Minor roads that have become busier thanks to online mapping and sat-nav technology

[Peter350]

I've been lurking around google maps quite a bit recently, looking for best routes between places, and have been intrigued to discover that quite a few of the quickest route suggestions direct you via minor unclassified roads, not ideal for large volumes of traffic or HGVs. One of the journeys I keyed in, Wimborne Minster to Marlborough, came up with two examples of such roads encountered along the route, as shown in the images below:

The Coombe Bissett - Netheravon route is useful for avoiding traffic around Salisbury, while the Manningford Bruce unclassified road is effectively a bypass for Pewsey that isn't built for that purpose. I don't know if an AADT exists for these routes but it is clear that they experience minor queues from the orange line segments on Google's route. It brings up the question whether these routes should be improved to handle the extra traffic caused by increasing numbers of drivers using sat-nav and mapping technology.

Also please feel free to discuss any other examples of minor unclassified roads that frequently appear on recommended sat-nav/online journey planner routes.

[bothar]

Google should also know the travel speeds on these roads and perhaps stop using them. Not sure if Sat-nav databases would get updated in this way.

[Stevie D]

Judging by the signs at the Manningford Bruce turn, directing lorries for Marlborough to carry on through Pewsey, I would guess that that road has been used as an unofficial by-pass by locals and those in the know for a long time. Sat-navs may be bringing that knowledge to a wider audience, but it won't be a new phenomenon.

[Johnathan404]

Google Maps usually recommends the unclassified road through Emery Down - or even through Burley - over the congested A337.

Many locals use the A337 as far as the kennels but personally I'm happy with the main Emery Down road.

[jervi]

I can't think of any around where I am especially, all the roads are single carriageway, and the wider ones are normally limited to 50 or even 40MPH in most parts, while the back narrow country routes are almost all NSL. So there is always room for little gains, if you really willing to risk yours and others lives, but I can't say it's worth it.
However the other day I was travelling along the A14 when they were getting rid of the old bridge at Bar Hill, I followed Waze on its unofficial short backcountry diversion and not the actual diversion. There was a lot of traffic on this one small tiny road hardly wide enough for two vehicles, my guess is that the majority of those people were also following their real-time satnavs / apps.
Also occasionally during traffic Google Maps takes me down some really odd backcountry routes, normally these aren't quicker than the route I was on but my guess is that Google is using me to see what traffic is like on alternative routes. But Waze hasn't done this to me (with me knowing) yet, despite Google owning Waze.

[Stevie D]

However the other day I was travelling along the A14 when they were getting rid of the old bridge at Bar Hill, I followed Waze on its unofficial short backcountry diversion and not the actual diversion. There was a lot of traffic on this one small tiny road hardly wide enough for two vehicles, my guess is that the majority of those people were also following their real-time satnavs / apps.

I followed the diversion from Cambridge via Caxton Gibbet and A1198, and it was really slow, particularly around Papworth Everard (sounds like it should be the name of a character from Fifty Shades!) where it looked like a lot of drivers were cutting through the village and then getting the jump on everyone who responsibly followed the bypass at the roundabout.

My passenger had Google Maps up and that tried to send me off down back lanes a couple of times, but I was never completely sure that it wasn't going to bring us up to a dead end. Especially when we got to PE and it told us to go straight on up the B1040, despite numerous signs saying Road Closed Ahead, No Access To A14. So although we were delayed by about half an hour, I don't think we made the wrong choice. Except that maybe we should have gone north of it, round by Ely instead, but too late to worry about that now!

[doebag]

I followed the diversion from Cambridge via Caxton Gibbet and A1198, and it was really slow, particularly around Papworth Everard (sounds like it should be the name of a character from Fifty Shades!) where it looked like a lot of drivers were cutting through the village and then getting the jump on everyone who responsibly followed the bypass at the roundabout.

With normal traffic flow, both ways are pretty equal time wise, I've car spotted a number of times and seen the same vehicle at the other end of the village at about the same time. Once traffic on the by-pass slows at the junctions, through the village could make sense, despite the traffic calming.

