A-road

A5085 traffic and collisions

The A5085 is an A-road of 5.2 miles, in Lancashire. This page covers its traffic at 5 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.

Last updated
Records analysed
5 count points in 2025
Methodology
View methodology
  • Traffic in 2025 29m vehicle miles
  • Average daily traffic 15,431 vehicles a day, both directions
  • Busiest section 18,603 A6 to A5072
  • HGV share 1.0% of vehicle miles
  • Traffic since 2019 −9.5% same count points
  • Collisions, 2021 to 2025 114 76.6 per 100m vehicle miles

How busy is the A5085?

On an average day in 2025, 15,431 vehicles passed each point on the A5085, counting both directions. The busiest section is A6 to A5072 (Lancashire), with 18,603 a day; the quietest listed is A582/A5085 intersection to A5072/A5083 intersection, with 13,169.

Busiest sections, 2025

A6 to A5072 carries 1.2 times the road’s average flow.

Sections of the A5085 with the highest average daily flow, 2025
Section Vehicles a day
A6 to A5072 Lancashire · 1.3 mi · HGVs 0.8% 18,603
A6063 to A6 Lancashire · 0.7 mi · HGVs 1.2% 17,422
B6243 to A6063 Lancashire · 0.9 mi · HGVs 0.8% 15,046
A582/A5085 intersection to A5072/A5083 intersection Lancashire · 1.9 mi · HGVs 0.7% 13,169

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

Route

In Lancashire · 5.2 miles

Lancashire
Schematic route: each line joins the junctions at the ends of a DfT count point link.

A5085 traffic and collisions by section

5 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
Sections of the A5085 in route order, 2025 traffic
#
1A59 to B6243Lancashire0.413,2512.6%−5.1%15
2B6243 to A6063Lancashire0.915,0460.8%−10.8%26106.1
3A6063 to A6Lancashire0.717,4221.2%+4.1%4
4A6 to A5072Lancashire1.318,6030.8%−15.3%4492.7
5A582/A5085 intersection to A5072/A5083 intersectionLancashire1.913,1690.7%25128.8

Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A5085 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.

A5085 traffic by vehicle type

Cars and taxis make up 86.2% of the vehicle miles on the A5085. HGVs account for 1.0%.

Vehicle mix, 2025

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

HGV share of traffic

HGVs as a share of vehicle miles on the A5085, by year
Year HGV share
2000 3.7%
2001 3.8%
2002 3.6%
2003 3.8%
2004 4.1%
2005 4.3%
2006 4.3%
2007 4.1%
2008 3.5%
2009 3.3%
2010 3.2%
2011 2.5%
2012 2.6%
2013 2.6%
2014 2.6%
2015 2.2%
2016 1.9%
2017 1.6%
2018 1.6%
2019 1.5%
2020 2.0%
2021 2.0%
2022 2.1%
2023 1.8%
2024 1.3%
2025 1.0%

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

A5085 traffic trend

Traffic on the A5085 came to 29.3 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 9.5% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 10.9% on 2015.

Vehicle miles a year

Like for like, traffic is down 8.7% on 2000.

Vehicle miles on the A5085 each year, the whole road as it was that year
Year Vehicle miles
2000 31m
2001 32m
2002 35m
2003 35m
2004 35m
2005 34m
2006 33m
2007 33m
2008 33m
2009 33m
2010 33m
2011 33m
2012 32m
2013 32m
2014 33m
2015 33m
2016 34m
2017 32m
2018 31m
2019 31m
2020 25m
2021 27m
2022 31m
2023 31m
2024 30m
2025 29m

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

Average daily flow

Average daily flow along the A5085, weighted by link length, by year
Year Vehicles a day
2000 16,559
2001 16,649
2002 18,398
2003 18,352
2004 18,451
2005 18,071
2006 17,475
2007 17,288
2008 17,283
2009 17,463
2010 17,226
2011 17,230
2012 17,043
2013 17,029
2014 17,549
2015 17,534
2016 17,840
2017 16,774
2018 16,263
2019 16,414
2020 12,987
2021 14,269
2022 16,270
2023 16,404
2024 15,999
2025 15,431

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 (63.5% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 1 of the 5 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.

A5085 collisions

Police recorded 114 collisions with the A5085 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 43 of them fatal or serious. That is 76.6 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 4.4 a year for each mile of road.

Reported collisions by year

About the same in 2025 as in 2021.

Police-reported collisions on the A5085 by year: fatal or serious, and slight
Year SlightFatal or serious
2021 107
2022 1910
2023 1811
2024 157
2025 98

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.

Collisions per 100 million vehicle miles by section of the A5085, 2021 to 2025
Section Per 100m vehicle miles
A582/A5085 intersection to A5072/A5083 intersection Lancashire · 25 collisions 128.8
B6243 to A6063 Lancashire · 26 collisions 106.1
A6 to A5072 Lancashire · 44 collisions 92.7

Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated

A further 42 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A5085 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 A5085

In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.

  • Lancashire

Data sources and methodology

Datasets used on this page
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 5 count points in 2025 15 September 2026
Reported collisions Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport
Derived statistics UK Motoring
2021 to 2025 114 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.