The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Euan
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Euan »

Today I travelled from Ayrshire with my dad to climb Ben Cruachan in Argyll. As usual when we are up that way we crossed the Erskine Bridge and took the A82 up along the side of Loch Lomond towards Crianlarich. Since it was a bank holiday today we knew that the A82 at Loch Lomond would be very busy and queuing by the early evening, so we decided to return via the A819/A83/A815 route to Dunoon and across the Clyde by ferry to Gourock, returning down the coast on the A78. Even during a weekend evening the A82 at Loch Lomond can be very congested, and it is not the first time we have returned via Western Ferries.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by multiraider2 »

A glutton for punishment, I look the family out again today. Of course the only trouble was on the main roads. The A3 at the Guildford bypass was slow but moving but what gives with Hickley's Corner on the A31? It's a B road crossing. OK I'm aware its a route stright into Central Farnham, but surely there has to be a better solution than a three-phase lights? The amount of green time for the main A31 was frankly scandoulous. I was reminded of the bad old days of the Hockley Interchange. The A3 was fine at the A31 junction and I should have taken that and the B3006 to get to Chawton.

Later, the A31 was also fairly poor at the end of the dual carriageway before Four Marks. Some of that seemed to be the time people were taking to accelerate away once the road opened up in the single lane section itself. Otherwise the B3047 and B3049 were fine to get me to Stockbridge.
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Alderpoint
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Alderpoint »

Travelled a road I've hardly ever been on today. Landed at Portsmouth about 1pm from France, and took the A38/A30/A303/M3 to Basingstoke. Pretty free-running all the way. Having never travelled this route before (living in the Midlands) it was a bit suprising: long sections of oldish-D2 interspersed with twisty 50mph S2 sections, with some S2+1 and short sections of S3. I can see why it is a popular route - hardly goes through any towns, only a few small villages but these really needed bypassing.

The only bit which was slow was past Stonehenge where everyone slowed down to gawp at the tourists gawping at Stonehenge. Having come back from visting the Alignments of Carnac, and last October seeing many ancient ruins in Malta, Stonehenge strikes me as a bit small....
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

Alderpoint wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 21:52 Travelled a road I've hardly ever been on today. Landed at Portsmouth about 1pm from France, and took the A38/A30/A303/M3 to Basingstoke. Pretty free-running all the way. Having never travelled this route before (living in the Midlands) it was a bit suprising: long sections of oldish-D2 interspersed with twisty 50mph S2 sections, with some S2+1 and short sections of S3. I can see why it is a popular route - hardly goes through any towns, only a few small villages but these really needed bypassing.

The only bit which was slow was past Stonehenge where everyone slowed down to gawp at the tourists gawping at Stonehenge. Having come back from visting the Alignments of Carnac, and last October seeing many ancient ruins in Malta, Stonehenge strikes me as a bit small....
Portsmouth or Plymouth? :)
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NICK 647063
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Yesterday I had a lovely visit to Scarborough apparently this place has had a 300% increase in booking in the last year and it was already popular before, knowing exactly what the A64 is like i went at 7:30am and although slow I made it in good time, by 8:30 the A64 from the Flaxton area was already showing delays back to the A1079 at York and this went on most of the day.

looking at google live traffic today the A64 was queuing at 7am around the Hopgrove in York, I suspect as the large shopping centres are closed even more will head to the coast, I do find the A64 queues getting earlier and earlier, its got a massive population of Leeds and West Yorkshire which is only 70 miles at the other end of the A64 and Leeds seems to love to east coast!

I'm used to seeing Scarborough busy but yesterday it was completely packed and had a lovely vibe about it, everyone was having fun it must be fantastic for local businesses, even though the A64 is a poor, congested link people still battle through, it does make you wonder how many more would come if it was improved as the A64 has a poor reputation, The Fulford to Barton Hill A64 section was listed as one of the worst expected traffic hotspots in the country for the easter weekend, defiantly not wrong.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Alderpoint »

Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 22:02 Portsmouth or Plymouth? :)
Plymouth!
Not much difference really, both port places on the south coast. I always get Nottingham and Northampton mixed up too: both some places.just off the M1.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

Alderpoint wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 09:57
Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 22:02 Portsmouth or Plymouth? :)
Plymouth!
Not much difference really, both port places on the south coast. I always get Nottingham and Northampton mixed up too: both some places.just off the M1.
Do you ever end up in the wrong place ?
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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NICK 647063 wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 09:12 Yesterday I had a lovely visit to Scarborough apparently this place has had a 300% increase in booking in the last year and it was already popular before, knowing exactly what the A64 is like i went at 7:30am and although slow I made it in good time, by 8:30 the A64 from the Flaxton area was already showing delays back to the A1079 at York and this went on most of the day.

looking at google live traffic today the A64 was queuing at 7am around the Hopgrove in York, I suspect as the large shopping centres are closed even more will head to the coast, I do find the A64 queues getting earlier and earlier, its got a massive population of Leeds and West Yorkshire which is only 70 miles at the other end of the A64 and Leeds seems to love to east coast!

