The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.
There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).
Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.
And Skeg DEFINITELY has substandard roads leading to it. The A17 is awful, and once you reach my "beautiful" home town of Boston, you'll grind to a halt for hours, regardless of day or time due to lack of any decent engineering or a bypass, and the A52 beyond is not much better. Skeg really isn't worth it!
And Skeg DEFINITELY has substandard roads leading to it. The A17 is awful, and once you reach my "beautiful" home town of Boston, you'll grind to a halt for hours, regardless of day or time due to lack of any decent engineering or a bypass, and the A52 beyond is not much better. Skeg really isn't worth it!
Surely from Leeds you can go via Lincoln and the A158? That's a bit better, missing out Boston (which is slightly better coming in on the A52 from the west, than the A16 from the south).
I've done various routes heading back from Skegness - when a couple of thousand people leave Butlins at the same time, you want to be not hitting Boston at the same time, on the same route. The A158/A16 route was always quicker than the A52. However, heading to Southampton, the best route was A158/A46 (down to Warwick, rather than Newark - there's a road that needs dualling - good job it is!)
"“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations" Thomas Jefferson
Poisonally, my favourite route to Skeggy (from Yorks) is M180-Brigg-A1084 and then the marvellous yet underrated B1225. It's a smooth road full of sweeping bends brushing the side of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
stu531 wrote:Poisonally, my favourite route to Skeggy (from Yorks) is M180-Brigg-A1084 and then the marvellous yet underrated B1225. It's a smooth road full of sweeping bends brushing the side of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
I tried to do the B1225 last September, but it was closed and there was a lengthy diversion via Wragby and Market Rasen. Very disappointing.
si404 wrote:Surely from Leeds you can go via Lincoln and the A158? That's a bit better, missing out Boston (which is slightly better coming in on the A52 from the west, than the A16 from the south)
Yeah, you are quite right. It's just that I don't usually go to Skeg, I make regular journeys home from Leeds to Boston, so M62, A1, A17, A1121, A52 is really the only way to go, and Boston fills up with Skeg-bound traffic coming from all directions. If I was heading straight from Leeds to Skeg, I would go via Lincoln.
Last Saturday, a line of stationary cars and caravans about half a mile long had formed on the A1 waiting to turn off onto the A17 at Newark. I decided to head further south, come off at Grantham and use the A52- big mistake. Took 45 minutes to get through Grantham and out onto open round..... Anyway, we're severely off topic now, so I'll stop. Let's veer slightly back onto topic by pointing out that at least Skeg actually does have quite a variety of valid approaches - unlike Scarborough!
stu531 wrote:Poisonally, my favourite route to Skeggy (from Yorks) is M180-Brigg-A1084 and then the marvellous yet underrated B1225. It's a smooth road full of sweeping bends brushing the side of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
andy_birkett wrote:Skeg actually does have quite a variety of valid approaches - unlike Scarborough!
Sorry to disagree old chap but I think there are a few alternatives.
I went to Scarbo a few weeks ago and took the A170. It was marvellously short of traffic. Took the A64 home, which wasn't too bad (first Saturday of summer holidays - surreal)... but could've taken the B1249/B1253 route otherwise.
Seems the HA aren't so appreciative of the Hopgrove Roundabout 'improvements' either.
Bill Woolley, director of City Strategy and deputy chief executive of City of York Council, said: "The notice is for up to a six month period and can be lifted by the Highways Agency at any point prior to this, when they are satisfied that all matters have been addressed."
Oakgate (contractors) said it would work closely with the Highways Agency and the City of York Council to resolve the issues relating to the road network.
Seems the HA aren't so appreciative of the Hopgrove Roundabout 'improvements' either.
Me thinks it wouldn't be a bad idea for York City Council & the HA to lean on the developers of the stadium to fund improvement of the A64 Hopgrove - Barton section to dual-carriageway including grade-separation of Hopgrove Roundabout.
Me thinks it wouldn't be a bad idea for York City Council & the HA to lean on the developers of the stadium to fund improvement of the A64 Hopgrove - Barton section to dual-carriageway including grade-separation of Hopgrove Roundabout.
Think this is a good idea something really needs doing, at the moment I'm working in York and staying in Malton and have to say the A64 is really bad every morning its a slow line of traffic and when I was coming back from work on sunday it was the worst I've ever seen it the traffic coming from the coast was queued from the Hopgrove roundabout right back to Malton including the whole of the D2 section at Barton, that's 14 miles! dread to think what the summer will be like!
Lets face it the hopgrove is a mess and really needs sorting as does the A64 east getting some funding from the developer is a good idea! I know a Junction at Malton on the A64 is getting new slip roads and roundabouts all paid for by the council but will be claimed back from future developments been planned for the town over the next few years!
Well I passed the Hopgrove roundabout Leeds bound Yesterday and saw the worst traffic Jams I have ever seen here, the traffic was slow from Malton back to the Hopgrove but from the Hopgrove the queue was solid right back onto the A1(M) where it then continued back on the M1 to near the A63/A6120 Leeds ring road Junction! Which by my mileage counter was over 27 miles! thats not including all the queued traffic between York and Malton.
