A-road
A573 traffic and collisions
The A573 is an A-road of 9.1 miles, from Warrington to Wigan. This page covers its traffic at 7 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 33m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 9,837 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 15,042 A58 to A577
- HGV share 1.0% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −3.5% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 55 35.7 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A573?
On an average day in 2025, 9,837 vehicles passed each point on the A573, counting both directions. The busiest section is A58 to A577 (Wigan), with 15,042 a day; the quietest listed is A49 to A572/A572 intersection, with 5,232.
Busiest sections, 2025
A58 to A577 carries 1.5 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| A58 to A577 Wigan · 2.1 mi · HGVs 0.7% | 15,042 |
| A580 Wigan · 3.5 mi · HGVs 1.2% | 10,475 |
| A572 to A580 St. Helens, Wigan · 0.8 mi · HGVs 1.8% | 6,724 |
| A49 to A572/A572 intersection Warrington, St. Helens · 2.3 mi · HGVs 0.9% | 5,232 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
Warrington to Wigan · 9.1 miles
A573 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
| # | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A49 to A572/A572 intersectionWarrington, St. Helens | 5,232 | 4 |
| 2 | A572 to A580St. Helens, Wigan | 6,724 | fewer than 3 |
| 3 | A580Wigan | 10,475 | 20 |
| 4 | A58 to A577Wigan | 15,042 | 28 |
| 5 | A577 to A49Wigan | 9,642 | 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 A573 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.
A573 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 82.5% of the vehicle miles on the A573. HGVs account for 1.0%.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 2.9% |
| 2001 | 2.4% |
| 2002 | 2.3% |
| 2003 | 2.4% |
| 2004 | 2.7% |
| 2005 | 2.6% |
| 2006 | 2.4% |
| 2007 | 2.8% |
| 2008 | 2.4% |
| 2009 | 2.2% |
| 2010 | 2.2% |
| 2011 | 2.2% |
| 2012 | 2.2% |
| 2013 | 2.2% |
| 2014 | 2.1% |
| 2015 | 2.1% |
| 2016 | 2.1% |
| 2017 | 1.8% |
| 2018 | 1.6% |
| 2019 | 1.4% |
| 2020 | 1.5% |
| 2021 | 1.5% |
| 2022 | 1.2% |
| 2023 | 1.2% |
| 2024 | 1.2% |
| 2025 | 1.0% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A573 traffic trend
Traffic on the A573 came to 32.7 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 3.5% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 9.7% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 10.6% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 28m |
| 2001 | 30m |
| 2002 | 29m |
| 2003 | 29m |
| 2004 | 29m |
| 2005 | 30m |
| 2006 | 31m |
| 2007 | 32m |
| 2008 | 31m |
| 2009 | 32m |
| 2010 | 32m |
| 2011 | 32m |
| 2012 | 31m |
| 2013 | 31m |
| 2014 | 32m |
| 2015 | 33m |
| 2016 | 33m |
| 2017 | 32m |
| 2018 | 31m |
| 2019 | 32m |
| 2020 | 25m |
| 2021 | 28m |
| 2022 | 31m |
| 2023 | 31m |
| 2024 | 32m |
| 2025 | 33m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 8,896 |
| 2001 | 9,567 |
| 2002 | 9,310 |
| 2003 | 9,071 |
| 2004 | 9,194 |
| 2005 | 9,485 |
| 2006 | 9,741 |
| 2007 | 10,313 |
| 2008 | 9,913 |
| 2009 | 10,032 |
| 2010 | 10,054 |
| 2011 | 10,162 |
| 2012 | 10,007 |
| 2013 | 9,990 |
| 2014 | 10,229 |
| 2015 | 10,380 |
| 2016 | 10,632 |
| 2017 | 10,073 |
| 2018 | 9,628 |
| 2019 | 9,822 |
| 2020 | 7,718 |
| 2021 | 8,481 |
| 2022 | 9,425 |
| 2023 | 9,601 |
| 2024 | 9,642 |
| 2025 | 9,837 |
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 (49.5% of today’s road for 2019). In 2025, 1 of the 7 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A573 collisions
Police recorded 55 collisions with the A573 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, 18 of them fatal or serious. That is 35.7 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 1.2 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 33.3% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 |
| 2022 | 7 |
| 2023 | 13 |
| 2024 | 15 |
| 2025 | 8 |
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 |
|---|---|
| A58 to A577 Wigan · 28 collisions | 51.8 |
| A580 Wigan · 20 collisions | 31.4 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 15 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A573 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 A573
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Warrington
- St. Helens
- Wigan
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 | 7 count points in 2025 | 15 September 2026 |
| Reported collisions | Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport Derived statistics UK Motoring | 2021 to 2025 | 55 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.