The road I live on is currently closed to all through traffic and will be for the next few weeks. My life is so bereft of joy that I’m having great fun sitting in my front room, eating biscuits and drinking coffee, whilst watching drivers reverse up the road. There are literally huge **** off signs within a half mile radius advertising the fact the road is closed.

I’m especially enjoying the looks of utter confusion and / or anger on people’s faces as they drive to within two feet of a barrier only to find that it doesn’t actually magically disappear to grant them access. Yes, the way is shut, even for you my special friend. I’m up to eleven cars and I’ve only been home since 16:30 😀

Nothing much to add except I read it as “my wife is so bereft of joy”. I wondered what that had to do with the price of fish and took me 4 rereads to work out idI read it wrong in the first place!

It would be more fun to sit in the middle of the road with biscuits and coffee.

I work on the highways and it never fails to amaze /amuse me how many people think the signs don’t apply to them. Only yesterday I was working on a closed road, albeit with access to fields and local rugby club, when a car decided to drive past without even checking how far he could get. Cue two minutes later speeding past several operatives at about 80mph (in a normal fifty) on his way back.

I work on the highways and it never fails to amaze /amuse me how many people think the signs don’t apply to them.

Genius workers around me closed the A road past my house and offered a 45 mile detour involving two motorways. I was on a bike and just rode through. No evidence of work at all.

Within a few hours locals had moved the signs. Took four days for work to actually start and the signs put back.

So you’ll forgive me if I don’t have a huge amount of confidence that road closed means road closed.

Genius workers around me closed the A road past my house and offered a 45 mile detour involving two motorways.

This. Every. Damn. Year.

Then they get surprised when everyone clogs the two unclassifed roads that bypass the roadworks. Rather than managing the situation and just sending the traffic in each direction down each road they then close those as well.

Definitely closed here. Large trenches dug up for electrical work. I was chatting with one of the workers this morning and he told me a lady actually tried to drive through a barrier yesterday. The best part for me is how quiet it is. It’ll be awful when it reopens

This is a main road with notices of times and dates posted and not done on a whim. Fair enough having a look, but don’t endanger my life when you get all mardy arse when you realise the earth doesn’t revolve around you.

Recently a large sewer collapsed just outside chester, only 2 roadsf feed from that area, and one closed, loads of signage to say road closed only the pavement open, 3 foot wide, cycled down there to have a look, and strangely most of the cars doing a 15 point u turn, where drivers of german cars, that seemed to have mirrors but the drivers couldnt user then to do a u turn

Gotta love a diversion. I mean maaaan they’re fun.

The detour signs lead nowhere other than.. nowhere, and I’m pretty sure the “roadwork” operatives mislead or on purpose place diversion signs at angles no one can read or that they just stop in the middle of nowhere.

You do do it on purpose don’t you?

Its no wonder people try to flout them is it.

Not a “road closed” story but I very much enjoyed the morning of my usual cycle commute where part of the journey is uphill on a singletrack country road with no passing places or turnoffs and soft verges. So I’m twiddling my way up the hill and become aware of a vehicle coming up behind me, look round and it’s a van determined to get by, which he does and is loudly cursed by me for his close pass. Head down and carrying on, I look up to see his brake lights go on, almost at the top, where the singletrack joins a bigger road. I’m thinking maybe he’s decided to teach me not to make such assumptions about his parentage. He’s getting out of the van, oh bother, ah well gonna’ have to deal with it, keep pedaling, almost there. Oh, I see now, it’s not me that’s his problem, it’s the large tree which has came down across the road. I lift my bike over and continue on my way.

Genius workers around me closed the A road past my house and offered a 45 mile detour involving two motorways. I was on a bike and just rode through.

Over the years I’ve learned to ignore Road Closed signs when on the bike. 9 times out of 10 it’s little more than a large pothole in the road, causing no obstruction to cyclists whatsoever, or it’s a 10 metre stretch that you can walk round. I wish they’d include signs excepting cyclists or offering diversions.

Agreed, very rare they’re not passable by bike. I heed the closures in a car though.

Part of the problem with detours is that they cannot use more minor roads. So if they close a busy a-road it doesn’t matter if there’s a perfectly good back road that adds half a mile – the official detour has to take the 30 mile route on comparable roads. Otherwise all the big lorries that were on the main route just get stuck in the smaller roads.

what about all the drivers of the HGVs that have ignored the diversion signs in favour of their sat navs?

The Hindhead tunnel is closed overnight for a few nights for repairs, with a diversion clearly signed around trunk roads. Instead drivers of artics have been following their sat navs through tiny lanes and villages causing massive traffic jams, and with some unable to get round bends / through bridges, one even drove over the village green rather than wait for the road to clear.

