Driving for masochists- old roads you don't miss

[haymansafc]

This one is relatively recent compared to others listed here, but I certainly don't miss the old A500 through Shavington and Hough. That was a horribly congested piece of road and it took an age to get from Nantwich to the M6 (and vise-versa).

I think I've only used it once since the bypass opened…and that was solely out of curiosity.

[Alderpoint]

The A45 between Coventry and the Cambridge bypass. We used regularly to drive from south Staffordshire to Ipswich to visit my grandparents. The DC from Cambridge to Ipswich was already in place for most of my childhood, as was the Northampton bypass, but the stretch in between now bypassed by the new-alignment A14 and the ex-A604 was very slow. There were always stuck lorries on the tight bends at Kimbolton and overtaking opportunities were very rare. Moreover the M42 was not complete then, so the route involved either fighting through central Birmingham or wiggling on B roads through Redditch etc.

I was just about to say the same! However the section through Kimbolton (now the B645) is now quite a nice drive in the country, but not a route to take if you are in a hurry.

[Duncan macknight]

Well I am a bit too young to remember the golden days of road travel but I still do take the occasional detours on the old A90 (Glenfarg) and A9, the Kingussie to Slochd section being a gem.

[Burns]

A8000 - good riddance!

Now all they have to do is fix the rest of western Edinburgh's road network.

[Hdeng16]

The A46 from Widmerpool to Lincoln was pretty ropey. The Newark-Lincoln bit was improved a while ago and is OK, but not great. The high quality Widmerpool -> Newark section is a great upgrade though without the usual penny pinching (apart from ignoring Newark bypass obviously!). The old road hit every village it could, and had very very few overtaking opportunities. The 2 lane traffic lights bit northbound at Straglethorpe was one spot but required extreme acceleration!

[Comstock]

Not sure of the exact road number, but getting from the old A50 onto the M6 at Stoke was a nightmare I don't miss at all.

[RichardA35]

Not a British example but anyone remember the N138 between Rouen and Le Mans? Kill me now. The Alençon Bypass was the only motorway on the whole route. You did get some D2 but bottlenecks like Sees and Gacé wiped out any benefit.

The worst from memory was a crossroads at Nonant le Pin where a level crossing also added to the fun.

Today for that kind of experience you have to take the N147 from Poitiers to Limoges.

The Reims to Troyes link on the A26 was similarly a major gap in the French motorway network avoiding Paris to the east once the Channel Tunnel opened. It took a few years to fill during which all the British and north European holidaymakers heading for the Alps or the Med were mixed together on a single carriageway.

[rileyrob]

I used to quite enjoy winding through the woods to Arisaig on the old A830 when it was quiet. Having said that, the new road is much better in so many respects, not least that you can guarantee getting through from Lochailort in about 10 minutes instead of the 15-30 before.

Many of the old roads, where they survive, are enjoyable to drive on the odd occasion these days, but they must have been hell with busy traffic on them. If they ever finish upgrading the A86 from Loch Laggan through to Newtonmore, I certainly won't miss the current road.

[djw1981]

As a kid, going from Tyneside to grandparents in Sutton Colfeld, I remember the drag from Wetherby down A58 to Leeds to pick up M1. This was Dad's preferred 'faster' route to avoid Ferrybridge and Doncaster bypass.

A58, A61, round the West Yoprkshire Playhouse Gyratory, then M621 and M1

[multiraider2]

The A128/A13 from my childhood house in Pilgrims Hatch to the Dartford Tunnel was awful because of the three phase lights at Brentwood, the traffic for Tilbury on the A128 and then the dire single carriageway A13. Actually, I only miss these as a passenger, because I qualified as a driver in October 1982 and J27 to J29 of the M25 opened in December that year and I never had to face the slog as a driver.

Re the A30 in Cornwall, I remember a dreadful trudge through Okehampton once and as Chris mentioned, even after the bypass there opened in November 1988, the single lane section thereafter to the Launceston bypass was quite inadequate. I made a trip with my girlfriend and some friends during the holidays in 1989 (why didn't we go in term time?!) and was stuck throughout the length of the Okehampton bypass. Going to North Cornwall frequently, the completion to Launceston was the final key to a good trip. Its only latterly that I travelled further west and so hope to revisit this message in years to come and say I don't miss any of the single lane sections in Devon or Cornwall.

[Ambosc79]

Memories of the old A5 round Shrewsbury (now B4380) in the late 80s/early 90s when I lived in Bayston Hill involve a solid line of cars and lorries from Atcham to Montford, the A49 queuing back to Dorrington in the mornings because of A5 traffic blocking Meole Island, and my parents driving over Lyth Hill and down the Longden Road to get me to school on time (just off the old A5 by the Longden Rd island). Any direction except south down the A49 to Ludlow could be practically cut off- once I remember we set off to go to Oswestry and took an hour to get to Bicton, and that was on a Saturday. The new road may not be perfect but when I think back to those days....

