Most insignificant dual carriageway?

[Alderpoint]

What's the story for that one, then? How did it come about?

My understanding (from parents who lived nearby for about 10 years) was that it was supposed to form part of a southern ring for Yate - much like the B4059 to the north. Except they forgot to budget for the rather key bridge over the railway line at its nothern end or assumed the line would be closed so it never got connected up. Apparently in the 80s/90s it was very much in demand for filming police TV series....

[owen b]

There must be lots of council estates with short dual carriageways like Intake.

Here's one in Luton : https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.87276 ... 312!8i6656

[Isleworth1961]

What's the story for that one, then? How did it come about?

My understanding (from parents who lived nearby for about 10 years) was that it was supposed to form part of a southern ring for Yate - much like the B4059 to the north. Except they forgot to budget for the rather key bridge over the railway line at its nothern end or assumed the line would be closed so it never got connected up. Apparently in the 80s/90s it was very much in demand for filming police TV series....

Locally it's called "the road to nowhere", and it's still often used for filming road scenes on TV shows, especially on 'Casualty', with the inevitable crashes... They recently built a temporary bridge over the road to simulate a motorway, and a crash...

The railway line the bridge would have crossed has never been likely to close as it's the line north from Bristol to Gloucester. The line which was likely to close (but hasn't) was the ex-Midland line south from that location to the oil terminal near the M4.

The route through the trading estate north of the railway line has been kept clear, as has the route north of the roundabout on the A432. The bridge will come one day, I'm sure, but not very soon...

[Andy33gmail]

If anyone has a couple of spare 610s and a railway sleeper I could enter my driveway

[PhilC]

Another dual carriageway cul-de-sac, this time in Coventry. I presume the intention was to continue the road on, but it never got built.

https://goo.gl/maps/3KFTpb6BVsu

[someone]

Council estate dual-carriageway with speed humps, Leeds

I traversed that on GSV and saw no speed limit signs, so.... 70mph dual carriageway with speed humps!

What am I missing about the lamp posts?

[ANiceEnglishman]

There's this at Castleton between Cardiff and Newport which I think qualifies as a D2 rather than a large traffic island?

https://goo.gl/maps/KF6mjPp91ko

The A48 is S4 between the urban boundaries apart from this section. I think that's quite unusual in itself.

[Arcuarius]

Council estate dual-carriageway with speed humps, Leeds

I traversed that on GSV and saw no speed limit signs, so.... 70mph dual carriageway with speed humps!

What am I missing about the lamp posts?

That the speed limit defaults to 30 unless signed otherwise?

[Andy33gmail]

(A system of street lighting counts as repeaters, it isn't sufficient in itself)

[ThelwallViaduct]

My favourite from abroad: a D3/D4 (depending on how you look at it) which terminates onto an S1 backstreet in Valencia

[A72]

Rode both sides of the Coll one earlier this year and forgot to share.

There's a few around Dundee
Balgowan Avenue; evidently not a football day as the central reserve is empty
https://goo.gl/maps/7RQ6UvgQATS2

But the most useless bit of DC has got to go to this one
https://goo.gl/maps/Si1FLbMKs2u

Looks like this section of the first one is designed badly!
They should have put the bus stop before the chicane! Cant believe they would choose blocking the road with a bus stop over putting it in the layby!

That layout looks like the easiest way to incorporate the raised kerb. Which is of course, more important to some people, than keeping the traffic moving.

[A72]

Dual carriageway cul-de-sac

https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+B ... -3.0508329

If that isn't full of people doing handbrake turns at night then I'll be amazed. Also why on earth does it get priority at that roundabout?! I recall being stumped by that when I last drove through there.

Judging by the amount of tyre tracks at the hairpin, I would say that is exactly what goes-on.

[Johnathan404]

When there's a high and stormy tide the eastbound carriageway in New Brighton tends to double-up as a free car wash.

[trickstat]

My favourite from abroad: a D3/D4 (depending on how you look at it) which terminates onto an S1 backstreet in Valencia

That could be a good road for a cycling, running or race-walking event.

[someone]

(A system of street lighting counts as repeaters, it isn't sufficient in itself)

Is that actually true? Because the Road Traffic Regulations 1984 explicitly state that the absence of speed limit signs on a road with appropriate street lighting to show that it is not a restricted road, is evidence that it is restricted.

But regardless, here are the 30 signs when you come off of the A64, in order to access the start of that dual carriageway in Leeds (the other end of which is a dead end, well it loops back on itself):

https://goo.gl/maps/irPvdeNQ6RU2

Most roads in cities are a long way from their nearest 30 sign (or they were before so many 20 limits and zones were introduced) yet we all know what the limit is because of the street lighting. And that one seems such a conventional example of an urban road that I feel I must be missing something if jgharston thinks it should be unrestricted.

[A9NWIL]

Rode both sides of the Coll one earlier this year and forgot to share.

There's a few around Dundee
Balgowan Avenue; evidently not a football day as the central reserve is empty
https://goo.gl/maps/7RQ6UvgQATS2

But the most useless bit of DC has got to go to this one
https://goo.gl/maps/Si1FLbMKs2u

Looks like this section of the first one is designed badly!
They should have put the bus stop before the chicane! Cant believe they would choose blocking the road with a bus stop over putting it in the layby!

That layout looks like the easiest way to incorporate the raised kerb. Which is of course, more important to some people, than keeping the traffic moving.

