Unusual road layouts

[DaveE]

I appreciate this could be a very short thread, but I only just realised something the other day and wanted to share it!

Just outside Brighton, on the coast road heading east, there's a section of 4 lane A road

It's not a dual carriageway, and there are no solid white lines

So theoretically, you could have all 4 lanes with cars travelling in the same direction/overtaking each other

In either/both directions

[Swervin_Mervin]

See also the A556 between the M56 and M6 J19 until a couple of years ago. What was a key link road between Manchester and the M6, and it was 50mph for much of it as well.

Now significantly downgraded following construction of the new dual-carriageway link.

[Jobbo]

The Hagley Road (A456) into Birmingham is like that in places - I remember asking my stepfather as a child whether you could overtake on the furthest right hand lane

Other oddities:
The cloverleaf in Redditch (the only one in England and I believe shortly to be the only one in the U.K. as the two in Scotland have been/are being altered.

The magic roundabouts (Swindon, Hemel Hempstead and a few others which count but don’t feel quite as weird).

The entrance road to the Savoy from the Strand: the only two-way single carriageway road in the U.K. where you drive on the right.

[jamcg]

Always found the a66 a strange road- to go end to end from Workington in Cumbria to grangetown here on Teesside you have to jump on the a1m between scotch corner and Darlington- so it’s not a continuous road. It also has a circa 2mile section where it’s the a66m where it feeds onto the a1m

I imagine it’s not the only one like this though

[RobYob]

Up until last year travelling west on the A14 at Junction 31 you had to divert off to the M11 Northbound, drive 15miles to Huntingdon to the rejoin the A14 again. If you stayed on the "motorway" westbound 10miles later you ended up at the Caxton Gibbet roundabout and discover the A14 dual carriageway suddenly evaporates into the craptacular two-way A428.

It's like the crew building the A14 west from Ipswitch and the crew building it eastward from Rubgy couldn't agree where to meet and the budget ran out before linking the two.

[duncs500]

Not on topic, but this thread reminded me: what's the status of those very wide single carriageway roads where people overtake into oncoming traffic and assume they'll give space / avoid a head on collision? And if two people have the same idea and do crash who is to blame?

There's a couple near me, and I can't help but think it's all very dicey. I usually just tuck in tight to the left and let everyone get on with it.

[jamcg]

Same rules as a narrow road, if you are overtaking it’s got to be in a safe manner, I’d imagine if 2 overtaking cars hit each other there’d be books thrown at both cars

[duncs500]

It just looks like a recipe for disaster to me.

[JonMad]

The Hagley Road (A456) into Birmingham is like that in places - I remember asking my stepfather as a child whether you could overtake on the furthest right hand lane

The magic roundabouts (Swindon, Hemel Hempstead and a few others which count but don’t feel quite as weird).

Is the middle lane on the A38(M) useable in either direction depending on traffic flow?

Also, Denham roundabout is a fun one, like a super-sized magic roundabout under a motorway junction.

[Jimmy Choo]

Other oddities:
The cloverleaf in Redditch (the only one in England and I believe shortly to be the only one in the U.K. as the two in Scotland have been/are being altered.

I've just had to look that up on SABRE.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Not on topic, but this thread reminded me: what's the status of those very wide single carriageway roads where people overtake into oncoming traffic and assume they'll give space / avoid a head on collision? And if two people have the same idea and do crash who is to blame?

There's a couple near me, and I can't help but think it's all very dicey. I usually just tuck in tight to the left and let everyone get on with it.

A WS10 - Wide Single 10m. Most I'm aware of have been modified now to have hatchings down the centre to try and discourage overtaking. They're certainly not specced anymore. I don't know what the stats are/were, but to me they've always seemed fine - can usually overtake without needing to cross the centreline much, if at all. 10m width is actually enough to physically get 4 HGVs side by side.

[Jobbo]

Other oddities:
The cloverleaf in Redditch (the only one in England and I believe shortly to be the only one in the U.K. as the two in Scotland have been/are being altered.

I've just had to look that up on SABRE.

The Redditch cloverleaf? Only a few miles from my old house; we should have gone for a quick spin round it. I think I've only ever once gone round the whole thing but now I have a dashcam I might do so again

@JonMad The A38(M) is indeed tidal flow - you can use the middle lane going into Birmingham in morning rush hour and out of Birmingham in evening rush hour. I'm not convinced it's very effective, particularly on the way into town, because the extra lane has to merge back in anyway.

[integrale_evo]

Up until last year travelling west on the A14 at Junction 31 you had to divert off to the M11 Northbound, drive 15miles to Huntingdon to the rejoin the A14 again. If you stayed on the "motorway" westbound 10miles later you ended up at the Caxton Gibbet roundabout and discover the A14 dual carriageway suddenly evaporates into the craptacular two-way A428.

It's like the crew building the A14 west from Ipswitch and the crew building it eastward from Rubgy couldn't agree where to meet and the budget ran out before linking the two.

