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I'll nominate my nearest bit of D2 - on the A260, here.
Once upon a time it was part of the A20, the main road to Dover and to Folkestone's Harbour. Now the A20 has moved and the harbour is hardly used, so this bit of D2 seems a bit out of place.
It is 30mph, not very long (so not really much point in overtaking) and has a pelican crossing at the western end. It does however bypass the houses on Hill Road which has its own "distributor road" for local traffic, so perhaps it does have some uses.
Failing that, how about the Canterbury ring road - which is just pathetic, anyway?
There are still three very short Dual Carriageway pieces on the A272 between Petworth and Midhurst. The Dual Carriageway signs unfortunately seem to have been removed (I am sure that I remember them).
I have to admit that I usually make sure that I enjoy my brief spell at 70 along these bits if I can...
I'll nominate (in Ireland) the Naas-Newbridge section of the R445 - an eeriely quite dual carrigeway, made obsolete by the paranel M7. Made famous when a minister drove the wrong way down it last year...
I have to nominate my nearest part of D2 as well - there is a 300 yard section on the A6 south of Hathern, right up to the speed limit signs. All it seems to do is encourage drivers to get a desperate overtake in before hitting the speed limit and either braking sharply or just carrying on a t speed into the village. Just seems to be dangerous on the Northbound carriageway. Very odd indeed.
Why? Two words, Sheriffhall Roundabout! - The only at grade junction on the route and at peak times is horrendous! Everyone tries to avoid it at rush hour which means that all the roads near it have become rat runs and are just as busy.
I nominate the c50 yards of D1 here. It's so short it doesn't even merit a dual carriageway symbol on the 1:25k OS mapping.
As you approach the railway bridge on the B4455 northbound, the lanes split (so technically it's a dual carriageway!) and the northbound lane swings out to the left. The southbound carriageway is widened to incorporate a right filter for the road to Wolston. Only problem is, the railway bridge is narrow -- you can fit two ordinary cars side by side if they're going slowly, but not at 60 (the limit at that point) and not if one or both is an SUV or bigger vehicle. Because of the bend in the northbound carriageway, you can't see if anything's coming through the bridge until you're on it.
If they'd left it as what I imagine was the original alignment from when the railway was built (ie straightish -- this is a Roman road after all) you'd be able to see if there was a bus coming the other way and slow down and give way accordingly.
A classic case of engineering a control for one hazard (right turners sitting in the middle of the road) without considering the impact on or creation of other hazards (combining an S1 stretch with a blind bend on a road where the limit is 60 and for most of its length it's perfectly reasonable to do 60).
So not just pathetic but pointless and dangerous into the bargain...
philnic wrote:I have to nominate my nearest part of D2 as well - there is a 300 yard section on the A6 south of Hathern, right up to the speed limit signs. All it seems to do is encourage drivers to get a desperate overtake in before hitting the speed limit and either braking sharply or just carrying on a t speed into the village. Just seems to be dangerous on the Northbound carriageway. Very odd indeed.
I quite agree. I don't drive north from Loughboro that often, but I often encounter horrendous jams in the town due to accidents on the A6 to the north, quite possibly caused by people doing the thing you mention.
I suspect at one time many highway authorities had a policy of building short stretches of dual carriageway to provide overtaking opportunities on S2 roads.
“The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Hagbard wrote:I nominate the B6374 near Melrose. About 150 metres long and so utterly pathetic that it doesn't show on the 1:50000. On the other hand it is the only stretch of D2 in the Borders apart from the A1.
Good Choice, It's also the only Dual Carridgeway within 30 miles and is the only place you can legal travel faster than 60 mph. It is also the only section of Dual Carridgeway Scottish Borders Council is responsible for maintaining.
I'll have to nominate the B4148. The Birmingham bit's a fairly normal D2 with space for the number 79 tram (RIP) down the middle. The Sutton Coldfield bit is pathetic. It's got a narrow S2 bridge over the Midland Railway Sutton Park Line (surely a candidate for "Pathetic Railways"), followed by an almost-dual carriageway - it's S2 on the southbound carriageway, with most of the northbound carriageway present but deliberately rendered unusable.
Looks better than nothing. If you've been following a truck doing 40 along that bendy bit to the south for several miles with no overtaking chances, you'd welcome enough D2 to get past.
Looks like they gave a bypass to the village and in the process made it D2 -- a far easier proposition from all angles than dualling the entire existing road.
Looks better than nothing. If you've been following a truck doing 40 along that bendy bit to the south for several miles with no overtaking chances, you'd welcome enough D2 to get past.
Yes, but the Marsh section is not usually enough D2 to pass. The lengthy slow section previously passed usually results in a queue of traffic between you and the vehicle holding you up. At the start of the D2 all these vehicles floor the accelerator and create a queue of overtaking vehicles.
Very true. It's actually quite dangerous, because people put the pedal to the metal, all trying to out-accelerate each other, and end up coming off the end of the D2 way too fast. I've often found myself doing well over the limit on the narrow S2 to the E of Marsh.
Also, the merges for the sliproads are ludicrously short. Even if the A30/A303 is not going to get dualled between [url=http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x ... search.srf" target="_blank]Stopgate[/url]: not only would this provide a safer overtaking opportunity, but it would cut out the nasty, wiggly, uneven section of road that the HA's just spent GBP++ stabilising
On busy afternoons, it only functions with the aid of a couple of police - they use their car to block the gap in the reservation and act as traffic control between cars exiting the park and 'ordinary' traffic on the A456.
It's designed to provide a way for traffic to safely leave the safari park and turn right towards their little black country homes, and that is what it does on all except the busiest bank holidays.
The fact that on busy summer days it isn't enough is hardly surprising, but doesn't mean the situation would be better without the D2 there! I think the best option would indeed be part time lights that are switched on for busy days at the safari park.
Actually, no, that would be a sensible and do-able option, but the best option would be the Kiddy southern bypass joining on to the KBH bypass and then on to the western orbital, motorway!!
You have to think of it in that sense, the safari park have been somewhat shafted by the fact that their plans were scuppered by the bypass cancellations. I'm sure the current situation was only ever put in as an interim measure until the bypass came. How long has that bit of D2 been there? It is certainly as long as my family have been there (1977).
How about various Cumbrian ones (and probably elsewhere), where the road was duelled simply by building a new carriageway approximately next to the old one, which is still very windy. The A66 by Bassenthwaite (very twisty going north, smooth and straight going south, where it was built on top of the old railway) and the A591 a little north of Thirlmere (quite hard to actually overtake safely on that bit, going south) are good examples. Then a bit further down the A591 there is the very short section right on top of Dunmail Raise.
This one south of Salisbury is a little short. Northbound it's mostly all 1 lane now, southbound requires some effort up the hill to overtake anything, and doing so often feels quite unsafe.
There's a few on the A35 aswell, around Bridport area. This is close to a SABRE landmark, and this is another short one. Both of them get a little interesting at the merge point when it's busy.
Someone in the area obviously likes these things, here's another, although I've no personal experience of it.
- The only at grade junction on the route and at peak times is horrendous! Everyone tries to avoid it at rush hour which means that all the roads near it have become rat runs and are just as busy.
