A-road
A561 traffic and collisions
The A561 is an A-road of 9.9 miles, from Knowsley to Liverpool. This page covers its traffic at 9 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 93m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 25,616 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 43,087 A562 Speke Boulevard to A562 Higher Road underpass
- HGV share 4.6% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −2.2% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 132 31.0 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A561?
On an average day in 2025, 25,616 vehicles passed each point on the A561, counting both directions. The busiest section is A562 Speke Boulevard to A562 Higher Road underpass (Knowsley), with 43,087 a day; the quietest listed is B5342 to A562/A5038, with 14,700.
Busiest sections, 2025
A562 Speke Boulevard to A562 Higher Road underpass carries 1.7 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A562 Speke Boulevard to A562 Higher Road underpass Knowsley · 0.5 mi · HGVs 5.5% | 43,087 |
| A562 Higher Road underpass to Renaissance Way Knowsley, Liverpool · 1.7 mi · HGVs 6.5% | 41,533 |
| Renaissance Way to A562 Liverpool · 1.0 mi · HGVs 6.9% | 32,532 |
| A5058 to B5342 Liverpool · 1.1 mi · HGVs 1.0% | 21,988 |
| A562 to A5058 Liverpool · 3.7 mi · HGVs 3.9% | 21,972 |
| B5342 to A562/A5038 Liverpool · 1.4 mi · HGVs 1.1% | 14,700 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Knowsley to Liverpool · 9.9 miles
A561 traffic and collisions by section
8 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 | A562 Speke Boulevard to A562 Higher Road underpassKnowsley | 43,087 | fewer than 3 |
| 2 | A562 Higher Road underpass to Renaissance WayKnowsley, Liverpool | 41,533 | 7 |
| 3 | Renaissance Way to A562Liverpool | 32,532 | 19 |
| 4 | A562 to A5058Liverpool | 21,972 | 36 |
| 5 | A5058 to B5342Liverpool | 21,988 | 31 |
| 6 | B5342 to A562/A5038Liverpool | 14,700 | 28 |
| 7 | A562/A5038 to A5037Liverpool | 5,721 | 5 |
| 8 | A5037 to A5040 Paradise StLiverpool | 5,688 | 3 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A561 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.
A561 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 81.4% of the vehicle miles on the A561. HGVs account for 4.6%, rising to 6.9% on Renaissance Way to A562.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 7.0% |
| 2001 | 6.6% |
| 2002 | 6.6% |
| 2003 | 6.1% |
| 2004 | 6.0% |
| 2005 | 5.6% |
| 2006 | 5.5% |
| 2007 | 5.3% |
| 2008 | 4.9% |
| 2009 | 4.7% |
| 2010 | 4.9% |
| 2011 | 4.8% |
| 2012 | 5.6% |
| 2013 | 5.7% |
| 2014 | 5.9% |
| 2015 | 6.2% |
| 2016 | 6.1% |
| 2017 | 6.4% |
| 2018 | 5.6% |
| 2019 | 5.5% |
| 2020 | 6.1% |
| 2021 | 5.9% |
| 2022 | 5.5% |
| 2023 | 5.1% |
| 2024 | 5.0% |
| 2025 | 4.6% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A561 traffic trend
Traffic on the A561 came to 92.6 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 2.2% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 0.5% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 8.1% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 77m |
| 2001 | 82m |
| 2002 | 79m |
| 2003 | 81m |
| 2004 | 87m |
| 2005 | 88m |
| 2006 | 87m |
| 2007 | 91m |
| 2008 | 94m |
| 2009 | 92m |
| 2010 | 86m |
| 2011 | 88m |
| 2012 | 86m |
| 2013 | 84m |
| 2014 | 85m |
| 2015 | 87m |
| 2016 | 85m |
| 2017 | 87m |
| 2018 | 90m |
| 2019 | 90m |
| 2020 | 68m |
| 2021 | 75m |
| 2022 | 83m |
| 2023 | 86m |
| 2024 | 90m |
| 2025 | 93m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 22,126 |
| 2001 | 23,718 |
| 2002 | 22,782 |
| 2003 | 23,221 |
| 2004 | 25,197 |
| 2005 | 25,356 |
| 2006 | 25,367 |
| 2007 | 26,606 |
| 2008 | 27,359 |
| 2009 | 26,898 |
| 2010 | 25,019 |
| 2011 | 25,623 |
| 2012 | 24,972 |
| 2013 | 24,373 |
| 2014 | 24,756 |
| 2015 | 25,277 |
| 2016 | 24,820 |
| 2017 | 25,159 |
| 2018 | 25,538 |
| 2019 | 25,337 |
| 2020 | 19,150 |
| 2021 | 21,099 |
| 2022 | 23,558 |
| 2023 | 24,253 |
| 2024 | 24,854 |
| 2025 | 25,616 |
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 (86.9% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 3 of the 9 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A561 collisions
Police recorded 132 collisions with the A561 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 27 of them fatal or serious. That is 31.0 per 100 million vehicle miles, close to the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 2.7 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 43.8% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 32 |
| 2022 | 28 |
| 2023 | 27 |
| 2024 | 27 |
| 2025 | 18 |
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 |
|---|---|
| B5342 to A562/A5038 Liverpool · 28 collisions | 79.3 |
| A5058 to B5342 Liverpool · 31 collisions | 72.4 |
| Renaissance Way to A562 Liverpool · 19 collisions | 33.2 |
| A562 to A5058 Liverpool · 36 collisions | 25.3 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 24 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A561 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 A561
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Knowsley
- Liverpool
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 | 9 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 132 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.