Our street is used as a rat-run by short-cutters so we were pleased when it was closed for about three months some years ago. We had blissful peace and could even walk up the street without fear. A couple of days before it reopened I, er, borrowed the “Road Closed” signs from each end and, er, kept them in a safe place and on the evening after the street reopened I went up, re-erected them and chained them to lamp posts with a laminated notice on each padlock warning that cutting the chains would be reported to the Police as criminal damage. We enjoyed three or four more days of glorious peace. It so happened that a lad in my mountain bike club worked at the Highways Department; he told me his boss was fuming and ranting: “We can’t have residents setting up their own road closures!”  I don’t know if it was the effect of the notices but it took the council about four days to get down, cut the chains and reclaim their signs.  My cycling buddy suspected I was involved but said nothing to his boss.

More recently I was out in the Bowland Fells road cycling and my buddy and I came across a notice warning of a closure a couple of miles ahead, offering a longer diversion that involved a big hill. So we decided to risk it and when we arrived at the closure it was the entire bridge over the river, mostly demolished for repair. There was an old fellow up a ladder painting his house and he turned and started taking the pee, you know: “Oh yes here we are again, here’s more people who ignored the warning and think they can get through, ha ha ha…”.  That was red rag to a bull and we were determined to prove the old barsteward wrong. Getting through involved climbing a wall, plodging through a field full of cow crap, climbing up onto a steel pipe that crossed the river beside the bridge and balancing across in slippery road shoes, bikes over shoulders, while holding the scaffolding with one hand. But we made it, dammit!

My parents live at the end of a narrow tarmaced lane up a hill. We’re talking vegetation brushed the car sides at peak growing season narrow bit of grass in the centre.

At the end of the lane is a triangular forest gate with two small vertical pieces for mounting a sign. On night a gentleman managed to thread his car into the gate and the wee sign bracket at such speed that the two brackets cut a strip out the centre of his bonnet.

His excuse was he didn’t know the gate was there because he’d never been up the road before.

The number of dead end signs and physical stufchitting his car… Completely ignored.

We’ve done it…. following the twatnav through a French ski resport late one summer night we found ourselves in the hire car driving up an increasingly desperate Jeep track to the chalet we had rented. I chickened out and reversed back down then we took a longer tarmac route around. Next day we walked it and realised that if I had used some momentum to get over the steep scrabbly bit we’d have been fine and would have reached the chalet in a minute.

I live at the end of a small cul-de-sac. I will never see such pleasures! 😆

I was visiting a mate a few weeks back and there’s a short road leading to his village where they are building some new houses. There was a Road Closed Ahead sign… I er, went down the road (I don’t know the area so it was the only way I knew to get to his house)… I suppose my thought was ‘it’s only a short road, maybe I’ll be able to get out the end’ or something… I get within yards of his house and there’s a (surprise surprise) barrier. Had to U-turn and find another way…  I’m one of the stupid ones aren’t I?

I get within yards of his house and there’s a (surprise surprise) barrier. Had to U-turn and find another way…  I’m one of the stupid ones aren’t I?

Yep. You are.

You could have parked within yards of his house instead of following the detour.

Mucho whining for weegies this week due to Euro champs time trial road closures, radio scotland was a joy to listen to…

Then there were the two rapha’d up roadies who were utterly horrified when a marshall stopped them riding on the womens road race course during the actual race.

People’s entitlement is as astounding as it is beautiful…

in the days before satnav, on a caravanning holiday in France we took a wrong turn off the road atlas route plan and drove down a road that got narrower and narrower and clearly wasn’t the right one. In a massive rain and thunderstorm. We were waiting for it to open up a bit so we could turn round but it seems to take ages until the trees either side of the (surprisingly well maintained but clearly not the right one) gave enough space.

While my sister and mum sat in the car, my 14 year old self and my dad unhitched the ‘van and 3 point turned and squeezed the car past, literally just enough space for the two side by side between the bank on one side and what seemed to be quite a steep drop on the other. Then we turned the van round by hand, including sticking it’s arse out over the drop. We rehitched and drove out none the wiser, found the right road to the campsite and all’s well.

The next day curiosity led us back down the road in daylight. We’d been hanging the arse out over about a 20-30 foot drop into a reservoir, and if we’d driven on a bit further we’d have been right on top of a bloody great dam.

Gotta love a diversion. I mean maaaan they’re fun.

The detour signs lead nowhere other than.. nowhere, and I’m pretty sure the “roadwork” operatives mislead

I was staying at a hotel on Haldon Hill, near Exeter, a few weeks ago. Driving back to the hotel at about 9 I found the road closed and a van of workers just setting stuff up, so I dutifully followed the diversion signs. Ten minutes later I arrived back at exactly the same road closed sign and gang of road workers still setting up…..

weggies

?

