These are the worst times for traffic over the bank holiday weekend

Note to self: Avoid the M25

If you're planning on driving out of London (or anywhere else in the UK for that matter) for Easter weekend, you're going to need to do some serious planning to avoid bank holiday gridlock.

Because folks, everyone else will have had the same great idea as you and be hitting the road straight after work on Thursday. From 4pm, traffic levels are expected to be 28% higher than usual, according to Metro. Yikes.

The worst times for traffic will be Thursday 4pm–6pm, Friday 10am-2pm and Monday 12pm-5pm. Better to come back late Sunday night/early Monday morning, then?

Inrix has shared the expected delays on the top 10 most congested routes as of Thursday:

M25 J9-J21 both directions – 90 minutes

M6 J16-J22 – 50 minutes

M5 (southbound) J14 to Weston-super-Mare – 45 minutes

M4 (westbound) J2-J13 – 45 minutes

M25 (anti-clockwise) J4 to the Dartford Tunnel – 40 minutes

M8 (eastbound) J16-J8 – 30 minutes

A34 (northbound) Abingdon to M40 – 30 minutes

M60/M62 J8 Carrington to J20 Rochdale – 30 minutes

A303 Andover to Amesbury (westbound) – 30 minutes

M74 J4-J5 (southbound) – 20 minutes

http://gph.is/2aK4aGe

The commuter in you might be thinking: 'It's alright, I'll just get the train!' Ah, if only it were so easy...

Network Rail are using the four day run to carry out a shed load of engineering work across the country, meaning journeys to London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow and Bath will be a little difficult. You can read more information on networkrail.co.uk.

If you're planning on staying at home, though? Enjoy feeling smug.