Whereas a street journey is usually a enjoyable journey, the inevitable must go to the toilet on a protracted automobile journey and having to carry on might be disagreeable. Particularly for some individuals, like kids and adults with continence or persistent points, the expertise might be particularly uncomfortable.
In accordance with latest estimates, the UK has misplaced half of its public bathrooms within the final decade. So how does this impression entry to rest room services alongside the UK’s motorways?
Homecure collected knowledge on the bathroom services throughout 57 of the UK’s motorways, together with knowledge on accessible bathrooms and showers too.
This uncovered what number of bathroom stops, accessible bathroom stops and bathe stops there have been on common per mile, and enabled Homecure to rank the motorways by their entry to services.
The examine discovered that when travelling on the most pace restrict on the UK’s motorways, drivers are on common:
- 20 and a half minutes away from bathroom services
- 41 and a half minutes away from an accessible bathroom
- 43 and a half minutes away from a bathe
The typical motorway has bathroom services each 24.1 miles
The UK common is in a single bathroom cease per 0.041 miles. If bathroom stops had been spaced out evenly throughout UK motorways, then this could be a bathroom cease each 24.1 miles. Should you drive on the full pace restrict (70mph on a motorway) then you’re round 20 and a half minutes away from bathroom services on common.
Nonetheless, 43.9% of the motorways on this examine (25 out of the 57) don’t record any bathroom services. The longest of those had been the ring street M60 (36 miles), the M53 (18.9 miles), and the M69 (15.7 miles).
However, the motorways with essentially the most listed bathroom services per mile had been the M23 which has a bathroom cease for each 3.2 miles of street (0.314 miles), the M74 which has a bathroom cease for each 5.7 miles (0.175 miles), and the M42 and M876 which each have bathroom stops each 8 miles (0.125 miles).
| The UK motorways with no bathrooms stops listed | |
| Motorway | Size (miles) |
| M60 | 36.0 |
| M53 | 18.9 |
| M69 | 15.7 |
| M55 | 12.2 |
| M58 | 12.0 |
| M57 | 10.0 |
| M26 | 9.9 |
| M66 | 8.0 |
| M45 | 7.9 |
| M621 | 7.7 |
| M73 | 7.0 |
| M22 (NI)* | 5.6 |
| M67 | 5.0 |
| M49 | 5.0 |
| M32 | 4.4 |
| M602 | 4.0 |
| M606 | 3.0 |
| M271 | 2.3 |
| M275 | 2.0 |
| M181 | 2.0 |
| M12 (NI)* | 1.5 |
| M5 (NI)* | 1.4 |
| M3 (NI)* | 0.8 |
| M898 | 0.5 |
| M96 | 0.2 |
*(NI) = Northern Eire
Over half of motorways (56.1%) don’t have any accessible bathroom stops
An accessible bathroom is a bathroom that isn’t simply designed to fulfill the wants of most wheelchair customers. Accessible bathrooms are additionally important to these with bowel and bladder circumstances (akin to colostomy bag customers), these with bodily impairments or mobility points, or anybody who might have the presence of an emergency alarm.
The examine discovered that 32 out of 57 motorways (56.1%) on this examine nonetheless don’t have any listed accessible bathrooms. The M8 (60.3 miles), the M20 (50.6 miles) and the M60 (36 miles) had been the longest motorways within the examine which had no accessible bathrooms.
On common, you’ll be able to look forward to finding an accessible bathroom for each 48.2 miles travelled (0.0208 per mile) – that’s 41 and a half minutes when driving on the most pace restrict of 70mph. That is double the time it takes to seek out a normal bathroom (20 and a half minutes).
The very best motorways for the frequency of accessible bathroom stops are the M74 which has an accessible bathroom for each 8 miles (0.125 miles), the M48 which has an accessible bathroom for each 12.1 miles (0.083 miles), and the M42 which has an accessible bathroom for each 13.3 miles (0.075 miles).
Solely 4 in ten (43.1%) of motorways have showering services
For HGV (Heavy Items Automobiles) drivers driving lengthy distances at a time, having a spot to refresh and bathe is crucial. In North America, it’s frequent for truck drivers to seek out devoted truck stops with laundromats, showers and canteens, however within the UK discovering someplace to clean up can show harder.
Of the 57 motorways within the examine, solely 24 had showering services that means that most of the time (57.9% of the time) you received’t discover a bathe in your motorway route. On common, there may be one bathe cease per 50 miles of street (0.020 per mile), which is round one per 43 and a half minutes of driving at 70mph.
Once more, the motorways to keep away from for those who’re hoping to rinse down are the M8 (60.3 miles), the M20 (50.6 miles) and the M60 (36 miles).
Truckers and long-distance travellers can have a lot better luck on the M48 which has showering services for each 12 miles of street (0.083 per mile), the M1 (in Northern Eire) which has showers for each 12.7 miles of street (0.079 per mile), and the M74 which has showers for each 13.3 miles of street (0.075 per mile).
The M23 is the UK’s greatest motorway for bathroom and showering services
Though simply 15.9 miles lengthy, the M23 within the South East of England got here out high for its density of bathrooms, accessible bathrooms and showers. There are 5 listed bathroom stops, 1 accessible bathroom cease and 1 bathe cease obtainable to travellers. Which means you’re on common round 3.2 miles away from a bathroom cease, or simply underneath 3 minutes away when travelling on the most pace restrict.
The subsequent greatest motorways for bathroom and bathe accessibility are the M74 (the 40-mile motorway has 7 bathroom stops, 5 accessible bathroom stops and three bathe stops) and the M42 (the 40-mile motorway has 5 bathroom stops, 3 accessible bathroom stops and three bathe stops).
| The highest 10 motorways for bathroom and bathe stops | |
| Rank | Motorway |
| 1 | M23 |
| 2 | M74 |
| 3 | M42 |
| 4 | M48 |
| 5 | M5 |
| 6 | M180 |
| 7 | M6 |
| 8 | M4 |
| 9 | M1(NI)* |
| 10 | M1 |
*Northern Eire
How frequent are the services on Britain’s longest motorways?
Should you’re taking a visit down one in every of Britain’s longest motorways, how lengthy would possibly it’s important to wait to entry services?
The longest motorway within the examine, the M6 (232.2 miles lengthy), has 22 bathroom stops, 12 disabled bathroom stops and 12 bathe stops. Taking a mean for all services, per mile the M6 has higher provisions than the typical motorway (rating seventh out of 51). For instance, to entry a bathroom, it’s good to journey a mean of 10.5 miles or wait 9 minutes when driving at 70mph.
The 2nd longest motorway within the examine, the M1 (193.5 miles lengthy), has 16 bathroom stops, 10 disabled bathroom stops and 9 bathe stops. This motorway additionally ranks higher than common for services and ninth total within the record. You possibly can count on a bathroom cease round each 12 miles (per 0.083 mile), which when driving at 70mph is round each 10 minutes.
The third-longest motorway within the UK – the M4 – is 189 miles lengthy and stretches between London and Bristol. This motorway has 13 bathroom stops, 12 accessible bathroom stops and 10 bathe stops. On common, there’s a bathroom each 14.5 miles (0.069 per mile) or each 12 and a half minutes, and taking all services into consideration, the motorway ranks eighth greatest within the examine.
For the total findings: https://www.homecureplumbers.co.uk/motorway-breaks/
