HIGHWAYS TO HELL: DATA STUDY REVEALS THE WORST ROADS TO BREAKDOWN ON IN WALES

• 6,000,000 road coordinates were analysed in across Great Britain to find which roads had the worst weather, poor phone signal and longest distance to a garage
• The A489 in Powys topped the country’s rankings in second place

New research from Scrap Car Comparison has revealed the worst roads in Great Britain to breakdown on, after analysis of over 6 million different road point locations across England, Scotland and Wales.

The section of A489 in Wales, near Caersws, was ranked the second-worst in the country to breakdown on. The section of road is situated more than 30 miles from the nearest taxi company, almost 6 miles from a petrol station and 41 miles from a phone antenna, while being subject to low temperatures and 100cm of rainfall. All in all, a dream location for a horror film, but not for a car breakdown.

To make drivers aware of these troublesome roads, the analysis looked at various factors that can make breaking down a particularly bad experience, such as the amount of rainfall, lack of phone signal, traffic levels and distances from services that can help, such as petrol stations or tax companies. The roads were then all ranked against these factors to find which came out as the best and worst.

In England, Cumbria didn’t fare well at all, featuring twice in the top ten due to the A6 by the village of Shap and the A596 near Netherton. Roads in Scotland filled the rest of the top ten with the B725, near the hamlet of Middlebie in Dumfries Scotland, winning the unfortunate crown of being the very worst, due to its inconvenient mixture of poor weather and remote location.

The Top 10 Worst Places to Breakdown in Great Britain:

1. B725, near the hamlet of Middlebie in Dumfries Scotland.
2. A489/A483, around three kilometres from the Welsh village of Caersws.
3. A702, around three kilometres from the Scottish village of Elvanfoot.
4. B6364, close to the village of Stichill in the Scottish Borders.
5. A6, around the village of Shap in Cumbria.
6. B6400, close to a hamlet in the Scottish Borders.
7. M74, and the A74(M), again in the surrounding areas of Elvanfoot in South Lanarkshire.
8. B740, a few kilometres outside of the Crawfordjohn civil parish.
9. A596, heading out of Netherton in Cumbria.
10. A698, a couple of kilometres south of Bonjedwad in the Scottish Borders.

The Worst Roads to Breakdown On in Wales

While the top ten was dominated by Scottish countryside and Cumbria, Scrap Car Comparison delved deeper into the data to also reveal the stretches of road that are bad for a breakdown in individual Welsh regions, including:

• Blaenau Gwent: The B4471, just north of the Swffryd area (Lat 51.69 Lon -3.13)
• Bridgend: The M4, just south of the Kenfig industrial estate (Lat 51.53 Lon -3.73)
• Caerphilly: The A465, the Heads of the Valleys Road, north of the Biffa Trecatta waste site (Lat 51.77 Lon -3.33)
• Carmarthenshire: The B4302, on the outskirts of the hamlet of Edwinsford (Lat 51.99 Lon -3.99)
• Conwy: The A5, roughly halfway between Rhydlydan and Glasfryn (Lat 53.04 Lon -3.63)
• Denbighshire: The A5, just west of the River Dee (Lat 52.98 Lon -3.39)
• Gwynedd: The B4403, on the east side of Bala Lake, north of Llangower (Lat 52.89 Lon -3.62)
• Isle of Anglesey: The A55, the North Wales Expressway, south of the hamlet of Mona (Lat 53.24 Lon -4.38)
• Monmouthshire: The A40, on the England/Wales border, a kilometre east of Monmouth Golf Club (Lat 51.83 Lon -2.69)
• Neath Port Talbot: The A4109, a kilometre north of Glynneath Golf Club (Lat 51.77 Lon -3.61)
• Pembrokeshire: The A477, just north of Milton Marsh (Lat 51.69 Lon -4.83)

Dan Gick, Managing Director at Scrap Car Comparison commented: “Breaking down is one of the worst things about owning a car, but we all know certain roads are more favourable than others, so we wanted to find the stretches drivers should maybe try to avoid, especially if their car is reaching the more ‘unreliable’ leg of its life. 

Data science was the only way to achieve this, and it was really interesting to see millions of data points coming together to pinpoint the roads that are most inconvenient, or even outright dangerous when experiencing a fault with your car.  With the cold and dark winter months upon us, we hope the findings will help drivers avoid any unfortunate scenarios, and stick to roads that are a bit kinder to breakdowns!”

An interactive map featuring the worst roads to breakdown on in Britain, in addition to the full regional findings can be found here: scrapcarcomparison.co.uk/blog/worst-roads-to-breakdown-on/