A31 Guildford to Winchester - Were There Bigger Plans?

[DavidNW9]

I am beginning to find such road numbering is primarily nimby driven, local councillors being persuaded to lobby for as many as possible deterrents to avoid traffic passing through their lovely town and not caring where they go instead (see the Harrogate signposting from the A1 at Wetherby for example, or the similar signposting off the M1 for Luton which sends you miles beyond it). Back in the 60s and previously road numbers took priority, so people were more inclined to remember them and would have been sorely confused if they kept chopping and changing, whether or not they had become bypassed (often either longer routes or not going anywhere near where they wanted to go at all), other disasters near me include the A5 and A6, both a shadow of their previous selves, despite no superior route from NW London to St Albans.

The professionals seem to think if it complies with the rules they've done their job, but normal drivers don't know the rules and before (and since in many cases) satnav rely almost entirely on the combination of maps and signs, and totally on maps on the skipped sign junctions I also list elsewhere such as the wonderful Bridges Roundabout in Bracknell which doesn't mention the major route east to Ascot is actually the left turn, and the earlier one in Reading which only advertises the little exit to The Hexagon and not the major underpass you need to stay along the A4.

Winchester though is the very worst of all the cities and towns I've had to go through. The centre is both medieval and extremely complex, and seems designed purely for locals and tourists who are visiting the cathedral. I'm sure given a chance they'd make it like Kingston and Oxford and send everyone round the houses altogether but there's probably nowhere available to do it there. So instead they do their best to divert all comers around it, whether or not they want to do great loops on a motorway to end up cutting back to a point near where they left the A31 before the motorway junction.

Funnily enough I have a Hampshire A-Z I clearly forgot that day as I was going beyond Hampshire and didn't think I needed it. The road actually morphs twice, the old A31 is the B3404 Alresford Road to enter Winchester, enters a complex one way system I can confirm has very few usable signposts, and then pops out the other end as Romsey Road. Exiting Winchester at the Badger Farm Road junction it then becomes the A3090. The M3 in fact doesn't go anywhere near Romsey, but takes you a good few miles south, and is no way an alternative let alone a parallel route where it makes more sense to use it. It is the main route to Southampton and the coast and relatively local traffic doesn't need to take it just because the locals are fed up with people driving on their roads and not stopping to spend money. I think the road authorities are becoming more and more cynical by the decade and soon we'll be lucky new roads won't be closed rather than opened which is already the case in London.

[Johnathan404]

Winchester though is the very worst of all the cities and towns I've had to go through. The centre is both medieval and extremely complex, and seems designed purely for locals and tourists who are visiting the cathedral. I'm sure given a chance they'd make it like Kingston and Oxford and send everyone round the houses altogether but there's probably nowhere available to do it there. So instead they do their best to divert all comers around it, whether or not they want to do great loops on a motorway to end up cutting back to a point near where they left the A31 before the motorway junction.

Funnily enough I have a Hampshire A-Z I clearly forgot that day as I was going beyond Hampshire and didn't think I needed it. The road actually morphs twice, the old A31 is the B3404 Alresford Road to enter Winchester, enters a complex one way system I can confirm has very few usable signposts, and then pops out the other end as Romsey Road. Exiting Winchester at the Badger Farm Road junction it then becomes the A3090. The M3 in fact doesn't go anywhere near Romsey, but takes you a good few miles south, and is no way an alternative let alone a parallel route where it makes more sense to use it. It is the main route to Southampton and the coast and relatively local traffic doesn't need to take it just because the locals are fed up with people driving on their roads and not stopping to spend money. I think the road authorities are becoming more and more cynical by the decade and soon we'll be lucky new roads won't be closed rather than opened which is already the case in London.

You're suggesting the medieval city of Winchester is destroyed so you can take the straight-line route across it?

A31 - M3 - A3090 is a perfectly reasonable route for the tiny amount of traffic going from Alton to Romsey. The idea of having through traffic avoid a city centre is not groundbreaking, and is actually what all residents and drivers ask for. The fact you like the historic route of the A31 is a niche request and not one the council needs to dedicate its resources to accommodating.

[A303Chris]

Traffic reduced very noticeably on the A31 and it is still quiet today, except Farnham - Guildford, which seems to get worse each year. West of the A325 rbt, it is delightful.

I think is down to the M25. When I'm off to Kent given the poor reliability of the M25 SW quadrant my route from east of Reading is A329(M) to Bracknell, A3095 to Blackwater then the A331, A31 and A3 to the M25 at J10.

