Motorists plan to really stagger their journeys over the next few days to deal with the half-term holdups.
Euro Car Parts surveyed 1,000 parents to determine the holiday hotspot when most UK families will be setting off on their half term holidays.
Monday 24 October was revealed to be when most parents will be leaving for their holidays, closely followed by tomorrow 22 October, while drivers in Wales told pollsters they intended to set off shortly after 9am on Sunday, or after noon but before lunch, so they are on the road when people have pulled over to eat.
Birmingham, Nottingham and Southampton are expected to bear the brunt of the half term traffic, with the majority of residents planning to leave on the 24th October.
Predictably, picturesque Central England and the South West will be the busiest regions on the 24th, with people flocking to spend their time off school in the Cotswolds or at the beach.
The most popular individual holiday travel time is between 12pm and 12:15pm. However, despite this, the majority of those surveyed (61.6%) would still prefer to get a head start and leave between midnight and 11:59am. It’s dads that want to get ahead of the traffic, with 65.8% planning to set off before lunchtime, perhaps suggesting that they’re the least willing to sit in traffic with a car full of children!
On average, most holidaymakers expect to drive around 100 miles during their holiday (9.7%), with those in Nottingham and Birmingham expecting to drive 120 miles. Nearly 1 in 10 (9.4%) of those in Southampton expect to drive up to 150 miles!
Martin Gray, UK chief executive officer at Euro Car Parts, said, “It’s clear to see from these figures that there are definitely particular days and times when you should hold off on travelling if you wish to avoid the traffic. However, if you do end up caught in the rush, hopefully our tips for keeping the kids entertained will help!”
For some sanity-saving tips on how to keep kids busy on long half term drives, visit http://blog.eurocarparts .com/travelling-with-kids/
