This is M3 traffic now — everything currently reported on the M3 motorway, live from National Highways and rebuilt every five minutes. Current incidents and accidents, active roadworks, lane and carriageway closures, and what is scheduled for later today. If you want the M3 traffic latest before you set off, this is the page to have open.

For a specific type of report, see M3 Roadworks or M3 Accidents & Incidents, or find your junction on the M3 junction map.

M3 traffic updates, as they happen

This page is rebuilt every five minutes from National Highways’ own live feed, so what you are looking at is M3 traffic now rather than a summary written earlier in the day. If you are checking before you set off, it is worth a refresh on your way out of the door — a lane closure reported at 07:05 is on here by 07:10.

The same live feed drives the rest of the site, cut different ways. M3 roadworks covers planned work, M3 accidents and incidents the unplanned, and M3 closures tonight the overnight carriageway and slip road closures — which is when most work on a motorway this busy actually gets done. Travelling one way in particular? M3 eastbound for the M25, Sunbury and London, or M3 westbound for Winchester, Eastleigh and the M27.

One thing we will not tell you is that the M3 is clear, because nobody can. M3 motorway traffic is reported by National Highways from cameras, sensors, patrols and the police, and things get reported late, cleared before they are logged, or missed altogether. So when this page has nothing on it, it says nothing is currently reported that we are aware of — which is a different and more honest claim than telling you the road is running freely.

How to read this page

Reports are listed newest first, and the page is rebuilt through the day as the official feed changes. Each item carries the road, the junctions affected, the direction where it is known, and the times National Highways has published for it.

An empty page is good news, not a broken one. It means there is nothing currently reported that we are aware of. Because incidents can be reported late, cleared before they are logged, or missed altogether, that is not a guarantee of a clear run — but it is the best picture available, and it is the same picture the official sources have.

How busy is the M3 anyway?

Delays are worse on a road that is already full. The Department for Transport measures 15 stretches of the M3 mainline, and the numbers explain a good deal about where the M3 goes wrong first:

Stretch	Vehicles per day	Lorries
J13 Chilworth to J14 (M27)	140,750	9,901
J12 Eastleigh to J13 Chilworth	130,785	9,893
J11 Compton to J12 Eastleigh	128,023	9,384
J10 Chilcomb to J11 Compton	126,217	11,545

Around one vehicle in eleven is a lorry on the busiest stretches, rising to one in ten either side of Junction 9 where the A34 freight joins — and a broken-down HGV in a live lane takes far longer to clear than a car. See M3 traffic statistics, the M3 junction by junction, or M3 lorry and freight traffic.

Going one way?

You are not driving both carriageways at once. See M3 northbound traffic or M3 southbound traffic, or pick your stretch from the M3 junction pages.