Edit: Bah! Damn your spell checking and editing skills.

Our street is used as a rat-run by short-cutters

Its only ever ‘other people’ who use rat runs, isn’t it? I’ll bet those people who complain about their road being used as a rat run only ever use main roads and never think about cutting through side roads. Thinking about it, I wouldn’t put any money on that at all. 🙄

Over the years I’ve learned to ignore Road Closed signs when on the bike. 9 times out of 10 it’s little more than a large pothole in the road, causing no obstruction to cyclists whatsoever, or it’s a 10 metre stretch that you can walk round. I wish they’d include signs excepting cyclists or offering diversions.

I thought the same thing recently, I got about 2 miles past the road closed signs then saw why – The vast earthworks and excavations of the Handforth bypass were laid out in front of me running miles in each direction and probably 400M across of digger tracks 😀

I did a swift about turn :p

You could have parked within yards of his house instead of following the detour.

I think they might’ve tarmac’ed my car if I’d done that 🙂

I don’t really get the “rat run” thing either.

If there is a road that goes somewhere that somebody want to go to then they should be able to use without them being labelled “rats”. They are usually as entitled to use it as the residents of said road.

If the residents feel that it is a problem then they should petition the council to put restrictions on through traffic.

Everybody is traffic, it is not just other people.

If there is a road that goes somewhere that somebody want to go to then they should be able to use without them being labelled “rats”. They are usually as entitled to use it as the residents of said road.

It’s not usually about the volume, it’s usually the inappropriate speed.

My street runs parallel to the the main street in our town and lots of people use it to bypass the main crossroads in the centre of town. Which would be absolutely fine with  me if they didn’t routinely tear down the street at 50 mph.

I’ve never seen anyone who lives in the street driving at that speed……only the “rats”

Do road closures apply to everyone though? What if you have places to be?

Over the years I’ve learned to ignore Road Closed signs when on the bike. 9 times out of 10 it’s little more than a large pothole in the road, causing no obstruction to cyclists whatsoever, or it’s a 10 metre stretch that you can walk round. I wish they’d include signs excepting cyclists or offering diversions.

Yep, vast majority of times cyclists can get through absolutely fine. I recall one such notice though which I ignored, rode 2 miles up a long climb (the road closed sign was at a junction, beyond which were no other turn offs) came round a corner and there was a massive wire fence heavily fortified and chained into the thick hedges at each side of the road. No way round that. a 2-mile descent losing all of that hard won height, turned off at the junction and had to go up the hill from the other side…

There’s a road by the Severn near Tewkesbury that often floods. When it is flooded, a Road Closed sign is put out. On the back of that sign it says ‘Told ya’ 🙂

I don’t really get the “rat run” thing either.

If there is a road that goes somewhere that somebody want to go to then they should be able to use without them being labelled “rats”. They are usually as entitled to use it as the residents of said road.

If the residents feel that it is a problem then they should petition the council to put restrictions on through traffic.

Everybody is traffic, it is not just other people.

There’s been a campaign running for 30 years to stop short-cutters. The road is a narrow old pre-industrial lane, superseded in the late 1700s by a turnpike road where there are traffic lights so people think it’s clever to use our road even though they gain no time. For some parts of the road there is no pavement so having cars racing past at speed is dangerous and frightening. Fortunately we train our kids to be careful so we had no deaths or injuries and were languishing at the bottom of Lancashire’s accident league table and thus not thought deserving of restrictions. About 15 years ago the street was restricted to “access only” which reduced traffic by 30% according to the SID figures I got from Lancashire CC. For years they refused to impose a speed limit because that would have set a precedent and every other blighted street would have been clamouring but then about 3 years ago Lancashire decided to impose a 20 mph limit on every residential street so suddenly we got the limit AND tabletops. I’m still waiting to know what effect this has had on traffic numbers but when the Police did a speed trap last summer they caught two drivers exceeding 45 mph.

Not road closed but roadworks.

Years ago they were doing some extensive roadworks to widen and improve a roundabout on my commute.

This involved long sections with cones narrowing the road to a single lane each way, traffic was always pretty congested as a result.  On the bike it wasn’t an issue I just rode inside the cones most of the way and i could nip back out of the cones if there was anything actually being worked on.  Except for the day there was a 2 foot wide trench dug in the tarmac, just after a bend and I spotted it probably 10 feet in front of me.

Turns out I’m quite good at bunnyhopping my commuting bike when i need to.

There are signs on our road of the cyclists dismount variety, so open for bikes. Saw one of the workers turn a person around this morning as I set off for work. It’s brilliant entertainment