The whole old a14 was a mess, even if you made it to Huntingdon as you then had to take another junction off, turn left, then go straight over another roundabout before being back on the proper a14. Even the junction into the m6 was a pain.

The new layout is awesome, god knows who approved the original setup. I’m guessing it was just upgrading existing routes a little section at a time and not looking at or being able to look at the big picture.

[JonMad]

Well this site (roads.org.uk) is a bit of a fun rabbit hole.

Another candidate - M4 Junc11 which has a two way bus lane through it.
https://www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m4/140

Also, the reworked Basingstoke junction near me (not the bit connecting the motorway, the bit above it is the fun part)
https://www.roads.org.uk/index.php/motorway/m3/80

[RobYob]

Up until last year travelling west on the A14 at Junction 31 you had to divert off to the M11 Northbound, drive 15miles to Huntingdon to the rejoin the A14 again. If you stayed on the "motorway" westbound 10miles later you ended up at the Caxton Gibbet roundabout and discover the A14 dual carriageway suddenly evaporates into the craptacular two-way A428.

It's like the crew building the A14 west from Ipswitch and the crew building it eastward from Rubgy couldn't agree where to meet and the budget ran out before linking the two.

The whole old a14 was a mess, even if you made it to Huntingdon as you then had to take another junction off, turn left, then go straight over another roundabout before being back on the proper a14. Even the junction into the m6 was a pain.

The new layout is awesome, god knows who approved the original setup. I’m guessing it was just upgrading existing routes a little section at a time and not looking at or being able to look at the big picture.

I did have a laugh that the undefined status of the old A14(M)/604(M) link road, it is in the wiki as something no-one was sure about until the bypass made it all a moot point. I used to like the little run between what's now the A1307(was 14/M/604/something) as catching the lights turning left meant a fast well sighted blast down to the A1/14 roundabout. Mind you, having any sort of chance at a decent run meant a 4am alarm for me. Did that weekly for nearly 3 years...

Melbournians are hardened to both weird weather and challenging road rules.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn
Getting T-boned by a 50tonne tram for screwing it up does focus the mind though.

I bottled out on my first attempt at the Hemel Hempstead magic rounadabout though I confess.


The "priority lane" sign I came across in Russia is another one that can ruin your day. Given you then can't assume you give way in the regular direction at a round about. You can get three quarters of the way around performing a left hand turn and then have to give way to entering traffic

[Jobbo]

Well this site (roads.org.uk) is a bit of a fun rabbit hole.

Ah, what was CBRD (Chris's British Roads Directory). A great resource, as is SABRE: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/ - in fact, lots of small roads sites linked to SABRE, such as Pathetic Motorways: https://pathetic.org.uk/

[duncs500]

Not on topic, but this thread reminded me: what's the status of those very wide single carriageway roads where people overtake into oncoming traffic and assume they'll give space / avoid a head on collision? And if two people have the same idea and do crash who is to blame?

There's a couple near me, and I can't help but think it's all very dicey. I usually just tuck in tight to the left and let everyone get on with it.

A WS10 - Wide Single 10m. Most I'm aware of have been modified now to have hatchings down the centre to try and discourage overtaking. They're certainly not specced anymore. I don't know what the stats are/were, but to me they've always seemed fine - can usually overtake without needing to cross the centreline much, if at all. 10m width is actually enough to physically get 4 HGVs side by side.

I don't know how wide the ones I'm thinking of are, but people definitely straddle the centre line and assume people on the other side are going to tuck in.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Not on topic, but this thread reminded me: what's the status of those very wide single carriageway roads where people overtake into oncoming traffic and assume they'll give space / avoid a head on collision? And if two people have the same idea and do crash who is to blame?

There's a couple near me, and I can't help but think it's all very dicey. I usually just tuck in tight to the left and let everyone get on with it.

A WS10 - Wide Single 10m. Most I'm aware of have been modified now to have hatchings down the centre to try and discourage overtaking. They're certainly not specced anymore. I don't know what the stats are/were, but to me they've always seemed fine - can usually overtake without needing to cross the centreline much, if at all. 10m width is actually enough to physically get 4 HGVs side by side.

I don't know how wide the ones I'm thinking of are, but people definitely straddle the centre line and assume people on the other side are going to tuck in.

Yeah - they're from a time when the general driving populous were marginally more knowledgeable regarding road etiquette etc.

[RobYob]

Ok, who's the Jalopnik stooge?
https://jalopnik.com/what-is-the-weirde ... 1846655010

[KevH18]

Always found the a66 a strange road- to go end to end from Workington in Cumbria to grangetown here on Teesside you have to jump on the a1m between scotch corner and Darlington- so it’s not a continuous road. It also has a circa 2mile section where it’s the a66m where it feeds onto the a1m

I imagine it’s not the only one like this though

Bit further south but I didn't realise the A19 suddenly changes in to the into the A168 before leading on to the A1M. The A19 heads off down to York on a separate road. Driven on that road 10s of times.