1955 traffic levels

[Glenn A]

Bear in mind in 1955, work on improving the country's most important road, the A1, had barely started and it was nearly all S2 from London to Edinburgh and extremely slow, even with the low amount of traffic on the road.

To be pedantic a lot of it was S3.

Yes the suicide lane that required plenty of care to overtake as both sides of the road could use it. However, once you hit somewhere like Alnwick, with the traffic passing through the town walls, progress was very slow.

[cb a1]

Apologies for being the pedant, but this is SABRE ; the original Guardian story applied the levels of traffic on a COVID19 Lockdown Sunday and extrapolated that as the annual level of traffic and got themselves back to 1955.

Of course, in 1955 traffic levels on a Sunday would also have been lower than on an average day in 1955. More accurately (and the Guardian article did mention this, but it wasn't as headline grabbing), typical trunk road traffic levels at the moment reflect the situation in the early 1960s.

[KeithW]

Yes the suicide lane that required plenty of care to overtake as both sides of the road could use it. However, once you hit somewhere like Alnwick, with the traffic passing through the town walls, progress was very slow.

Alnwick was bypassed in the early 1970's and while a pain it paled into insignificance compared with getting through Gateshead and Newcastle. Farther south the A1 still ploughed through Darlington until 1965 and 1970 in the case of Durham. Farther south the major developments were the bypassing of Doncaster (1962), Grantham and Stamford (1960) and of course the interminable problems of Hatfield which was bypassed several times.

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

[roadtester]

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

I find it quite difficult to imagine what an S2/S3 A14 (then A604) would have been like as it was before my time, so I went looking and found this article which has a couple of interesting pics of the old road:

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/h ... e-12164066

[Ruperts Trooper]

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

I find it quite difficult to imagine what an S2/S3 A14 (then A604) would have been like as it was before my time, so I went looking and found this article which has a couple of interesting pics of the old road:

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/h ... e-12164066

My recollection from my teens is that it wasn't as bad as portrayed - we had no issues cycling along it or crossing it - my father was an AA patrolman along the A604 between Cambridge and Brampton who said the biggest issue was black ice in autumn where trees lined the road - once I'd passed my test I liked the S3 as it gave chance to overtake the trucks.

Between Brampton and Kettering it was a slow road with few overtaking opportunities and no bypasses.

[Chris Bertram]

Yes the suicide lane that required plenty of care to overtake as both sides of the road could use it. However, once you hit somewhere like Alnwick, with the traffic passing through the town walls, progress was very slow.

Alnwick was bypassed in the early 1970's and while a pain it paled into insignificance compared with getting through Gateshead and Newcastle. Farther south the A1 still ploughed through Darlington until 1965 and 1970 in the case of Durham. Farther south the major developments were the bypassing of Doncaster (1962), Grantham and Stamford (1960) and of course the interminable problems of Hatfield which was bypassed several times.

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

A1 never went through Durham city centre (what fun that would have been), it passed to the west, via Neville's Cross. Still slow, however.

[Runwell]

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

I find it quite difficult to imagine what an S2/S3 A14 (then A604) would have been like as it was before my time, so I went looking and found this article which has a couple of interesting pics of the old road:

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/h ... e-12164066

That 1989 photo looks to show the same gantry at Bar Hill that's only just come down for the current improvements.

[chaseracer]

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

I find it quite difficult to imagine what an S2/S3 A14 (then A604) would have been like as it was before my time, so I went looking and found this article which has a couple of interesting pics of the old road:

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/h ... e-12164066

That Hillman Minx is apparently barely a year old, but already looks pretty well spent!

[roadtester]

This from the USA - a team of three is reported to have taken advantage of the empty roads produced by the lock-down to set a new “Cannonball Run” record for driving coast to coast.

They’ve also attracted a fair amount of criticism for breaking the lock-down as well:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ca ... d_nn_tw_ma

[mark3evo]

just watched old not the 9 oclock news clip

S3 in view at 1:30

https://youtu.be/w9lmCpIzhFo

Yes "I like Trucking" is entirely filmed along the A4 Colnbrook By-Pass although sadly it's no longer S3
an earlier Sabre post (22nd jan 2007)

[Glenn A]

Yes the suicide lane that required plenty of care to overtake as both sides of the road could use it. However, once you hit somewhere like Alnwick, with the traffic passing through the town walls, progress was very slow.

Alnwick was bypassed in the early 1970's and while a pain it paled into insignificance compared with getting through Gateshead and Newcastle. Farther south the A1 still ploughed through Darlington until 1965 and 1970 in the case of Durham. Farther south the major developments were the bypassing of Doncaster (1962), Grantham and Stamford (1960) and of course the interminable problems of Hatfield which was bypassed several times.

Another road that had lots of S3 was the A5 mostly now marked down to S2 and of course before dualling there was a fair bit of S3 on the A604 from Cambridge to Huntingdon

A1 never went through Durham city centre (what fun that would have been), it passed to the west, via Neville's Cross. Still slow, however.

Also there was no Tyne Tunnel until 1967, which removed some pressure on the A1 through Gateshead and Newcastle, so everything heading north and south of Newcastle had to traverse Newcastle city centre and dodge the shoppers on Northumberland St. Also central Gateshead, where the A1 met the A692 and A184, was very congested until the Gateshead Flyover was built in 1969.

[roadtester]

This from the USA - a team of three is reported to have taken advantage of the empty roads produced by the lock-down to set a new “Cannonball Run” record for driving coast to coast.

They’ve also attracted a fair amount of criticism for breaking the lock-down as well:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ca ... d_nn_tw_ma

A more detailed article on how some drivers have been using the COVID-empty roads to have a crack at the Cannonball record:

https://www.gq.com/story/the-great-cannonball-boom

[c2R]

This from the USA - a team of three is reported to have taken advantage of the empty roads produced by the lock-down to set a new “Cannonball Run” record for driving coast to coast.

They’ve also attracted a fair amount of criticism for breaking the lock-down as well:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ca ... d_nn_tw_ma

A more detailed article on how some drivers have been using the COVID-empty roads to have a crack at the Cannonball record:

https://www.gq.com/story/the-great-cannonball-boom

Thanks for the link, that's really interesting - I'm impressed with the modification of the vehicle to only need filling up once - on our journey across America also in a Mustang GT it felt like I was constantly filling up, so that's some indication of the additional fuel he was carrying.

[Glenn A]

Look North reported on Thursday that traffic levels on the Newcastle western by pass are half the levels of last week. Unlike the last lockdown, the schools being open will mean traffic levels won't fall to the levels of April and May.