I'm used to seeing Scarborough busy but yesterday it was completely packed and had a lovely vibe about it, everyone was having fun it must be fantastic for local businesses, even though the A64 is a poor, congested link people still battle through, it does make you wonder how many more would come if it was improved as the A64 has a poor reputation, The Fulford to Barton Hill A64 section was listed as one of the worst expected traffic hotspots in the country for the easter weekend, defiantly not wrong.
The A171 from Teesside to Whitby and Scarborough was crawling along on Friday morning and is not much better this morning with people making day trips, personally I am going no further than my back garden, there is a bottle of white wine chilling in the fridge and my DAB radio and Kindle are fully charged :)
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by trickstat »

Bank Holiday traffic can vary massively according to what journey you are making IME. I drove to SE London and back yesterday (with a few hour's gap inbetween) and the traffic was lighter than usual despite all the warnings advising people to avoid Central London that may have pushed some extra traffic towards the roads I was on.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Robert Kilcoyne »

KeithW wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:14
NICK 647063 wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 09:12 Yesterday I had a lovely visit to Scarborough apparently this place has had a 300% increase in booking in the last year and it was already popular before, knowing exactly what the A64 is like i went at 7:30am and although slow I made it in good time, by 8:30 the A64 from the Flaxton area was already showing delays back to the A1079 at York and this went on most of the day.

looking at google live traffic today the A64 was queuing at 7am around the Hopgrove in York, I suspect as the large shopping centres are closed even more will head to the coast, I do find the A64 queues getting earlier and earlier, its got a massive population of Leeds and West Yorkshire which is only 70 miles at the other end of the A64 and Leeds seems to love to east coast!

I'm used to seeing Scarborough busy but yesterday it was completely packed and had a lovely vibe about it, everyone was having fun it must be fantastic for local businesses, even though the A64 is a poor, congested link people still battle through, it does make you wonder how many more would come if it was improved as the A64 has a poor reputation, The Fulford to Barton Hill A64 section was listed as one of the worst expected traffic hotspots in the country for the easter weekend, defiantly not wrong.
The A171 from Teesside to Whitby and Scarborough was crawling along on Friday morning and is not much better this morning with people making day trips, personally I am going no further than my back garden, there is a bottle of white wine chilling in the fridge and my DAB radio and Kindle are fully charged :)
It does not help matters when the A64 and the A171 are the only routes which can be used by caravanners, as caravans are of course not allowed on the A170 at Sutton Bank.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Alderpoint wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 21:52 The only bit which was slow was past Stonehenge where everyone slowed down to gawp at the tourists gawping at Stonehenge. Having come back from visting the Alignments of Carnac, and last October seeing many ancient ruins in Malta, Stonehenge strikes me as a bit small....
If you ever find yourself in Argyll try and make time to visit Kilmartin Glen. It has historic monuments everywhere starting with Dunadd where in AD 500 it was settled by Gaelic settlers founding the Kingdom of Dál Riata (Dalriada in English) where St Columba founded the monastery at Iona . Dunadd was a hill fort that was its first capital and the place where its Kings were anointed. Nearby Kilmartin Glen was already a sacred place in the stone age with sites such as Temple Wood, with its twin stone circles, Dunchraigaig Cairn, Ri Cruin Cairn, Nether Largie South Cairn and the Nether Largie Standing Stones.

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No gift shops, no fences, no problems parking, no crowds and gorgeous scenery instead of drab, flat Salisbury Plain. It takes rather more effort to get to than Stonehenge though.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:21
Alderpoint wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 09:57
Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 22:02 Portsmouth or Plymouth? :)
Plymouth!
Not much difference really, both port places on the south coast. I always get Nottingham and Northampton mixed up too: both some places.just off the M1.
Do you ever end up in the wrong place ?
:-) No never.

