Worst motorway junction in Britain

[Danno B10M]

The north facing slips at J15 came in very useful for traffic using the A50, before and during the Pathfinder works.

[Gavin A74]

M8 J20 kingston bridge (source of M8 jams)

IMHO, I would say J22 (M77) is worse than J20. A grand total of 5 lanes going down to 3 (OK, 6 but 90% of cars use the inner carriageway). In fact, traffic is generally worse on the approach to the junction than after it (there is a lane drop on the M8 not to mention all the traffic merging in).

If they would change the bridge itself from D3+2M to D5M, the traffic might improve .

[A8000Bob]

If they would change the bridge itself from D3+2M to D5M, the traffic might improve .

Why do you think it was changed from D5?

[Halstead]

dont forget westbound M26 here. one of the reasons i placed this junction here.

Still I'd like to question if there is any real reason to build the extra slip roads. I way I see it most traffic from the A21 like Tunbridge Wells may use existing roads like the A228 and A26 to get to other parts of mid Kent like Maidstone and the medway towns therefore it won't be heavily used by long distance traffic.

The extra slips would actually be very beneficial to those from Sevenoaks because of them having to use the A25 near Borough Green to access the M26. Still if the Chevening junction is rejected by certain reasons than a better alternative is to build limited eastbound slips on the A225 onto the M26 for enchanced access. I've mentioned this before and the dual carrigeway on the A225 north of Sainsburys alludes how it were meant for something much more important.

[TimM3-A55]

M50 junction 3 also has to be amongst the worst. It may be acceptable for the traffic levels I agree, but this is barely acceptable for a busy dualled A road...

The M50 beary counts as busy even for a A-road DC.

I'd like to nomiate J6 on the M3 (inadition, not worsed) for the same ressons as the M40 J15, I consider both to be highly dangers. I'm origanly local to the B'stoke area so know whats there and to aviod it. J15 on the M40 looks like being fixed soon. I've considerd many options on (cheap) fixes to the M3 juc, one being converting the Hrad shoulder to a running lane for around 1/2mile before the junc just for exsiting trafftic (allowing exsiting traffic to que off the main flow). another could be a simple lane drop through the junc, I think enough traffic uses the juction for that to work.

[matto763]

M60/M62 J12 with M602. Surely a candidate and the only motorway crash I've had.

[JamesA44]

I've never thought M40 J15 was particularly bad. Whereas Catthorpe definitely is, in so many ways.

I also think M6 J7 is just stupid!

[Johnathan404]

What's wrong with M3 J6? I've used it several times and never had a problem.

I've already said my thoughts on Longbridge, Tollbar and Catthorpe.

[jackal]

How anyone can vote for anything except Switch Island is beyond me. For Catthorpe to be in the same league you'd have to replace the bridge taking the M6 over the M1 with a signalized roundabout...

[Johnathan404]

How anyone can vote for anything except Switch Island is beyond me. For Catthorpe to be in the same league you'd have to replace the bridge taking the M6 over the M1 with a signalized roundabout...

Erm, the M1 and the M6 are quite possibly the country's two most important motorways. The M57 and M58 on the other hand...

[jackal]

Erm, the M1 and the M6 are quite possibly the country's two most important motorways. The M57 and M58 on the other hand...

Granted, but the point is that Catthorpe treats the M1 and M6 perfectly well. It's true that the A14 gets a raw deal, but that's just one important dual carriageway, compared to the three important DCs and two motorways that get a true monstering at Switch Island. The functionality of the junctions just doesn't compare at all.

[Stevie D]

They are all bad except for Chevening. I don't know why people think it's so bad. It's fully freeflow and although one key movement is missing and the M25 TOTSO's it's a brilliant piece of engineering. The queuing below is caused by a lack of capacity on the M25 rather than the junction itself.

The problems with Chevening are:

The majority traffic flow is M25 <-> M25, which requires traffic to turn off, and in the clockwise direction, take a sharp bend to join the right-hand side of another carriageway.
The design of the split on the clockwise carriageway is meant to allow traffic in the middle lane to take either the M25 or A21, but in practice, too many drivers get in the left lane, then continue in a straight line as the middle lane splits, making it difficult to take the M25 from the middle lane at busy times.

The missing turns to/from the M26 mean that some movements are not catered for, which is always a problem at a 4-way intersection, especially as it creates an 18-mile section with no exit.

[Stevie D]

It was close between Simister Island (my eventual choice), Catthorpe and Cherwell Valley.

I've gone for Simister, because it's just appalling tha traffic remaining on a motorway should have to negotiate three sets of traffic lights to do so! If the M60 didn't exist, and Simister was still where the M66 crossed the M62, I wouldn't consider it half as bad!

Catthorpe is horrendous, no question about that, but you can see why it was built like it was.

