York road voted second best in England

A road that runs both north and south of York has been voted the second best in the country.

The A19 took the runners up spot in a national survey.

Conducted by the independent watchdog Transport Focus, feedback was gathered from more than 9,000 road users about their most recent journeys on motorways, or major ‘A’ roads, managed by National Highways.

In The Strategic Roads User Survey, one driver described the A19 as “a clear road, well-marked, and easy to navigate.”

Despite the positive feedback, overall satisfaction with the A19 fell by four percentage points, from 85% in 2023/34, to 81%.

As for this years top spot, nationwide drivers rated the A30 as the best road in England overall.

The A30’s overall satisfaction rating was 85%. The South West, home to the A30, remains the best performing National Highways region in England, with overall driver satisfaction at 75%.

The Yorkshire and North East region, where the A19 is located, ranked joint fourth out of the seven National Highways regions.

Overall satisfaction here dropped by five percentage points to 66%, with road surface satisfaction impacting the score, as it dropped by seven percentage points.

Drivers rated the M1 as England’s worst motorway, following just 57% of drivers stating that they were satisfied with their journey (down from 69% in 2023/24).

Many M1 motorists reported having faced miles of roadworks and 50mph average speed limits during the build of extra smart motorway emergency areas.

Louise Collins, director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus said: “Long stretches of roadworks, sometimes one after another, and miles of cones have had a significant impact on road user satisfaction with England’s motorways, with a disappointing downward trend over the past couple of years.

“While roadworks are necessary to help maintain roads and drive improvements in user experience, the decrease in road user satisfaction reinforces the importance of National Highways learning the lessons of the smart motorway retrofit programme.

“We’ll be working with National Highways to help them use these survey findings as they plan future roadworks to make sure the impact on users is minimised.”

Other key findings from The Strategic Roads User Survey were:

• Overall, 69% of road users were satisfied with their journey, a drop from 71% last year.
• Management of roadworks continues to be one of the weaker performing areas, with 46% of those travelling through roadworks on their journey satisfied, a drop from 49% last year.
• 67% of road users were satisfied with journey time, this remains the aspect that has the greatest impact on overall satisfaction.
• Journeys involving a smart motorway section continue to be rated lower for feeling safe (smart motorways 75%, not smart motorways 83%).
• 68% of drivers were satisfied with the quality of the road surface, with driver feedback citing the poor state of some roads and number of potholes as a key issue.
• Only 55% of lorry drivers were satisfied with their journey, making them the least satisfied of all road users.

The survey helps National Highways develop initiatives and target investments to improve the driver experience.

Overall findings

In 2024/25 9419 people completed the Strategic Roads User Survey about their last journey using a motorway or major ‘A’ road managed by National Highways.