Driving for masochists- old roads you don't miss

[Glenn A]

My starter for ten of roads that have been improved very much for the better, the A66. Yes it's not pefect, particularly in west Cumbria and the remaining S2 sections from Scotch Corner to Penrith, but the old road was a pain to say the least. Cobbled together from a set of non primary roads west of Penrith in the late sixties, the Penrith- Workington section of the A66 was little better than a country lane in places and progress through villages like Brigham was of the hearse variety. Not forgetting by the time you hit Penrith in your overheating car, there were the joys of being stuck on near continuous S2 and lorries and people with a suicidal urge to overtake them all the way to Scotch Corner. Such joys from the seventies I don't miss and anyone have other masochistic road tales from the past when journeys used to take forever.

[roadtester]

A130 before the current dualled one was built.

Also, the A13 in the late seventies and early eighties when most of it was still undualled.

Old pre-tunnel A3 at Hindhead.

A74.

[Glenn A]

A130 before the current dualled one was built.

Also, the A13 in the late seventies and early eighties when most of it was still undualled.

Old pre-tunnel A3 at Hindhead.

A74.

The A74 had the benefits of being a fast D2, but it was dangerous. You had to watch for bus stops, farm vehicles, vehicles crossing the carriageway at at grade junctions, and the occasional pedestrian as houses were very close to the carriageway. I never saw one, but as the A74 was an all purpose road, it's likely some brave cyclist would try to use the road.
For sheer mind numbing tedium, the A2 Rochester Way through Eltham, one excruciating drag from Blackheath to Bexleyheath. Imagine having Channel Tunnel traffic running past your garden gate and front door 24 hours a day as well, or having your pride and joy hit by a 40 ton lorry. This is one road that mercifully has gone( although there was an interesting alternative via Shooters Hill).

[Chris Bertram]

A453 between M1 and Clifton. Actually, extend that back to Appleby Magna, as I remember before A42 was built and the route I took from Brum to Newark, where I was working for much of 1989 led me through Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Breedon on the Hill and so on. Then throw in A46 between Bingham and Newark for similar reasons.

[Johnathan404]

I imagine the M40 would have made a huge difference to my family's travel. Nothing like that has opened in my lifetime.

The upgraded Winchester Bypass is another one.

[Berk]

I imagine the M40 would have made a huge difference to my family's travel. Nothing like that has opened in my lifetime.

Erm, it opened in 1991. Or did you mean the southern bit??

[Johnathan404]

Erm, it opened in 1991. Or did you mean the southern bit??

I'm sorry to inform you January 1991 was 26.5 years ago. Older than almost half the membership of SABRE!

[doebag]

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.

[trickstat]

The A120 in Essex before the bypasses were built, particularly the almost permanently jammed Braintree one-way-system. Also often being stuck in a queue behind a stereotypical Sunday driver (often in a Morris Minor) for miles with almost no decent overtaking opportunities. I remember once the Braintree bypass opened driving it far faster then I would usually drive on a motorway out of sheer frustration.

[c2R]

The A1 from alconbury to Peterborough.

[michael769]

[
The A74 had the benefits of being a fast D2, but it was dangerous. You had to watch for bus stops, farm vehicles, vehicles crossing the carriageway at at grade junctions, and the occasional pedestrian as houses were very close to the carriageway. I never saw one, but as the A74 was an all purpose road, it's likely some brave cyclist would try to use the road.

Yes and some of the bends required a degree of skill to traverse safely at 70mph - skill that not every one using the road demonstrated.

[owen b]

The never ending drag on the A505 through Hitchin, then Letchworth, then Baldock. The Little Wymondley bypass opened in the mid-1990s, in effect also bypassing Hitchin and Letchworth, but Baldock remained unbypassed by the A505 until about ten years ago.

As a teenager in north Essex / south Suffolk there were a huge number of very slow old routes which were used to get to places where the A14 or M25 would now be used. Cambridge to Catthorpe usually involved St.Neots - Bedford - Northampton - M1. Practically anywhere around the northern side of London before the bulk of the M25 was completed involved hopeless trips along roads such as the North Circular or A414/A405.

[Gareth Thomas]

I remember being driven along the A33 Winchester bypass in the early 1990s during the roadworks to upgrade it.Added at least an hour onto our journey to the New Forest.

The old A473 (now B4595) between Talbot Green and Trefforest, the long slug through Church Village is not something I miss either.

[orudge]

A8000 - good riddance!

[Bomag]

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.

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.

[doebag]

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.

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.

[Bryn666]

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.

[Chris5156]

A30 between Okehampton and Launceston. When we went on holiday to Cornwall back when I was a child, the A30 dual carriageway stopped after Okehampton and a queue several miles in length led to a crawl at 30mph or so all the way to Launceston.

Towards the end of the time we regularly went down there, roadworks started to build the dual carriageway between those points. Today you don't even notice the transition.

[bobinkent]

The A25 before the M25, mind you, now its nicer to go back to the A25 to avoid the tedium of the M25

[FosseWay]

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.