Cherwell Valley is just plain ludicrous. They had a perfectly good junction layout that worked fine, and then they criss-crossed traffic flows over each other, added an extra roundabout, and put tight 180-degree bends on the entry slip roads to encourage rollovers and dangerous slow merging.

Of the other candidates:

Longbridge is not a bad junction, it's just a bit underspecified for the traffic using it, but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the design.

M27/M271 is a perfectly good junction to have where a D2 non-primary A-road crosses a motorway. And that's all the M271 is. It's a D2 non-primary A-road that's got an identity crisis.

Switch Island looks pretty chaotic, but also looks pretty well out of the strategic network so I don't have a problem with it.

Kingston Bridge, I've no idea about.

Gildersome was only just outside the shortlist. If it hadn't been for all the industrial development around it, there wouldn't be any great problem. And getting rid of IKEA would be no bad thing...

Other candidates:

M58/M6 - what a shambles.

M58 J5 - what an absolute joke. Three times round in a circle to turn left - definitely a junction of the 1960s!

I'm also tempted to nominate M1 J45

[RoadaddictReece]

stevie D wrote:

Kingston Bridge, I've no idea about.

On a map it looks like a fork with north entry / south exit but its the queues it causes. its why the M8 in glasgow is an impressive road but it is why it always jams up. J20 is bad for that reason.

[jackal]

stevie D wrote:

Kingston Bridge, I've no idea about.

On a map it looks like a fork with north entry / south exit but its the queues it causes. its why the M8 in glasgow is an impressive road but it is why it always jams up. J20 is bad for that reason.

I think you're attributing too much (both good and bad) to J20. The drop from five lanes over the bridge to two through the city centre would generate congestion whether J20 was there or not. And you need five lanes over the bridge to accommodate M8+M77. The M74 extension should alleviate the congestion a little anyway.

I also think it's harsh to put M25/M26, A46/A429, M62/M621, and M27/M271 here for reasons people have mentioned. Though they're not the worst pieces of engineering I can at least see that Simister Island and Catthorpe are badly overloaded junctions of national importance.

[Ben302]

I'd nominate the M20 J4 - it WAS a good junction but it has progressively deteriorated as the traffic levels increased and now despite recent improvements it going to get gridlocked on a daily basis as a roundabout just to the north of the junction is being replaced with a signal controlled junction. I used it today and it took me 20 minutes to get from the A20 to the roundabout on the A228 for Cuxton village - a distance of maybe 1 mile

[a228_mb]

I'd nominate the M20 J4 - it WAS a good junction but it has progressively deteriorated as the traffic levels increased and now despite recent improvements it going to get gridlocked on a daily basis as a roundabout just to the north of the junction is being replaced with a signal controlled junction. I used it today and it took me 20 minutes to get from the A20 to the roundabout on the A228 for Cuxton village - a distance of maybe 1 mile

Hmmm, would have to disagree with you on this one. The signals aren't too bad, though the new A228 roundabout just southeast of the junction is a joke. To be fair, there is more congestion than normal at the moment due to the replacement of the roundabout just north of the junction, but this should be done within a couple of months. Also, there is no way it is a mile from the A20 to Cuxton - more like 5!
Once the roadworks are done, the junction will be OK, though still not great.

[Birchington]

I think the big one is missing: M40 J10. J15 isn't that bad provided you get in the right lane and 'go with the flow', same with Tollbar. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be removed, though.

Out of the ones listed there, Catthorpe is the worst. M27 J3 and M50 J3 are both absolutely fine.

I voted 'Other' because the M40 J10 is certainly one of the worst junctions on the motorway network.

[TimM3-A55]

What's wrong with M3 J6? I've used it several times and never had a problem.

every morning there’s a queue back onto the M3 simply due to the amount of traffic that exists the Motorway there, not shore how bad it is in the evening or whether its bad form the other direction. When I used to drive to collage in the morning id always use the A30 even though I’d cross the M3 at J5.

[Johnathan404]

every morning there’s a queue back onto the M3 simply due to the amount of traffic that exists the Motorway there, not shore how bad it is in the evening or whether its bad form the other direction. When I used to drive to collage in the morning id always use the A30 even though I’d cross the M3 at J5.

That's fair enough (the queues onto the M3 once caused a very serious accident), but when you look at M40 J15 (which you compared it to), a junction which is full of lanes, exits, cars and traffic lights makes this look relatively harmless. The two times I've used it at rush hour were southbound to get off and southbound to get on and it was fine.

I agree it's far from perfect, but how is it any worse than other junctions in a similar situation like M27 J9?

The best solution, I think, is actually to remove signage. By getting people to change lane later, the queue will be spread out across all three lanes until the front. IMO, this is safer than having lane one stationary with lanes two and three blasting by next to it. Just look at M40 J10 vs. J9. If you want to remove the queues all together then we shout try traffic lights at the bottom of the northbound offslip to make it easier for traffic to pull out. The roundabout should be quiet enough for the red light to make no difference.