A-road
A5038 traffic and collisions
The A5038 is an A-road of 6.9 miles, from Liverpool to Sefton. This page covers its traffic at 20 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 36m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 14,198 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 25,344 A566 to A5036
- HGV share 2.0% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −3.2% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 140 79.4 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A5038?
On an average day in 2025, 14,198 vehicles passed each point on the A5038, counting both directions. The busiest section is A566 to A5036 (Sefton), with 25,344 a day; the quietest listed is A561/A562 to A5039, with 8,095.
Busiest sections, 2025
A566 to A5036 carries 1.8 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A566 to A5036 Sefton · 1.1 mi · HGVs 1.8% | 25,344 |
| A5058 to A5098 Sefton · 0.6 mi · HGVs 2.1% | 25,138 |
| A5090 to A5058 Liverpool, Sefton · 0.5 mi · HGVs 3.0% | 16,696 |
| A567 to A5090 Liverpool · 0.6 mi · HGVs 2.9% | 15,073 |
| A5053 to A5054 Liverpool · 0.9 mi · HGVs 1.6% | 10,377 |
| A561/A562 to A5039 Liverpool · 0.5 mi · HGVs 1.2% | 8,095 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Liverpool to Sefton · 6.9 miles
A5038 traffic and collisions by section
17 sections between junctions, in route order. Each is the average of its DfT count points, weighted by length. 2 short link roads and spurs (0.5 miles) count in the road’s totals but are not listed.
Show all 17 sections Tap a column heading to sort
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A561/A562 to A5039Liverpool | 8,095 | 27 |
| 2 | A5039 to A5038 Ranelagh StLiverpool | 7,615 | 6 |
| 3 | Great Charlotte Street to A5040 Hood StreetLiverpool | 3,266 | 30 |
| 4 | Roe Street to London RoadLiverpool | 4,678 | 14 |
| 5 | A59 to A5040Liverpool | 4,779 | 0 |
| 6 | A57/Cross Hall Street Junction to Victoria Street/Cross Hall Street JunctionLiverpool | 2,459 | fewer than 3 |
| 7 | A57 to A5046Liverpool | 2,184 | 0 |
| 8 | A5046 to A5053Liverpool | 5,464 | fewer than 3 |
| 9 | A5053 to A5054Liverpool | 10,377 | 3 |
| 10 | A5054 to A5055Liverpool | 10,560 | 6 |
| 11 | A5055 to A567Liverpool | 9,758 | 3 |
| 12 | A567 to A5090Liverpool | 15,073 | 6 |
| 13 | A5090 to A5038 Selwyn StLiverpool | 17,350 | 0 |
| 14 | A5090 to A5058Liverpool, Sefton | 16,696 | 6 |
| 15 | A5058 to A5098Sefton | 25,138 | 9 |
| 16 | A5098 to A566Sefton | 25,786 | 5 |
| 17 | A566 to A5036Sefton | 25,344 | 16 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A5038 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.
A5038 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 80.8% of the vehicle miles on the A5038. HGVs account for 2.0%.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 3.1% |
| 2001 | 3.1% |
| 2002 | 3.0% |
| 2003 | 2.8% |
| 2004 | 3.0% |
| 2005 | 2.9% |
| 2006 | 2.8% |
| 2007 | 2.5% |
| 2008 | 2.5% |
| 2009 | 2.1% |
| 2010 | 2.2% |
| 2011 | 2.2% |
| 2012 | 2.2% |
| 2013 | 2.2% |
| 2014 | 2.2% |
| 2015 | 2.2% |
| 2016 | 2.1% |
| 2017 | 2.1% |
| 2018 | 2.1% |
| 2019 | 2.2% |
| 2020 | 2.5% |
| 2021 | 2.3% |
| 2022 | 2.2% |
| 2023 | 2.2% |
| 2024 | 2.1% |
| 2025 | 2.0% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A5038 traffic trend
Traffic on the A5038 came to 35.8 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 3.2% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 0.8% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is down 6.6% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 40m |
| 2001 | 40m |
| 2002 | 39m |
| 2003 | 40m |
| 2004 | 40m |
| 2005 | 39m |
| 2006 | 39m |
| 2007 | 39m |
| 2008 | 39m |
| 2009 | 39m |
| 2010 | 41m |
| 2011 | 40m |
| 2012 | 37m |
| 2013 | 37m |
| 2014 | 37m |
| 2015 | 38m |
| 2016 | 38m |
| 2017 | 38m |
| 2018 | 37m |
| 2019 | 38m |
| 2020 | 31m |
| 2021 | 33m |
| 2022 | 36m |
| 2023 | 36m |
| 2024 | 35m |
| 2025 | 36m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 16,207 |
| 2001 | 16,480 |
| 2002 | 16,260 |
| 2003 | 16,420 |
| 2004 | 16,560 |
| 2005 | 16,228 |
| 2006 | 15,965 |
| 2007 | 16,335 |
| 2008 | 16,047 |
| 2009 | 16,353 |
| 2010 | 16,373 |
| 2011 | 16,159 |
| 2012 | 14,915 |
| 2013 | 14,727 |
| 2014 | 15,028 |
| 2015 | 15,114 |
| 2016 | 15,178 |
| 2017 | 15,190 |
| 2018 | 15,065 |
| 2019 | 15,366 |
| 2020 | 12,272 |
| 2021 | 13,467 |
| 2022 | 14,340 |
| 2023 | 14,595 |
| 2024 | 14,061 |
| 2025 | 14,198 |
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 (89.9% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 4 of the 20 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A5038 collisions
Police recorded 140 collisions with the A5038 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 45 of them fatal or serious, including 4 fatal. That is 79.4 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 4.1 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 16.7% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Slight | Fatal or serious |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 24 | 12 |
| 2022 | 15 | 7 |
| 2023 | 20 | 9 |
| 2024 | 15 | 8 |
| 2025 | 21 | 9 |
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 |
|---|---|
| A561/A562 to A5039 Liverpool · 27 collisions | 360.2 |
| A566 to A5036 Sefton · 16 collisions | 32.5 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 38 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A5038 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 A5038
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Liverpool
- Sefton
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 | 140 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.