Now the weather yesterday was nice but not the most amazing, it does not seem to matter these days, everyday I have used the A64 this week its been queued and at most times of the day, yesterday I saw people turning around on slip roads between York and Leeds and on the York Bypass as to avoid the Jams.
Looking at all the facts here in an ideal world the Hopgrove would be a GSJ, but it could cope, the only thing that can ever solve this problem is dualling Malton to York, it suffers terrible congestion now throughout the year, many local people have to avoid it and avoid the Junctions where people take daily risks due to the long waiting time to turn out of side roads, a road like the A64 anywhere else in the world would be at least a D2, its only a matter of time before something has got to be done!
Interesting.
Since Hopgrove was finished I haven't had to queue to get through there.
The most recent trip was Saturday 22nd when we past through at about 9:45 in the morning heading to Scarborough and returning around 8:00 in the evening. Going we were the third and last car at the lights and returning we did not stop at all.
I appreciate this is only on occasional trips and it could be different on other days and time but I have to say I always queued more before the works were started than I have done since they were completed and my trips are slightly more frequent now (6-8 times a year as against 3-4 times before)
Interesting.
Since Hopgrove was finished I haven't had to queue to get through there.The most recent trip was Saturday 22nd when we past through at about 9:45 in the morning heading to Scarborough and returning around 8:00 in the evening. Going we were the third and last car at the lights and returning we did not stop at all.
I appreciate this is only on occasional trips and it could be different on other days and time but I have to say I always queued more before the works were started than I have done since they were completed and my trips are slightly more frequent now (6-8 times a year as against 3-4 times before)
Well this makes sense, think somewhere along the way travel times have had a major change on the A64, for example now queues form coastbound from about 10:30am and last through till late afternoon sometimes, as for in the evening Its queued from about 3pm til around 7pm heading back, friday evening is also now a major peak time for people heading coastbound for the weekend and of course sunday is always the worst coming back!
Malton to York is always slow your very lucky if you get through that ok, I must say though the Hopgrove really does work for the A1237 as before it was a major week night congestion black spot, since working in York I have noticed how and at what times the A64 is congested!
Also on the evening return from the coast the A64 never queues at the Hopgrove it always slows near Stockton on the forest and queues back from there onto the D2 between Malton and York and also on the Malton Bypass.
I went towards Hopgrove at about 2pm on Saturday heading to Malton, and the queue was back to the A1079. So I turned off there and went Gate Helmsley way. I'm pretty sure I saved a bit of time, but there is no way that Hopgrove continues to be an 'improvement'. It really needed a GSJ - and of course, the whole A64 needs dualling as we all know.
stu531 wrote:I went towards Hopgrove at about 2pm on Saturday heading to Malton, and the queue was back to the A1079.
That's not uncommon for a summer Saturday, neither is the congestion from Hopgrove to Stockton that others have described, nor the queues coming back on the Malton bypass. If I'm travelling on a summer weekend I invariably go A166/B1253/B1249, unless it's either the crack of dawn or very late at night (I've been caught out before assuming the A64 would be OK at 9.30am coastbound and 9.00pm inbound, and it wasn't ). Quicker or not, "the Sledmere way" is more pleasant than a congested A64 (just don't tell the whole world about it )
I've never known it queue back to the M1 though, despite doing the run a dozen times a year since about 2003. Was this really just "sheer volume" or had there been some sort of incident?
stu531 wrote:I went towards Hopgrove at about 2pm on Saturday heading to Malton, and the queue was back to the A1079. So I turned off there and went Gate Helmsley way. I'm pretty sure I saved a bit of time, but there is no way that Hopgrove continues to be an 'improvement'. It really needed a GSJ - and of course, the whole A64 needs dualling as we all know.
I've said it before and I'll say it again ... the improvements to the Hopgrove roundabout were not and could not be about improving traffic flow on the A64. Until the money is found to dual the A64 to the east of Hopgrove, it will remain a congestion blackspot. Even dualling a couple of miles would probably help, as it would spread out the capacity reduction so it didn't all happen at the same place (A64 plus traffic from A1036 and A1237).
The purpose of the improvement was to improve traffic flow from the A1036 and A1237 onto the S/W-bound A64, by preventing N/E-bound traffic from blocking the roundabout. It has achieved this very successfully. Queues on the A1036 and A1237 (at that point!) are now much shorter and well within an acceptable measure for peak-time traffic.
If a GSJ had been put in, it wouldn't have helped the throughput of the junction significantly, if at all. Any gains that were made for traffic on the A64 would very likely have been at the expense of E-bound traffic coming from A1036 and A1237. The capacity restriction of an S2 road heading towards the coast means that it's a zero sum game - if you allow more traffic from the A64 (W) then you necessarily reduce the traffic from the other roads.
). Quicker or not, "the Sledmere way" is more pleasant than a congested A64 (just don't tell the whole world about it 
)
