By Tom Symonds BBC Transport correspondent

Official figures to be published on Thursday are expected to reveal a rise in the amount of traffic on the UK's roads last year.

The national statistics are likely to show an increase of around 1.2 % - more than the previous year - when the fuel protest reduced the amount of traffic.

The AA is warning that many 'A' roads are not designed to cope with growing numbers of cars and lorries.

The association wants more money spent on improving existing roads as well as building new ones.

Traffic levels have been growing steadily for the last 10 years.

Warning over state of roads

Last year we drove a total of nearly 300 billion miles. There is six times as much traffic as there was in the 1950s.

The government has spent the last five years trying to reduce the amount of traffic - with little success.

There are some signs of progress though - rail travel is growing quickly and the increase in car use has slowed down - partly because of the high price of petrol.

But the AA is worried that our roads cannot cope - it believes single carriage A roads in particular are not designed to carry modern day levels of traffic.

The AA's analysts are claiming the accident rate of these roads is going up, particularly in rural areas of Scotland, North Yorkshire, and Cambridgeshire.

They want more money spent on improving junctions, installing barriers and smoothing out bends, even if it means building fewer motorways, and bypasses.