Cheapskate council then! Why not do the job properly and in this case they would please everyone! The raised kerb can be put in fine elsewhere without a chicane why not here?

[Johnathan404]

Cheapskate council then! Why not do the job properly and in this case they would please everyone! The raised kerb can be put in fine elsewhere without a chicane why not here?

Putting a bus stop in the middle of a row of parked cars is a truly terrible idea.

Firstly the driver will struggle to see if anyone's at the stop unless they step right out into the middle of the road, which is inconvenient for everyone and can sometimes look like the intending passenger is just crossing the road.

Secondly drivers unfamiliar with the route might not see the stop at all and fail to let people off.

Thirdly bus stops are popular places to cross the road, in which case you will need to provide a gap in the parking right there (not a couple of metres away - we know how desire lines work) to allow people to cross safely.

Fourthly and most importantly, car drivers will dramatically underestimate how much space the bus requires to be able to pull in and flush with the kerb. Just leaving a bus-sized gap (which is rare enough) is not good enough - the bus is not going to parallel park! You need about a 30 metre gap if you want the elderly to be able to use the stop without a risk of tripping.

I appreciate a shortage of parking spaces is unlikely in this location but as we know these rules tend to work better in theory. That said, even if the whole road is empty somebody might still park right next to the stop. So it's your choice: close off 30m of parking so the bus can pull in or sacrifice 2m of parking and cope with a slight delay.

[A9NWIL]

Cheapskate council then! Why not do the job properly and in this case they would please everyone! The raised kerb can be put in fine elsewhere without a chicane why not here?

Putting a bus stop in the middle of a row of parked cars is a truly terrible idea.

Firstly the driver will struggle to see if anyone's at the stop unless they step right out into the middle of the road, which is inconvenient for everyone and can sometimes look like the intending passenger is just crossing the road.

Secondly drivers unfamiliar with the route might not see the stop at all and fail to let people off.

Thirdly bus stops are popular places to cross the road, in which case you will need to provide a gap in the parking right there (not a couple of metres away - we know how desire lines work) to allow people to cross safely.

Fourthly and most importantly, car drivers will dramatically underestimate how much space the bus requires to be able to pull in and flush with the kerb. Just leaving a bus-sized gap (which is rare enough) is not good enough - the bus is not going to parallel park! You need about a 30 metre gap if you want the elderly to be able to use the stop without a risk of tripping.

I appreciate a shortage of parking spaces is unlikely in this location but as we know these rules tend to work better in theory. That said, even if the whole road is empty somebody might still park right next to the stop. So it's your choice: close off 30m of parking so the bus can pull in or sacrifice 2m of parking and cope with a slight delay.

Traffic flow is likely better than parking spaces in this location if as you say parking isnt sort in this area. Build out two chicanes each end of the designated space for the bus layby, one of which was already there and mark it as a bus stop, no one would park in that then. The chicanes would act as places to cross the road more safely. Everyone is happy.

[mattling]

This one in Coventry was originally intended to do a lot more than serve a primary school car park I believe https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3941674 ... 6994,19.3z

[Fenlander]

Cheapskate council then! Why not do the job properly and in this case they would please everyone! The raised kerb can be put in fine elsewhere without a chicane why not here?

Putting a bus stop in the middle of a row of parked cars is a truly terrible idea.

Firstly the driver will struggle to see if anyone's at the stop unless they step right out into the middle of the road, which is inconvenient for everyone and can sometimes look like the intending passenger is just crossing the road.

Secondly drivers unfamiliar with the route might not see the stop at all and fail to let people off.

Thirdly bus stops are popular places to cross the road, in which case you will need to provide a gap in the parking right there (not a couple of metres away - we know how desire lines work) to allow people to cross safely.

Fourthly and most importantly, car drivers will dramatically underestimate how much space the bus requires to be able to pull in and flush with the kerb. Just leaving a bus-sized gap (which is rare enough) is not good enough - the bus is not going to parallel park! You need about a 30 metre gap if you want the elderly to be able to use the stop without a risk of tripping.

I appreciate a shortage of parking spaces is unlikely in this location but as we know these rules tend to work better in theory. That said, even if the whole road is empty somebody might still park right next to the stop. So it's your choice: close off 30m of parking so the bus can pull in or sacrifice 2m of parking and cope with a slight delay.

The main bus stop in Long Sutton was deliberately designed like this. The waiting area for bus users deliberately sticks out quite a way into the road so the driver can see them but the stop itself is immediately before it wedged in between the parked cars and that island. The end result is that the bus doesn't stop in the bus stop itself but in the more natural position next to the sticky outy bit. This chokes all movement past while it sits there and depending on what's parked opposite or trying to get through can result in a total roadblock for a couple of minutes before the bus pulls away.
A little further along the same bus route in Holbeach is a similar arrangement, buses can't easily get into the bus stop proper so stop at the island, added to which is the new resited bus stop almost directly opposite on a slight bend with the pedestrian crossing just ahead and outside a busy shop. Driving through there at certain times is nerve wracking as you can see the frustration building in drivers, car drivers and pedestrians alike, add in a cyclist filtering through it all and the pressure builds until the bus starts to move off at which point the traffic lights for the ped crossing change as the bus user getting off wants to cross the road. This results in the queue that was struggling to get past the bus suddenly getting a free run to the lights as there's no oncoming traffic but then immediately having to stop which in itself blocks the bus from pulling away.
How none of it was unforeseen baffles me.