[Fenlander]

Back in the early days of satnavs you could spot the TomTom users because they all braked at exactly the same point coming down the hill near Grantham as they got the speed camera ahead warning for the Ponton speed camera.

I wonder if there are roads that are now much quieter because satnav guides you down an alternative that you wouldn't previously have used leaving the 'main' road quieter?

[rasingram2]

I wonder if there are roads that are now much quieter because satnav guides you down an alternative that you wouldn't previously have used leaving the 'main' road quieter?

Maybe once, but now we are moving to internet connected sat-navs, I would guess that as the alternatives get busy, they start routing back to the main road. Hopefully it will mean the load is spread out a bit, and overall there is less congestion. It will be interesting to see how much things change as the proportion using such technology increases.

[Rob590]

There are certainly a couple of journeys that I've now shifted towards unclassified roads or B roads following the influence of Google Maps, where in the past I'd have followed A roads.

The most consistent one for me is when travelling from Durham to Weardale, in the past I'd have just followed the A690 and then A689 through Willington and Crook. I'd now instead usually take a route via the unclassified Stockley Lane and a series of B roads (B6296/7/9), via Stanley Crook and Tow Law, meeting the A689 at Wolsingham. I don't think there's enough traffic in rural areas such as this to really make a huge difference in terms of congestion.

Where there is more scope to create congestion is in diversionary routes in urban areas. Certainly in Gateshead, Google Maps is quite good at identifying alternative routes to the A1 Western Bypass when it is congested. I'm sure there are people among the 'sat nav followers' who will now be using these routes, whereas in the past they'd have just continued on the A1. For myself in the past I'd have probably also avoided the diversionary routes travelling at peak times (which is thankfully rare!) as I wouldn't have known if they were also busy but now I can use Google Maps to make a judgement as to which route is performing better, and plan my journey accordingly.

[the cheesecake man]

I've encountered a few tracks with homemade signs warning SatNav users not be such plonkers. I think it was this one that had an amusing sequence of signs something like
"this is not the road to Irwell Vale whatever your SatNav tells you!"
"last chance for SatNav users to turn back"
"abandon vehicles and drivers now"

So definitely being used more thanks to such technology!

[A303Chris]

It is on anecdotal evidence, but being an avid map collector for over 40 years, I have, some say its weird, a really good knowledge of the road network.

I have been regularly been coming off main routes and using back roads for the last 30 years, but in the last five years or so, especially since Sat Navs are in virtually every car , these unknown short cuts are becoming very busy. I personally would ban them and bring back good old map reading

[Richard_Fairhurst]

Here's one: https://goo.gl/maps/7rdmdJbhwDhmSoNLA . Google Maps and Apple Maps will both route you that way to save a few seconds off an A461 SB -> A5 EB journey. It's pretty irresponsible coding, to be honest.

Dr Rachel Aldred has written about the impact on walking and cycling: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/are-ro ... -dangerous

I suspect we're going to see more use of 20mph limits and traffic calming to dissuade this - effectively, the 20mph limit becomes an input into the route-planning algorithm; by slowing traffic, the route becomes less attractive so traffic is sent another way.

[Mark Hewitt]

There are certainly a couple of journeys that I've now shifted towards unclassified roads or B roads following the influence of Google Maps, where in the past I'd have followed A roads.

The most consistent one for me is when travelling from Durham to Weardale, in the past I'd have just followed the A690 and then A689 through Willington and Crook. I'd now instead usually take a route via the unclassified Stockley Lane and a series of B roads (B6296/7/9), via Stanley Crook and Tow Law, meeting the A689 at Wolsingham. I don't think there's enough traffic in rural areas such as this to really make a huge difference in terms of congestion.

Where there is more scope to create congestion is in diversionary routes in urban areas. Certainly in Gateshead, Google Maps is quite good at identifying alternative routes to the A1 Western Bypass when it is congested. I'm sure there are people among the 'sat nav followers' who will now be using these routes, whereas in the past they'd have just continued on the A1. For myself in the past I'd have probably also avoided the diversionary routes travelling at peak times (which is thankfully rare!) as I wouldn't have known if they were also busy but now I can use Google Maps to make a judgement as to which route is performing better, and plan my journey accordingly.

