A corridor traversing South Wales has been flagged as one of the nation’s most troublesome roads, with the Easter weekend traditionally bringing especially heavy volumes of vehicles.

The motoring organisation questioned its members to create a hierarchy of the ten motorways generating the most exasperation among drivers.

The ring road encircling Greater London claimed the number one position as the most aggravating in the country, acquiring the nickname Road to Hell.

One motorist who responded to the survey expressed that the road surface fails to meet standards and certain stretches produce considerable noise pollution.

Jack Cousens, the association’s head of roads policy, described this particular stretch as having become notorious for its constant stream of traffic and recurring delays.

Since it constitutes one of the most frequently travelled portions of motorway across the entire country, driver frustration comes as no great shock. It is easy to comprehend why Chris Rea famously gave it the name Road To Hell.

The full list of the ten motorways ranked as most problematic, as voted by surveyed members, is as follows:

M25, M6, M1, M5, M62, M4, M42, M60, M8, and M27.

Nine of these corridors have undergone transformation into smart motorway configurations in recent times, bringing extended periods of roadworks. Later projects to establish emergency refuge areas have created additional inconvenience for road users.

Mr. Cousens observed that it is noteworthy how nine out of the ten lowest-rated motorways include controlled sections.

Drivers have suffered through years of initial conversion efforts, followed by further upheaval to accommodate emergency stopping bays.

Most respondents indicated they have noticed little benefit from eliminating the hard shoulder, with many motorists maintaining this change has actually heightened traffic concentration.

Among those who participated in the survey, 289 people, amounting to three percent, designated this specific route as the nation’s most underwhelming motorway.

This position placed it sixth in terms of how often it was mentioned, surpassing the tallies recorded for the M42, M60, M8, and M27.

Twenty-two percent of respondents described the overall condition of the country’s motorway network as unsatisfactory, while thirty-two percent gave similarly poor marks to congestion standards.

This report first appeared in the South Wales Argus in April 2025.