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Owain wrote:The Lancaster one-way system. Truly horrendous at almost any time of day, on almost any day. Sundays could be the worst!
You could almost guarantee that there would be a queue somewhere. I visited Morecambe on numerous occasions, so I would either meet a queue on Caton Road travelling west or on Morecambe Road travelling east, and sometimes the queues on Morecambe Road went beyond the railway bridge. It was always very congested at the traffic lights where Morecambe Road and Owen Road traffic merged to cross the narrow Skerton Bridge.
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Bryn666 wrote: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.
we go through there every year on our way to Spain, there still doesn't appear to be a way to avoid Rouen. All North/South European traffic that doesn't go through Paris must use at least part of this route. If ever a city needed a bypass it's Rouen!
I tried going around the western side of Rouen for a change on the way back this year i.e. using N338, A150, A151 and A29 to get back to the A28, which whilst slightly longer than the signed route, and involving a small toll for the A29 section, was problem free.
How about the western S2 part that trundled through Kidbrooke and Eltham and went through the middle of a housing estate?
Whilst a great improvement, I still don't understand considering the quality of the finished road and engineering required (Tunnel for station at Eltham) and hard shoulders on the eastbound carriageways, why they included lights interrupting the westbound flow at Kidbrooke
I can remember the A1 through Hatfield, you had hundreds of miles of D2 coming south and then this short stretch of hellish S2 that lasted well into the eighties. I still can't see the rationale behind leaving out a town this size when everywhere else had been by passed in the sixties and seventies.
Only just discovered this thread. Off the top of my head, I can think of:
A11 Fiveways to Thetford. A particular bugbear when going holidaying on the Norfolk Broads.
A20 between Maidstone and Ashford. Thanks to Operation Stack / Brock, you can on select days be reminded why the M20 was built, with a nose to tail procession of HGVs. Outside of this, the run across Charing Heath is still nice, but the recent expansion of Harrietsham has stuck a serious spanner in the works as a practical alternative to the motorway. Actually, the A20 between Ashford and Westenhanger is even worse, and I've been caught out by that a few times when the M20 is closed in the area.
A30 at Temple - a real "what the heck is this low standard road doing here" moment. Although I've only driven this once, so it probably doesn't count.
A33 Winchester Bypass, particularly the traffic lights with the A333.
A34 through Newbury. A huge bottleneck, desperate to get to the final set of lights, after which the NSL sign appeared and you could shoot off into the distance.
Many of my current bugbears (A303, any route between Ashford and Hastings, A28) have been problematic for decades with no sign of ever being fixed.
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The slog through Brighton is probably the biggest change on a route I have had to drive regularly... despite having had a driving licence for 30 years, there have been very few major changes on roads I have to drive very often in that time
A46 from Widmerpool to Newark.
A453 from Appleby Magna to Clifton.
Both pre their modern by-passes and realignments, of course.
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Glenn A wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2017 14:36
I can remember the A1 through Hatfield, you had hundreds of miles of D2 coming south and then this short stretch of hellish S2 that lasted well into the eighties. I still can't see the rationale behind leaving out a town this size when everywhere else had been by passed in the sixties and seventies.
That was the previous bypass ! which is still there as the A1001 (Comet Way) which ran past the De Havilland works, the whole area has been redeveloped since then. https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... itle=A1001
Before that the route was what is now the A1000 to the east of Hatfield which at one time went along by the old road through the centre near the railway station along the B197 and parts of the old town that have now been redeveloped.
Until the 1960's the A1 went through Stamford, Grantham, Doncaster, Darlington, Ferryhill, Durham at Nevilles Cross and Gateshead. Getting past Newcastle was hell until the Tyne Tunnel opened which is why I got into the habit of taking the A68 to Scotland. From Dishforth the original route of the A1 was along what is now the A167.
Opening of Stamford Bypass
Of course Edinburgh was also a trial before the A720 opened, as I recall the favoured route was around the B701.
Another dubious route before 1968/1969 when the M6 opened was the A6 north of Lancaster opened. Riding a motorbike along the A6 over Shap was a pretty route but in July 1968 it was very cold and wet.
Then of course before the M5 opened was getting to Cornwall where the main options for use were the A38 and the Fosse Way, worst of course was the Exeter Bypass. https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... ter_Bypass
The A1001, part of the Hatfield bypass, is one of the shorter A roads to be found, providing a useful route when the A1(M) is jammed or closed, some of the route being the old A1 itself.
We start in the southeast corner of Hatfield at a GSJTOTSO on the older A1 (now the A1000), leaving the A1001 to plough straight on westwards, where it immediately becomes dual-carriageway. This road was designed as the southern Hatfield link in the 1960s. We cross the
Herned wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 08:02
The slog through Brighton is probably the biggest change on a route I have had to drive regularly... despite having had a driving licence for 30 years, there have been very few major changes on roads I have to drive very often in that time
The entire south coast route along the A259/A272 from Folkestone to Salisbury is still dire and once the A20/M20 M25, and M3 opened that became the route of choice from Dover to Portsmouth or Southampton.
Pre-bypass Porthmadog, Drenewydd/Newtown and Caernarfon.
All three towns are now massively more attractive to visit now that you aren't stuck in a queue all the way down the high streets/main routes while trying to get to the shops
I wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2017 14:07
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.
Well seven years later and I can nearly say that. Still think Loggans Moor and the Hayle bypass are the fly in the smooth-sailing ointment though. However, who's with me on a free-flow trip from Loggans Moor to Invergowrie? (Isn't that going to be the longest free-flow route now? Excluding artificial extensions by going a longer way around)
multiraider2 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 14:44
However, who's with me on a free-flow trip from Loggans Moor to Invergowrie? (Isn't that going to be the longest free-flow route now? Excluding artificial extensions by going a longer way around)
Might have to stop for fuel at some point. And to be perfectly honest, if it was just me, I'd rather do the Night Riviera, Metropolitan Line and Caledonian Sleeper.
Still, as written in the parallel A30 thread, I'm going to travel all or most of it west of Exeter this July, so I'm keen to see what state it's in.
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doebag wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2017 21:12
A406 NCR, when just about every junction was flat roundabout or cross roads.
A11 from M11 to Norwich when [IIRC] the only D2 section was the Thetford by-pass.
Ummmm, this was one of the last parts to be dualled!
doebag wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2017 21:12
A406 NCR, when just about every junction was flat roundabout or cross roads.
A11 from M11 to Norwich when [IIRC] the only D2 section was the Thetford by-pass.
Ummmm, this was one of the last parts to be dualled!
Yes, a day later this reply was posted
Bomag wrote:
Thetford Bypass was constructed 89/90 well after the dual carriageway section from Norwich to Wymondham. The was also an overtaking section to the east of Thetford. Apart from Thetford itself it was not a problem, unlike the A140
I replied
Aah, so I remember a dual carriageway, just in the wrong location. Whenever I drove the A11, it was an endless line of vehicles all doing the 40mph HGV limit.
I wrote: ↑Wed Jul 05, 2017 14:07
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.
Well seven years later and I can nearly say that. Still think Loggans Moor and the Hayle bypass are the fly in the smooth-sailing ointment though. However, who's with me on a free-flow trip from Loggans Moor to Invergowrie? (Isn't that going to be the longest free-flow route now? Excluding artificial extensions by going a longer way around)
Only if you go a longer, slower route - the shorter, faster route is via M9, A9 with at grade roundabouts at Bridge of Allan and Broxden
A dream compared to Doncaster - Scotch Corner. 
A66 was the leader for long queues behind lorries.
