What's the maddest bit of road in the UK..??

Sinny71

Sinny71

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Reading another post prompts me to ask this question but what is the most stupid bit of road in the UK..????

For me it could be the scalextric track that Coventry call a ring road round the city centre. I'm sure there are people going round and round on that for days....

Or the 'Magic round-a-bout' in Swindon. I've only faced that a few times while it was quiet but surely there was an easier way to sort out traffic..??? A mate of mine told me that he just drives straight over the middle, but he was in an RAF artic so I'm guessing not to many people took the chance of getting in his way. If you dont know it here are a few pics and even a youtube link.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrfdQIg4ap0

There must be more out there though, so where are they..???
 
Sinny71 said:
R
For me it could be the scalextric track that Coventry call a ring road round the city centre. I'm sure there are people going round and round on that for days....
Click to expand...

I know this one, first visit to Coventry for an interview had me making an embarrasing to to a good mate for directions to get out lol, it's like no way out unless you are a resident.
 
jojo said:
I know this one, first visit to Coventry for an interview had me making an embarrasing to to a good mate for directions to get out lol, it's like no way out unless you are a resident.
Click to expand...
Maybe that hits the nail on the head then, its all a clever ploy to stop people leaving. :lmfao:
 
Sinny71 said:
Reading another post prompts me to ask this question but what is the most stupid bit of road in the UK..????

For me it could be the scalextric track that Coventry call a ring road round the city centre. I'm sure there are people going round and round on that for days....

Or the 'Magic round-a-bout' in Swindon. I've only faced that a few times while it was quiet but surely there was an easier way to sort out traffic..??? A mate of mine told me that he just drives straight over the middle, but he was in an RAF artic so I'm guessing not to many people took the chance of getting in his way. If you dont know it here are a few pics and even a youtube link.

[URL="http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u27/Sinny71/magic2.jpg"][/URL] [URL="http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u27/Sinny71/magic1.jpg"][/URL]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrfdQIg4ap0

There must be more out there though, so where are they..???
Click to expand...

I have never seen this before, nor do i ever wish to come across it while driving.
If i had entered swindon and come across that....well...load of absolute ********, i think i would have just got out of my car and given up life itself. Were the town planners on crack or something .?!
****** all else to do in swindon i guess so got to make the roads a bit of a random pot luck shoot out to keep everyone on their toes.

I wonder what the americans would make of something like that......they dont even have basic roundabouts so that would really fry their brains....

Swindon town planners...what a bunch of jokers !!
:jester: :jester: :jester:
 
DIABLO636 said:
I wonder what the americans would make of something like that......they dont even have basic roundabouts so that would really fry their brains....

Swindon town planners...what a bunch of jokers !!
:jester: :jester: :jester:
Click to expand...
Any guys from the US want to comment..?? haha

Just looking at the photo, maybe it wasn't the town planners at all.....perhaps its the aliens again with a tarmac crop circle..??? Probably just appeared overnight and no-one can explain it. And a couple of beardy hoaxers will be sitting in a pub laughing their asses off that people think its aliens...
 
thought it was bad up here, quite often we see junctions converted overnight into roundabouts just by slapping down a mini roundabout, crazy.

swindon's magic roundabout is class though. can't say i've heard of it before but can only imagine the signposts leading up to it. someone needs to be sacked for that one.
 
Also a magic roundabout here in south east essex - 'sadlers farm'.
Great fun, made even better by the bit of dual carriageway what is not wide enough for two cars passing and then merges into one lane.
Traffic planners had some good weed at that meeting.
 
I'm thinking this was their inspiration after a particularly heavy all nighter..!!

crop.jpg
 
I would love to see a tom tom or any navi unit deal with that
 
I live in Swindon and have to stick up for it.Theres nothing wrong with the magic roundabout, its pretty easy to navigate if you treat it as indepandant rounabouts. I travel across everyday at rush hour and it flows pretty well compared to other large roundabouts.
 
Surely they could have just put in one big roundabout? :think:
 
drive straight across, horn blaring and light flashing....with your eyes shut !!
 
I have to admit when I tackled it, it was mid morning and quite quiet. And besides, it was a hire car paid for by work so I didn't care much.

No-one got any more mad roads..??
 
Ive got nothing that comes close to that random collection of mini roundabouts sorry.
I was going to comment on the poor state of a road near to my house...not mad or wierd, just so **** poor i thought the car would ratle to pieces if it didnt get sorted soon.....they repaired it 2 days ago.....couldnt believe it.
Then realised they are about to hold local elections so must be trying to make people think they are actually doing us a favour or something.
(repaired road but installed 3 new speed mountains - not bumps.....i might ned to invest in a landrover defener to tackle them)
 
The road to my Dads village used to be like that. Then a few years back they put a new road down, rather than just resurface.
Now that road has to be the smoothest road I've ever driven on. Its only about half a mile but its twisty and great fun. Why all roads aren't like that is beyond me. But you come to the end of the smooth bit at the village and the road is all patches and potholes again.
 
