M6 Traffic Statistics
How busy is the M6, really? These are the official traffic counts published by the Department for Transport — not estimates and not our opinion. The M6 is measured at 99 separate points along its length, and the figures below are the 2025 averages for an ordinary day.
The headline
The busiest measured stretch of the M6 runs from Junction 20 to Junction 21 spur, near Lymm and the Thelwall Viaduct, carrying 187,521 vehicles a day.
The heaviest stretch for freight is Junction 8W to Junction 9 at Great Barr, where 31,213 lorries pass every day — 17.3% of all the traffic on it. That is more than any other road in our network, and it is why we have given it a page of its own.
The twelve busiest stretches of the M6
| Stretch | Vehicles per day | Lorries | Lorry share |
|---|---|---|---|
| J20 to J21 spur | 187,521 | 23,492 | 12.5% |
| J8W to J9 | 180,440 | 31,213 | 17.3% |
| J8E to J7 | 174,714 | 24,159 | 13.8% |
| J30 to J31 | 171,079 | 14,168 | 8.3% |
| J9 to J10 | 166,153 | 27,805 | 16.7% |
| J21 spur to J21A | 163,344 | 21,505 | 13.2% |
| J31 to J31A | 158,691 | 12,702 | 8.0% |
| J6 to J5 | 147,469 | 18,447 | 12.5% |
| J17 to J18 | 143,072 | 21,167 | 14.8% |
| J31A to J32 | 142,912 | 11,442 | 8.0% |
| J24 to J25 | 141,782 | 13,511 | 9.5% |
| JM6 Toll to J3 | 134,697 | 21,131 | 15.7% |
See the M6 junction by junction »
Traffic news for the busiest junctions
We have a page for each of the busiest points on the motorway, with the counts for that stretch and the traffic news that affects it:
- M6 Junction 20 (Lymm / Thelwall)
- M6 Junction 8 to Junction 9 (Ray Hall / Great Barr)
- M6 Junction 6 (Gravelly Hill — Spaghetti Junction)
- M6 Junction 9 to Junction 10 (Bescot / Walsall)
- M6 Junction 30 to Junction 31 (Preston)
- M6 Junction 16 to Junction 17 (Crewe / Sandbach)
What these numbers are, and what they are not
The figures are Annual Average Daily Flow — the average number of vehicles using a stretch of road on a typical day across the whole year. They tell you how heavily used a road is. They do not tell you what the traffic is doing right now. For that, see our live M6 traffic news.
Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.