I have an extremely good sense of direction and although I use a satnav I commonly don't follow it and take an alternative more interesting route.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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KeithW wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:41
Alderpoint wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 21:52 Stonehenge strikes me as a bit small....
If you ever find yourself in Argyll try and make time to visit Kilmartin Glen.
Sounds worth a trip. Unfortunately not a part of Scotland I'm likely to get to in the foreseeable future.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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I had to use the A303 today even though I feared the worse around Stonehenge. The approach to Winterbourne Stoke was moving at 10:34 this morning although it was way below NSL speeds. I've just looked at the traffic now and it's solid from the end of the D2 as far as the stones. It's amazing how it clears up immediately afterwards and it goes to show that rubbernecking at the monument is the cause of the mayhem :@
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Truvelo wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 16:16 I had to use the A303 today even though I feared the worse around Stonehenge. The approach to Winterbourne Stoke was moving at 10:34 this morning although it was way below NSL speeds. I've just looked at the traffic now and it's solid from the end of the D2 as far as the stones. It's amazing how it clears up immediately afterwards and it goes to show that rubbernecking at the monument is the cause of the mayhem :@
If just one rubbernecker slows, everyone behind has to slow and in heavy congestion that just goes on until the congestion eases.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Still queueing through Winterborne Stoke e/bnd now. Also up Stockton hill, end of Mere bypass and slow on the M3 around Fleet. M5 from WSM to Clevedon. Earlier it was most of the A303 and A30 from Honiton. A30 and A38/A380 at Exeter and M5 from Tiverton to Clevedon. People delaying departure as long as possible, due to the best Easter weather for a long time.
Good Friday was just as its name suggests as well. Still slow w/bnd at Stonehenge at 10.30pm Friday evening. Why? How can you take a photo in the dark from that distance?

Looking forward to Whitsun already. :popcorn:
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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I have to make a confession. Even though I had a clear run on the single carriageway sections at Chicklade and Wylye I wasn't going to chance it after Winterbourne Stoke so used the B3083 to Shrewton and then went through Larkhill and Bulford. That route was completely deserted and even later in the day when I made my earlier post the route through Larkhill is showing green as though no one knows about it to avoid the queue.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by SteveA30 »

Satnavs seem to know some tricks but, not all. Many were taking the old A30, as I was hoping, from Pathfinder Village or even Woodleigh, to avoid the queue for the M5, despite the A30 flowing freely at those junctions. Further on, it was stationary. Likewise the A38 at Kennford, many taking the bypass at Peamore, causing nice retro queues after the first mile or so.
I think the A38 up to Bristol deserves attention at Whitsun.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

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Truvelo wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 22:27I have to make a confession. Even though I had a clear run on the single carriageway sections at Chicklade and Wylye I wasn't going to chance it after Winterbourne Stoke so used the B3083 to Shrewton and then went through Larkhill and Bulford. That route was completely deserted and even later in the day when I made my earlier post the route through Larkhill is showing green as though no one knows about it to avoid the queue.
I did that once when I was coming back from Dorset, although I changed my plans at the last minute. I was almost going to have a stop in Salisbury, but thought seeing as I was so near to Stonehenge I’d just plough on there instead.

It was about 4pm, and instead of taking the A360 as I meant to, I took the A345 at Castle roundabout, by mistake. Don’t worry, I told myself, you can cut across later. Well, that was the plan, of course I don’t have a sat-nav.

I must’ve driven past Old Sarum, almost as far as the Beehive, and then taken the road I thought would take me back to the A360. It does, of course, but I turned off too early, and took the turn to the Woodfords and West Amesbury.

Although that does eventually take you back to the A303 (it’s slow, but more twisting than anything), it is east of the stones, and not Longbarrow Roundabout which is what I wanted. After much :@ :bang: :censored: :@, I made it back there, but I decided as it was so late I wanted to fill up as well. So I plodded on to Winterbourne, filled the car up, and headed north to Shrewton, and the back way to the visitor centre.

I probably lost an hour doing that, and 20 mins from the West Amesbury turn back to Winterbourne Stoke.
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Re: The bank holiday weekend. Staying off the main roads

Post by Berk »

Anyway, today I had a nice, chilled day in the Welland Valley - around Rockingham Castle and Rutland - just 30 miles from home. Lots of nice, free-flowing local roads. Magic. :)

In fact, I’d often suggest not going terribly far on a bank holiday, just somewhere you’d drive to using local roads where you can.
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