It’s bank holiday weekend! Get ready for “extremely busy” roads and EV chargers

Drivers are being told to brace for queues on both the motorway and at EV charging stations this August bank holiday. Over 17 million getaway trips are expected to take place between Friday and Monday.

A report by the RAC and transportation analytics firm, INRIX, suggests as many as three million journeys are expected to take place on Friday alone, rising to 3.4 million on Saturday – potentially making it the busiest travel day across the long weekend.

If you’re planning on avoiding the worst of the traffic, the RAC says it’s best to remain off the roads between 10am and 7pm on Friday, 9am and 5pm on Saturday and 11am and 6pm on Monday. 

The best time to travel, according to the RAC, is in the evening past 7pm on Friday, or in the morning before 9am and 11am on Saturday and Monday respectively. Being bang in the middle of the weekend, Sunday’s traffic is supposed to remain average.

Where will the busiest roads be? 

As is probably expected, the RAC anticipates the M5 heading southbound between Bristol and Devon to take the biggest brunt of the traffic as holidaymakers flood to the coast to soak up the last rays of summer sun. Delays of over 40 minutes are expected in the 50-mile stretch between junction 15 near Bristol and junction 23 for Bridgwater on Friday and Saturday, while the M20 in Kent also has the potential for queues surpassing half-an-hour.

Team leader for mobile servicing and repairs at the RAC, Nick Mullender, said the organisation is “expecting major roads to airports and coastal destinations to be extremely busy, especially the South East and South West regions which could end up bearing the brunt of most holiday hold-ups.”

Mullender then advised “Anyone planning routes through these areas [to] set off as early as possible or be prepared to spend longer in traffic.”

EV public charging will be busy, too

As more people take to the roads over the weekend, this will ultimately result in a greater strain on the UK’s public EV charging network. Chargepoint operator, BP pulse, estimates that demand could rise by more than five per cent and has thus advised drivers to try and plug-in during quieter times – typically in the early morning and late evening – in order to avoid queues.

“The August bank holiday is always a busy time on the roads, and with EVs increasingly popular, we’re expecting to see higher demand for EV charging than ever before,” said bp pulse’s UK general manager, Valerio Ferro.

“However, the good news is that fast charging infrastructure has continued to grow significantly over the past 12 months, and bp pulse’s network is available across the UK for EV drivers to stop off and top up their battery when they need it.”

As of July 2025, the number of public chargepoints across the UK grew by 27 per cent year-on-year to over 82,000 units. While it's worth pointing out that not all of these are operational at all times, operators are as of late 2023 expected by law to display at least 99 per cent reliability across their network, making it less stressful for those needing to charge up.

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