Since I've learnt to drive, it has to be the A5 at Nesscliffe; now a lovely tranquil village with the wooded cliff as a backdrop, go back to 1997 when I first drove it was a traffic-choked bottleneck. The bypass has done more than just get traffic out the village: you don't get so much risky overtaking on the A5 either side (West Felton and the WS2 by Montford Bridge) because people know they can do it on the Nesscliffe bypass. The police don't lurk around the Montford junction like they used to (they do occasionally, but there are camera signs now and the vans are visible: in the late 90s half of Shrewsbury got a ticket there for something or other)- because there are fewer crashes there. The camera is at Shottaton and everyone knows it's there, and for a reason. (Hopefully that will be bypassed next..). 2 miles of fast D2 have made a massive difference.

[Chris Bertram]

The unimproved A380 from Splatford Split to Shiphay. Windy roads leading to lengthy summer queues.

[FosseWay]

Not sure of the exact road number, but getting from the old A50 onto the M6 at Stoke was a nightmare I don't miss at all.

Getting onto the M6 from the current A50 isn't exactly good, unless they've improved it in the last few years. The A50 in general is a great road, spoiled by a complete failure to join either end of it up properly with anything. And at the M6 end it is compounded by that Swedish-style sliproad that gives M50 J3 a run for its money.

[Comstock]

Not sure of the exact road number, but getting from the old A50 onto the M6 at Stoke was a nightmare I don't miss at all.

Getting onto the M6 from the current A50 isn't exactly good, unless they've improved it in the last few years.

Trust me it's a trillion times better than what came before.

[Jonathan B4027]

Oxford to Bicester used to be "fun" before the upgrade of the A43 and A421.

[mikehindsonevans]

I do not miss the old Winchester bypass one bit.

Nor do I miss the A33 north from Kings Worthy to Popham where the M3 ended from the 1970s until 1984/5. The alternating sections of single-then-dual-then-single carriageway were a death trap for the unwary, novice or drunk drivers. It is now a peaceful country road, paralleling the M3 which lies just to the east.

[Glenn A]

The A 595 through Howgate and Distington, especially when a pair of temporary traffic lights appeared for some non explained reason. Wait for 20 minutes due to Sellafield traffic while apparently nothing was happening in the roadworks. I was so relieved 9 years ago when the nice stretch of D2 helps me and thousands of others avoid this nightmare stretch of road, which even in good times meant a long crawl to work.
Also central Carlisle isn't so much of a drag to endure since the NDR was built as most of the lorries have gone.

[SteveA30]

Most of them I guess. The A380 at Kingskerswell until 18 months ago. Torbay was out of bounds for me, due to the crawl from Newton Abbot into Torquay. Of course, in earlier times, it was all of the routes west. Did I mention I have a website about that called Holiday West? I did? OK then.

Improving routes doesn't work properly until all of it is done, as Okehampton and Temple proved, amongst many other locations on that route.

Other nightmares were, going from Fleet to Lincoln in 1972 for my first festival. Slough A412 A40 A412 again. Stuck in Rickmansworth for ages, during which Fanny Craddock (TV chef) drove past in the opposite direction in her Rolls. A405, M1, off at Leicester, right through the centre, stuck again for ages. Through Newark to Lincoln, stuck again, then B1190 to Bardney. One jam that hasn't changed, yet.

A48 from Newport, S4 rammed with lorries in all lanes. A whizz around half of Cardiff on a GS'd D2 then, stuck for ages after it petered out for the second half, in a forest of lights.

A33, as already mentioned, from Popham to Winchester bypass.
A27 through Brighton.
A2 through the villages south of Brenley Corner. A coach to Dover in 75, revealed how narrow it was, almost stopping to pass each lorry/coach going the other way.
A303 Ilminster, all of the other towns in earlier years. Amesbury and Ilchester seemed the worst.
A38, from Tewkesbury to Exeter.
A361 from Taunton through Bampton. I recall a summer queue at the A396 crossroads. Now a lovely quiet spot, then circa 1969, completely seized up in all 4 directions, nothing moving. Now I think about it, we went that way to avoid the A38 from Exeter. That went well.
A6 north of Carnforth.
A55 before dualling, especially Colwyn Bay and Llandudno Junction/Conway.

[M56phil]

The A55 - From Chester to Holyhead. Section from Hawarden all the way to Conwy were particularly memorable in the 70s and 80s as being just awful.

Hard to imagine how different it is now compared to 20-30 years ago.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

A6 north of Carnforth.

It is hard to believe that the main route from London to Glasgow had to pass through Arnison's Narrows in Penrith before the M6 was opened. And of course the lorries had to negotiate Shap Fell as well.