Trunk A-road
A550 traffic and collisions
The A550 is a trunk A-road of 13.4 miles in Wales and England, from Flintshire to West Cheshire. This page covers its traffic at 11 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 69m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 14,102 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 21,538 A5117(T) to A540
- HGV share 4.2% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 +0.7% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 65 19.4 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A550?
On an average day in 2025, 14,102 vehicles passed each point on the A550, counting both directions. The busiest section is A5117(T) to A540 (West Cheshire), with 21,538 a day; the quietest listed is A55 to B5125 The Highway, with 3,610.
Busiest sections, 2025
A5117(T) to A540 carries 1.5 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A5117(T) to A540 West Cheshire · 2.1 mi · HGVs 5.6% | 21,538 |
| A540 to B5463 West Cheshire · 1.5 mi · HGVs 4.8% | 17,833 |
| A5104/A5118 to A549 Flintshire · 0.5 mi · HGVs 4.1% | 16,123 |
| B5463 to A41(T) West Cheshire · 1.4 mi · HGVs 5.6% | 15,745 |
| B5373 to A5104 Flintshire · 1.9 mi · HGVs 3.3% | 13,203 |
| At A5104 Flintshire · 1.1 mi · HGVs 3.5% | 12,211 |
| A541 to B5373 Flintshire · 1.3 mi · HGVs 1.1% | 7,296 |
| B5125 The Highway to A494 Flintshire · 1.6 mi · HGVs 0.7% | 6,725 |
| A55 to B5125 The Highway Flintshire · 1.4 mi · HGVs 1.4% | 3,610 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Flintshire to West Cheshire · 13.4 miles
A550 traffic and collisions by section
11 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 | A541 to B5373Flintshire | 7,296 | 3 |
| 2 | B5373 to A5104Flintshire | 13,203 | 5 |
| 3 | At A5104Flintshire | 12,211 | fewer than 3 |
| 4 | A5104/A5118 to A549Flintshire | 16,123 | 6 |
| 5 | A549 Dirty Mile to A55Flintshire | 20,220 | fewer than 3 |
| 6 | A55 to B5125 The HighwayFlintshire | 3,610 | 5 |
| 7 | B5125 The Highway to A494Flintshire | 6,725 | 3 |
| 8 | A458/A494 to A5117(T)Flintshire | 74,865 | fewer than 3 |
| 9 | A5117(T) to A540West Cheshire | 21,538 | 9 |
| 10 | A540 to B5463West Cheshire | 17,833 | 6 |
| 11 | B5463 to A41(T)West Cheshire | 15,745 | 24 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A550 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.
A550 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 77.5% of the vehicle miles on the A550. HGVs account for 4.2%, rising to 5.6% on A5117(T) to A540.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 6.1% |
| 2001 | 6.2% |
| 2002 | 6.5% |
| 2003 | 6.6% |
| 2004 | 6.5% |
| 2005 | 6.3% |
| 2006 | 6.2% |
| 2007 | 6.4% |
| 2008 | 6.5% |
| 2009 | 5.5% |
| 2010 | 5.7% |
| 2011 | 5.1% |
| 2012 | 4.7% |
| 2013 | 4.3% |
| 2014 | 4.1% |
| 2015 | 4.2% |
| 2016 | 4.3% |
| 2017 | 4.1% |
| 2018 | 4.4% |
| 2019 | 4.2% |
| 2020 | 5.2% |
| 2021 | 5.1% |
| 2022 | 4.6% |
| 2023 | 4.4% |
| 2024 | 4.3% |
| 2025 | 4.2% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A550 traffic trend
Traffic on the A550 came to 69 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is up 0.7% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 6.2% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 1.7% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 87m |
| 2001 | 87m |
| 2002 | 75m |
| 2003 | 78m |
| 2004 | 79m |
| 2005 | 79m |
| 2006 | 81m |
| 2007 | 80m |
| 2008 | 78m |
| 2009 | 77m |
| 2010 | 76m |
| 2011 | 68m |
| 2012 | 67m |
| 2013 | 68m |
| 2014 | 70m |
| 2015 | 72m |
| 2016 | 73m |
| 2017 | 70m |
| 2018 | 69m |
| 2019 | 70m |
| 2020 | 50m |
| 2021 | 59m |
| 2022 | 68m |
| 2023 | 69m |
| 2024 | 71m |
| 2025 | 69m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 16,798 |
| 2001 | 16,761 |
| 2002 | 15,474 |
| 2003 | 15,958 |
| 2004 | 16,186 |
| 2005 | 16,269 |
| 2006 | 16,607 |
| 2007 | 16,534 |
| 2008 | 16,085 |
| 2009 | 15,799 |
| 2010 | 15,670 |
| 2011 | 13,963 |
| 2012 | 13,873 |
| 2013 | 13,941 |
| 2014 | 14,460 |
| 2015 | 14,918 |
| 2016 | 15,066 |
| 2017 | 14,435 |
| 2018 | 13,786 |
| 2019 | 13,932 |
| 2020 | 10,070 |
| 2021 | 11,856 |
| 2022 | 13,550 |
| 2023 | 13,844 |
| 2024 | 14,101 |
| 2025 | 14,102 |
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 (88.1% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 3 of the 11 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A550 collisions
Police recorded 65 collisions with the A550 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 23 of them fatal or serious. That is 19.4 per 100 million vehicle miles, lower than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 1.0 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Up 25.0% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 |
| 2022 | 13 |
| 2023 | 15 |
| 2024 | 10 |
| 2025 | 15 |
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 |
|---|---|
| B5463 to A41(T) West Cheshire · 24 collisions | 56.9 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 12 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A550 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 A550
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Flintshire
- West Cheshire
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 | 11 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 65 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.