · 3.2 mi · HGVs 13.8% | 54,608 |
| M1 to A453(T) Leicestershire · 0.5 mi · HGVs 11.1% | 17,385 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
In Leicestershire · 15.0 miles
A42 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 | A444 to M42Leicestershire | 11,896 | fewer than 3 |
| 2 | M42 to B5006Leicestershire | 59,479 | 5 |
| 3 | B5006 to A511/A512Leicestershire | 67,172 | 11 |
| 4 | A511 to A453Leicestershire | 54,649 | 9 |
| 5 | A453 to M1Leicestershire | 54,608 | 3 |
| 6 | M1 to A453(T)Leicestershire | 17,385 | 0 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A42 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.
A42 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 65.9% of the vehicle miles on the A42. HGVs account for 13.8%.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 15.4% |
| 2001 | 15.0% |
| 2002 | 15.4% |
| 2003 | 14.6% |
| 2004 | 15.1% |
| 2005 | 15.9% |
| 2006 | 16.3% |
| 2007 | 16.3% |
| 2008 | 14.5% |
| 2009 | 13.7% |
| 2010 | 13.5% |
| 2011 | 13.8% |
| 2012 | 14.6% |
| 2013 | 14.3% |
| 2014 | 13.8% |
| 2015 | 14.5% |
| 2016 | 14.4% |
| 2017 | 13.7% |
| 2018 | 13.8% |
| 2019 | 13.5% |
| 2020 | 16.8% |
| 2021 | 15.7% |
| 2022 | 14.0% |
| 2023 | 13.8% |
| 2024 | 14.1% |
| 2025 | 13.8% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A42 traffic trend
Traffic on the A42 came to 305 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is up 6.0% on 2019, before the pandemic, and up 10.5% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 13.7% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 265m |
| 2001 | 260m |
| 2002 | 261m |
| 2003 | 256m |
| 2004 | 257m |
| 2005 | 254m |
| 2006 | 252m |
| 2007 | 264m |
| 2008 | 248m |
| 2009 | 263m |
| 2010 | 262m |
| 2011 | 266m |
| 2012 | 243m |
| 2013 | 258m |
| 2014 | 267m |
| 2015 | 270m |
| 2016 | 280m |
| 2017 | 279m |
| 2018 | 281m |
| 2019 | 281m |
| 2020 | 223m |
| 2021 | 262m |
| 2022 | 299m |
| 2023 | 307m |
| 2024 | 298m |
| 2025 | 305m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 48,980 |
| 2001 | 48,125 |
| 2002 | 48,244 |
| 2003 | 47,462 |
| 2004 | 47,621 |
| 2005 | 47,004 |
| 2006 | 46,666 |
| 2007 | 48,849 |
| 2008 | 45,896 |
| 2009 | 48,704 |
| 2010 | 48,564 |
| 2011 | 49,176 |
| 2012 | 45,038 |
| 2013 | 47,686 |
| 2014 | 49,477 |
| 2015 | 49,920 |
| 2016 | 51,778 |
| 2017 | 51,633 |
| 2018 | 52,072 |
| 2019 | 52,094 |
| 2020 | 41,192 |
| 2021 | 47,908 |
| 2022 | 54,642 |
| 2023 | 55,979 |
| 2024 | 54,342 |
| 2025 | 55,706 |
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 (76.0% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 4 of the 6 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A42 collisions
Police recorded 29 collisions with the A42 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 14 of them fatal or serious. That is 2.0 per 100 million vehicle miles, lower than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 0.4 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Up 16.7% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 4 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2024 | 4 |
| 2025 | 7 |
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 |
|---|---|
| B5006 to A511/A512 Leicestershire · 11 collisions | 4.0 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 3 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A42 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 A42
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Leicestershire
Planned closures on the A42 in England
National Highways has 6 planned closures on the A42 between 16 September 2026 and 30 September 2026, all of them starting in that period. 4 close a carriageway rather than a lane or slip road, and 6 start between 7pm and 6am.
-
Carriageway M1 southbound Jct 23A exit slip road closure
-
Lane or slip A453 lane closure southbound
-
Carriageway M1 northbound Jct 23a entry slip road closure
-
Carriageway M1 northbound Jct 23a entry slip road closure
-
Carriageway M1 northbound Jct 23A to Jct 24 carriageway closure
1 more planned closure in this period are not shown.
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 | 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 | 29 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.
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