It’s been a slow old year for drivers

THE three Scots motorways at the centre of the colossal improvement project were all among the slowest in Britain last year, a study has revealed.

The M73 was the fifthworst in the UK with an average driving speed of just 43.71mph.

The M8 was little better at 44.62mph, bad enough for seventh place on the list.

Drivers on the M74, Scotland’s main road link to England, managed an average speed of 50.3mph. At that rate, it would take them two hours to reach the border.

The M74 was rated the 12th-slowest motorway in Britain.

But with all three of the Scots motorways affected by roadworks and delays during the year, drivers will be hoping things will improve now the end is finally in sight.

Satellite vehicle tracking experts Satrak compiled the figures. They took data from more than 500,000 vehicles analysed by their software between January 1 and December 31 last year.

The notorious M25 around London was the slowest motorway in the UK with a funereal average speed of 25.05mph.

Satrak managing director Dan Walton said: “I’ve heard of 12-mile tailbacks on the M25 so it’s little surprise to me.”

Next came the M4 between London and south Wales with an average of 30.46mph. The three-mile M606 in Yorkshire was third with a 40.68mph average.

Scotland did better when it came to city driving, with none of our cities featured in Satrak’s list of the slowest 10.