Trunk A-road
A4280 traffic and collisions
The A4280 is a trunk A-road of 7.2 miles, in Bedford. This page covers its traffic at 14 DfT count points since 2016 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 48m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 18,290 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 26,414 A5140
- HGV share 2.4% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −5.2% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 85 39.5 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A4280?
On an average day in 2025, 18,290 vehicles passed each point on the A4280, counting both directions. The busiest section is A5140 (Bedford), with 26,414 a day; the quietest listed is A5140 to Kimbolton Road roundabout, with 12,006.
Busiest sections, 2025
A5140 carries 1.4 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A5140 Bedford · 2.7 mi · HGVs 3.5% | 26,414 |
| A5141 to Deep Spinney, Great Denham Bedford · 1.5 mi · HGVs 0.5% | 16,252 |
| A5140 to Kimbolton Road roundabout Bedford · 1.0 mi · HGVs 1.5% | 12,006 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2016 to 2025 Updated
Route
In Bedford · 7.2 miles
A4280 traffic and collisions by section
9 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 | Count point 92173Bedford | 8,028 | fewer than 3 |
| 2 | A5140Bedford | 26,414 | 21 |
| 3 | A5140 to Kimbolton Road roundaboutBedford | 12,006 | 17 |
| 4 | Kimbolton Road roundabout to A6Bedford | 17,136 | 12 |
| 5 | High St to Harpur StBedford | 10,216 | 4 |
| 6 | Harpur St to A6Bedford | 12,114 | 6 |
| 7 | A6 to A5141Bedford | 12,023 | 4 |
| 8 | A5141 to Deep Spinney, Great DenhamBedford | 16,252 | 14 |
| 9 | Deep Spinney, Great Denham to A428Bedford | 16,252 | 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 A4280 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.
A4280 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 84.6% of the vehicle miles on the A4280. HGVs account for 2.4%, rising to 3.5% on A5140.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2016 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 2.6% |
| 2017 | 2.3% |
| 2018 | 2.4% |
| 2019 | 2.0% |
| 2020 | 2.7% |
| 2021 | 2.8% |
| 2022 | 2.7% |
| 2023 | 2.5% |
| 2024 | 2.5% |
| 2025 | 2.4% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2016 to 2025 Updated
A4280 traffic trend
Traffic on the A4280 came to 48.1 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 5.2% on 2019, before the pandemic.
Vehicle miles a year
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 38m |
| 2017 | 42m |
| 2018 | 42m |
| 2019 | 38m |
| 2020 | 35m |
| 2021 | 39m |
| 2022 | 42m |
| 2023 | 43m |
| 2024 | 44m |
| 2025 | 48m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2016 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 18,018 |
| 2017 | 17,887 |
| 2018 | 17,766 |
| 2019 | 16,123 |
| 2020 | 13,433 |
| 2021 | 14,840 |
| 2022 | 15,939 |
| 2023 | 16,322 |
| 2024 | 16,544 |
| 2025 | 18,290 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2016 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 (52.8% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 4 of the 14 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A4280 collisions
Police recorded 85 collisions with the A4280 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 14 of them fatal or serious. That is 39.5 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 2.4 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 31.6% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 |
| 2022 | 19 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 14 |
| 2025 | 13 |
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 |
|---|---|
| A5140 to Kimbolton Road roundabout Bedford · 17 collisions | 80.1 |
| A5141 to Deep Spinney, Great Denham Bedford · 14 collisions | 32.5 |
| A5140 Bedford · 21 collisions | 19.2 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 26 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A4280 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 A4280
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Bedford
Planned closures on the A4280 in England
National Highways has 5 planned closures on the A4280 between 16 September 2026 and 30 September 2026, all of them starting in that period. 5 close a carriageway rather than a lane or slip road, and 5 start between 7pm and 6am.
-
Carriageway A1 northbound Black Cat Roundabout to Wyboston carriageway closure
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Carriageway A421 eastbound Water End Interchange to Black Cat Roundabout carriageway closure
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Carriageway A1 northbound Tempsford to Black Cat Roundabout carriageway closure
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Carriageway A1 northbound Black Cat Roundabout to Wyboston 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 | 2016 to 2025 | 14 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 85 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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