The A1 in Jersey is an important road, although in places its route is somewhat baffling. The road starts as the `Route de la Liberation`, a relief road designed to speed traffic from the harbour area, avoiding St. Helier town centre. It does its job well, except in rush hour, because at its eastern end, the road slams into a large junction with many S2 roads. Just as we get going, the A1 inadvertently deviates off the D2 route and onto a parallel S2. This is very odd, because you would expect the A1 to be the most important route on the island, but instead the D2, and quicker, route is the A2. Instead, the A1 takes us on a traffic-choked urban route that runs to the north of the D2 road. The decision to award this route to the A1 is even more baffling when we realise that it is not possible to continue onto the next section of the A1 due to a restricted junction. If we had used the A2, this would have been possible, but instead we must continue onto the A11 and then use a series of narrow back roads to reach the next section.
The next part of the A1 is a continuation of the A2 and is very busy, as it leads up to one of the most important junctions on the island. This junction, with the A12, is a `Filter in Turn` arrangement. In the UK, this would not be posible, as it requires patience and consideration for drivers wanting to cross your path to turn onto the A12. Despite this, the junction has regular queues in all directions, particularly during the summer months. After this, we continue westwards on St. Aubins Bay into St. Aubin itself, where we terminate as the road turns sharply right and becomes the A13 towards St. Brelade.
An image has been requested for this article.