See for that area I know almost all the back roads as I've cycled over them enough times. Especially up the likes of Waskerley and Stanhope etc. Great riding up there as the traffic is indeed relatively quiet. But I also know some roads where I can take my bike down there no problem, but no way I would even attempt to take my car.

[SteveA30]

There has certainly been an increase in old road usage recently, now called Overspill. From the M5 to A38, A303 at Sparkford and A30 west of Exeter. The A30 and A303 queues aren't visible at the old road turn so, it must be Satnav warning them. Long may it continue, although Sparkford is due for dualling soon.

[Herned]

The M5 is closed this morning northbound from J24-26. What is interesting is the google map traffic layer, it's showing data for roads that never normally have enough traffic to register on the system, and shows how far off the beaten track people will go to try and get around the closure. The data shows delays in places which would normally see a car every 5 minutes or something. Presumably all down to sat nav

https://ibb.co/gWT3BpM

[haggishunter]

The unclassified Glentruim road (single track with not many passing places) between just South of Ralia Cafe and west of Laggan onto the A889 has definitely got busier with the rise in Google / Apple Maps and connected SatNavs.

I've used that road when going from the A86 to the A9 or vice versa when fancying a coffee as it leaves / joins the A9 just south of the Northbound slip into Ralia. I more often or not have a map app running as satnav even when I know where I am going now for traffic updates - Siri telling me to get of the A9 has saved me from several long, in a couple of cases maybe hours long delays trapped on Dual Carriageway sections of the A9!

Going through KIngussie and Newtonmore seems to be favoured later evenings or early mornings, but during the day routing can vary between Glentruim and the Southern entrance to Newtonmore from the A9 which involves a slight double back, but less distance through the urban 30mph zones.

Directing traffic to not use the A86 through Newtonmore and Kingussie for journeys on the A86 reduces traffic through the villages, similarly going to Glenmore or CairnGorm from the North Apple and Google Maps frequently now direct you to stay on the A9 at Granish to the Southern Aviemore junction - I've ignored that a couple of times and regretted it because of the length of time its taken to turn right to Aviemore after you've left the A9.

The more people that use these apps or connected sat navs regularly, the more real time and very granulated data there will be, so the more responsive the routing. I'd be quite interested to know more about whether it is purely reactionary the routing, or are the algorithms now getting more proactive? For example not just splitting the routing of traffic from A-B to utilise different routes in response to congestion but doing it to reduce congestion in the first pace and similarly at the same time routing traffic to minimise conflicting movements?

Driving around from one end of the UK to the other quite a bit earlier this year I was thinking, how long until we get real time speed limits displayed for variable speed limit roads in these apps and a central incident reporting / sharing database so that all connected devices can be alerted to a closure or problem as soon as possible to route as many people away before queues really start to build.

[Hdeng16]

Slight tangent and I’m happy to be wrong...

Couple of A roads that got worse post-satnav.

A46 between Newark and the M1. Only partly dualled, it wasn’t an automatically obvious route south - you’d have probably cross at the M18 or A57 at Worksop. Sat nav made it obvious (in my opinion) - and now it’s dualled.

A38 between M1 and all points south. Always amazed me how quickly the A38 can get you south - but I would argue that despite being dualled a long time ago it was another non- obvious route before sat navs told us it very much was obvious after all.

[Chris Bertram]

A38 between M1 and all points south. Always amazed me how quickly the A38 can get you south - but I would argue that despite being dualled a long time ago it was another non- obvious route before sat navs told us it very much was obvious after all.

Before A42/M42 was completed, it was the signed route to Birmingham for traffic from the North.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

A38 between M1 and all points south. Always amazed me how quickly the A38 can get you south - but I would argue that despite being dualled a long time ago it was another non- obvious route before sat navs told us it very much was obvious after all.

Before A42/M42 was completed, it was the signed route to Birmingham for traffic from the North.

When the A42 was completed, this sign was erected on the southbound M1 before Junction 28:-
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.12670 ... 6656?hl=en