What annoys me is that over time they pay to have the road made smooth, then they paid to have speed bumps put in, then they pay to have tem removed and replaced with different speed mups, them they had some of those removed as they were quite close to the junctions/street corners. During this time where they constatly wasted money putting speed bumps in and out the road itself was utterly terrible...think how much moeny got wasted on this bumps. Its crazy how much the council can waste public money or not use it on something really essential like basic road maintenance. I ride a motorbike too and the potholes etc are so dangerous............sorry off topic and into rant mode. Best if i go get another cold beer from the fridge......
 
Park royal gyrotary used to be fun before they put in the traffic lights. Same for Marble Arch, that was such an interesting junction before the lights were installed. I love those challenging junctions so much better than all the boring driving that we are forced to do currently.
I have frequenlty driven over both Swindon and Hemel "magic roundabouts" and enjoy them every time :icon_thumright:
 
The worst bit of road I can think of is the Oldings Corner roundabout between Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, just off junction 4 of the A1(M). Absolutely pathetic piece of road planning. It's almost as if the planners suddenly found themselves with loads of roads to hook up and so chucked them into one big roundabout.

Hilariously, they tried to improve it by adding traffic lights and that silly beige, rumble-strip concrete. But trying to find and get into the correct lane is virtually impossible, and I've seen countless horn exchanges as well as plenty of scrapes. Utterly appalling - Welhat council, your road planners are marked men ...

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.778768&lon=-0.222476&z=17.1&r=0&src=msa
 
Good shout Ben; that roundabout is crap! I remember the ballache it caused when they did all that work on it a couple of years ago too. Really worth it :sadlike:

Shame that aerial photo's a little out of date - pan south a bit and you'll see the old airfield where the business park now sits!
 
I've never seen that "Magic Roundabout" in Swindon - it's mental!!
Dave.
 
DIABLO636 said:
drive straight across, horn blaring and light flashing....with your eyes shut !!
Click to expand...
That was pretty much my chosen route the first time I encountered it!

I was invited to some technical thing or other at Intel HQ in Swindon, but my car was off the road at the time so my MD lent me one of his cars to make the journey. I'd heard about the Magic Roundabout beforehand, but had totally forgotten about it and certainly wasn't expecting to encounter it.

Nothing compares with the confusion you feel as you pass the first sign explaining how to negotiate such a contraption at about 30mph. I think the signs should start about a mile away and be repeated every 5 yards. That way you'd be fully relaxed and confident when you arrive there. Thankfully though it was something like 3am on a wednesday when I got to Swindon, so being in the only vehicle around I pretty much just picked the exit I needed and drove straight at it; and the boss' car came out unscathed.

As others have said though, the surprise is only for the first visit, subsequently and in traffic you can see it is actually quite clever so long as you hold your nerve. Oh, and so long as there isn't a blithering idiot in a £100 banger using the tactics I first employed. Then it gets hairy all over again!

Regards,

Rob.
 
Glad someone else things Oldings Corner is a pile of pants! Thanks batwad. And yeah you're right about the Aerodrome still in place in that photo. Must have been pictured around 1998/1999, because if you look in the western area of the airfield, you can make out the set where they filmed Saving Private Ryan!

batwad said:
Hemel Hemstead's "Magic Roundabout"
Click to expand...

I used to commute to Tring in my old job and would use Hemel's Magic Roundabout every day. It's a slightly daft concept but like someone else said about Swindon's version, it does work. Only when traffic gets very heavy does it grind to a halt, but then it would anyway.

Oh, and Colchester has one too, known as the Greenstead Roundabout:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.884481&lon=0.932712&z=18.2&r=0&src=msa
 
Pure madness on the A127 to London. In the past i've held my breath for many young lunatics, most of which have their young girlfriends in the cars.

25 Fatalities in 4 years. Most of which are boy racers who never make it home from the Sat night cruises.
 
MingBluS3 said:
Pure madness on the A127 to London. In the past i've held my breath for many young lunatics, most of which have their young girlfriends in the cars.

25 Fatalities in 4 years. Most of which are boy racers who never make it home from the Sat night cruises.
Click to expand...

And what about the roundabout that is on the A127? Exits blocked so it is just a pointless chicane in the road. Instead if removing it and freeing the flow if traffic, they have added a 30mph limit and speed cameras - all on a dual carriageway. Madness.
 
Yeah i know, the chicane is just asking for trouble!!!!

where you from Stringster?
 
benw123 said:
you're right about the Aerodrome still in place in that photo. Must have been pictured around 1998/1999, because if you look in the western area of the airfield, you can make out the set where they filmed Saving Private Ryan!
Click to expand...
I never knew the filmed SPR in Hatfield until last week when I was chatting to some random dude on the train and mentioned that I work in Hatfield. He told me his dad (or someone) worked on the set and he had a tour of the set. Learn something new every day etc.

Anyway, that's :sign_ot:
 
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