So often when I am coming back the traffic comes to a standstill at j10 and yes the A3 round Guildford is a pain, but i know it is always between 45 and 60 minutes home coming this way. The Guildford queues are always the same about a 15 minute delay either way so are more predictable than the M25 car park

[owen b]

I am beginning to find such road numbering is primarily nimby driven, local councillors being persuaded to lobby for as many as possible deterrents to avoid traffic passing through their lovely town and not caring where they go instead (see the Harrogate signposting from the A1 at Wetherby for example, or the similar signposting off the M1 for Luton which sends you miles beyond it).

Both southbound and northbound the M1 signs Luton (S) and the airport off at J10, and Luton (C) at J11. Either way, you are not going miles past Luton to get to Luton. J11 is within the Luton boundary, and the southbound offslip of J10 forms the Luton boundary.

[Truvelo]

You're suggesting the medieval city of Winchester is destroyed so you can take the straight-line route across it?

Around 50 years ago there were plans for an inner ring road in the city. If it was like anything else planned at the time then I could imagine the damage it would have caused.

[multiraider2]

You're suggesting the medieval city of Winchester is destroyed so you can take the straight-line route across it?

Around 50 years ago there were plans for an inner ring road in the city. If it was like anything else planned at the time then I could imagine the damage it would have caused.

They should ask Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov to visit the cathedral.

[someone]

Winchester though is the very worst of all the cities and towns I've had to go through. The centre is both medieval and extremely complex, and seems designed purely for locals and tourists who are visiting the cathedral. I'm sure given a chance they'd make it like Kingston and Oxford and send everyone round the houses altogether but there's probably nowhere available to do it there. So instead they do their best to divert all comers around it, whether or not they want to do great loops on a motorway to end up cutting back to a point near where they left the A31 before the motorway junction.

Funnily enough I have a Hampshire A-Z I clearly forgot that day as I was going beyond Hampshire and didn't think I needed it. The road actually morphs twice, the old A31 is the B3404 Alresford Road to enter Winchester, enters a complex one way system I can confirm has very few usable signposts, and then pops out the other end as Romsey Road. Exiting Winchester at the Badger Farm Road junction it then becomes the A3090. The M3 in fact doesn't go anywhere near Romsey, but takes you a good few miles south, and is no way an alternative let alone a parallel route where it makes more sense to use it. It is the main route to Southampton and the coast and relatively local traffic doesn't need to take it just because the locals are fed up with people driving on their roads and not stopping to spend money. I think the road authorities are becoming more and more cynical by the decade and soon we'll be lucky new roads won't be closed rather than opened which is already the case in London.

I am confused what it is precisely that you are complaining about?

The M3 and M27 connect both ends of the A31, which is more than just a road for Romsey, so is a logical diversion for the A31. And the vast majority of road users are more interested in the fastest and easiest route between places, not the most direct of historic.

Using the M3, M27, M271, and A3057 from the A31 east of Winchester to Romsey is only a few miles longer than going through the city centre and then down the A3090 (old A31), but is faster with only three roundabouts between the two. The original route is slow and "messy" with having to deal with city centre traffic in Winchester, and then also passing through a couple of villages.

And the centre of Winchester is medieval and complex because it is pre-dates the need to accommodate mass movement of people or vehicles, it was not designed for anything. So unless you really are advocating to knock it down so that people on the A31 can go to Romsey they way they arbitrarily used to at an arbitrary time in the past, then going through the city centre is just not viable. Traffic volumes are just far too hight now that it will be annoying and unpleasant for both pedestrians and motorists, who will be trapped for a long time in the congestion.

Traditionally major roads had single lanes and connected village, town,and city centres because that made the most sense when traffic was light. But that no longer works. Now roads need multiple lanes to increase capacity, and grade separation to keep them flowing. That is not compatible with going through local centres with single lanes, side streets, traffic lights, roundabouts, and pedestrian crossings. So now majors roads instead pass by places with a network of local roads feeding into them from the centres.

The A31 is a 70mph dual carriageway at Winchester and Cadnam, it cannot possibly go through Winchester and Romsey like that. Whether or not the current arrangement with the M3 and M27 is the best one, they both needed to be bypassed for everyone's sake. And it is because of the constant need for bypasses that new roads are always opening. Because traffic volumes keep increasing that ever small places are becoming overwhelmed that they can no longer cope reasonably.