A-road
A6001 traffic and collisions
The A6001 is an A-road of 2.2 miles, in Central Bedfordshire. This page covers its traffic at 5 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.
- Traffic in 2025 9.7m vehicle miles
- Average daily traffic 12,119 vehicles a day, both directions
- Busiest section 12,460 B1040 to A6001 Shortmead St
- HGV share 1.5% of vehicle miles
- Traffic since 2019 −3.2% same count points
- Collisions, 2021 to 2025 25 53.0 per 100m vehicle miles
How busy is the A6001?
On an average day in 2025, 12,119 vehicles passed each point on the A6001, counting both directions. The busiest section is B1040 to A6001 Shortmead St (Central Bedfordshire), with 12,460 a day; the quietest listed is Pegasus Drive to B1040, with 11,863.
Busiest sections, 2025
B1040 to A6001 Shortmead St carries 1.0 times the road’s average flow.
| Section | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| B1040 to A6001 Shortmead St Central Bedfordshire · 0.6 mi · HGVs 1.1% | 12,460 |
| Pegasus Drive to B1040 Central Bedfordshire · 0.9 mi · HGVs 1.8% | 11,863 |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Route
In Central Bedfordshire · 2.2 miles
A6001 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 | A1 to Pegasus Drive, BiggleswadeCentral Bedfordshire | 10,796 | 0 |
| 2 | Pegasus Drive to B1040Central Bedfordshire | 11,863 | 9 |
| 3 | B1040 to A6001 Shortmead StCentral Bedfordshire | 12,460 | 6 |
| 4 | A6001 High St to Sun StCentral Bedfordshire | 12,767 | 5 |
| 5 | Sun Street to A1Central Bedfordshire | 11,618 | 5 |
Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A6001 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.
A6001 traffic by vehicle type
Cars and taxis make up 85.5% of the vehicle miles on the A6001. HGVs account for 1.5%.
Vehicle mix, 2025
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
HGV share of traffic
| Year | HGV share |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 3.4% |
| 2001 | 3.3% |
| 2002 | 3.1% |
| 2003 | 3.1% |
| 2004 | 3.0% |
| 2005 | 3.1% |
| 2006 | 3.0% |
| 2007 | 2.6% |
| 2008 | 2.8% |
| 2009 | 2.5% |
| 2010 | 2.0% |
| 2011 | 2.0% |
| 2012 | 2.1% |
| 2013 | 2.1% |
| 2014 | 2.0% |
| 2015 | 1.9% |
| 2016 | 1.9% |
| 2017 | 1.9% |
| 2018 | 1.9% |
| 2019 | 1.6% |
| 2020 | 1.9% |
| 2021 | 1.7% |
| 2022 | 1.6% |
| 2023 | 1.6% |
| 2024 | 1.5% |
| 2025 | 1.5% |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
A6001 traffic trend
Traffic on the A6001 came to 9.7 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 0.6% on 2015.
Vehicle miles a year
Like for like, traffic is up 14.6% on 2000.
| Year | Vehicle miles |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 22m |
| 2001 | 23m |
| 2002 | 24m |
| 2003 | 23m |
| 2004 | 24m |
| 2005 | 24m |
| 2006 | 24m |
| 2007 | 24m |
| 2008 | 22m |
| 2009 | 22m |
| 2010 | 9.5m |
| 2011 | 9.6m |
| 2012 | 9.5m |
| 2013 | 9.3m |
| 2014 | 9.6m |
| 2015 | 9.8m |
| 2016 | 10m |
| 2017 | 10m |
| 2018 | 9.9m |
| 2019 | 10m |
| 2020 | 7.8m |
| 2021 | 8.8m |
| 2022 | 9.4m |
| 2023 | 9.6m |
| 2024 | 9.7m |
| 2025 | 9.7m |
Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated
Average daily flow
| Year | Vehicles a day |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 7,178 |
| 2001 | 7,350 |
| 2002 | 7,576 |
| 2003 | 7,534 |
| 2004 | 7,770 |
| 2005 | 7,616 |
| 2006 | 7,590 |
| 2007 | 7,635 |
| 2008 | 6,999 |
| 2009 | 7,080 |
| 2010 | 11,798 |
| 2011 | 11,915 |
| 2012 | 11,784 |
| 2013 | 11,564 |
| 2014 | 11,927 |
| 2015 | 12,190 |
| 2016 | 12,496 |
| 2017 | 12,509 |
| 2018 | 12,303 |
| 2019 | 12,519 |
| 2020 | 9,691 |
| 2021 | 10,929 |
| 2022 | 11,690 |
| 2023 | 11,898 |
| 2024 | 12,079 |
| 2025 | 12,119 |
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. In 2025, 0 of the 5 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.
A6001 collisions
Police recorded 25 collisions with the A6001 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, fewer than 3 of them fatal or serious. That is 53.0 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 2.3 a year for each mile of road.
Reported collisions by year
Down 20.0% from 2021 to 2025.
| Year | Collisions |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 6 |
| 2023 | 6 |
| 2024 | 4 |
| 2025 | 4 |
Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated
A further 5 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A6001 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 A6001
In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.
- Central Bedfordshire
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 | 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 | 25 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.