Roads you hate to drive and why.

The M6, specifically going south. It starts out quite civilised but slowly becomes a descent into madness. I can never quite pinpoint the exact moment civilisation breaks down, somewhere around Lancaster?

Yep, pretty much. I used to live in Lancaster and driving to it from the south was often stressful and busy and idiot drivers everywhere. However, going north from Lancaster, especially once up around J35/36 though it was wonderful – clear roads, nice scenery.

Although sometimes in summer it’d be hell on earth with all the holiday traffic turning off at J36.

Current vote would be another +1 for the M62. Made worse at the moment by all the roadworks as they convert it to smart motorway. If they could convert all the users of the motorway to smart drivers as well, that’d help.

A449 from Worcester to Kidderminster – for some reason it seems to be the darkest road in the world at night and it’s just horrible to drive in the dark for for reason.

A65 between Skipton and the Lakes. Should be a lovely steady scenic drive, but gets ruined by a constant stream of overtaking nutters in cars and on bikes.

im a non driver but i hate two sections of road – i just find them sooo dull. strangely both begin/or end in perth

perth to pitlochry (at least heading north you’ve got ills further north to look forward to)

perth dundee (in any direction, mind numbing boring with either perth or dundee to break the monotony)

M1\M62 Lofthouse Interchange.

Huge mess of lanes full of idiots in White Vans or Bavarian Arsepanzers who think last minute lane changes are a sensible and safe option.

Anywhere in Great Malvern because potholes, insane squirrels and most of all entitled and apparently suicidal elderly persons both in cars and on foot.

I swear they think they are in Narnia. Maybe they are in Narnia??? Maybe my life is an illusion. Maybe I’m in Narnia and they are in Hobbiton? Maybe Gloucester Services is a portal…

The A9 is a bad road for driving – infamous when I lived in Scotland. Not stressful as such – it’s one of my favourites for scenery and a route to excellent riding / hillwalking. But predominately single carriage with sporadic dual lanes for overtaking, plenty of HGV traffic, made for more dangerous episodes / near-misses than any other road I’ve driven on in the UK.

A449 from Worcester to Kidderminster – for some reason it seems to be the darkest road in the world at night and it’s just horrible to drive in the dark for for reason.

It’s a weird stretch alright. You should try walking it at night after a skinful at the Fruiterers and China City. Feels sparse, empty and spooky.

M40. Not a particularly bad road, but I commuted up and down it for 10 years. Driving up it now reminds me of this.

A453 into Nottingham because it is the road to the hospital.

A35 Dorchester to Honiton. An hour (if you’re lucky) of tedium with speed traps.

Wick Moor Drove north bound depresses me, south bound makes me feel much better.

Hume highway, so dull.
Midlands highway, ditto.
6 hours out of Adelaide & still 3 from Coober Pedy, didn’t like that bit.

Surprised no-one’s mentioned the M23? Soul-sucking comes to mind.

Some roads just give me the jitters though, and I can’t really say why. The A456 is one such road, between Salwey Arms and Tenbury Wells. I’m always on hyper-alert along that stretch, as if The End is around the next bend…

Main road out of Manc to Stockport. Whatever it’s called.

Really stressful with two lanes each way but loads of parked cars and turnings.

Main reason I don’t go to peak district more often tbh.

Me too; it’s a nightmare road. If I need to go that way I get up early and get on the A6 before everybody else. Traffic anywhere south of Manchester is a nightmare, generally.

The M6, specifically going south. It starts out quite civilised but slowly becomes a descent into madness. I can never quite pinpoint the exact moment civilisation breaks down, somewhere around Lancaster?

The madness starts where the Blackpool traffic comes in; loads of muppets with cars full of tired fractious kids, still digesting their energy-dense burgers, chips and candy floss. The section from that junction (32) down to the M6/M61 divergence is a massive race track.

M50 from the M1 to Stoke (and vice versa) and the A14 in Northants/Cambs.

Both race tracks or a crawl depending on traffic.

Awful surface for a lot of the A50 too.

The madness starts where the Blackpool traffic comes in; loads of muppets with cars full of tired fractious kids, still digesting their energy-dense burgers, chips and candy floss. The section from that junction (32) down to the M6/M61 divergence is a massive race track.

It’s especially appalling on a bank holiday. If I’m likely to be coming home from up there somewhere I generally bail out along the Settle road and come over the tops from Bentham to Clitheroe.

A special shout out to the young lady the other day clear road in front her in the middle lane; breaks on breaks off, breaks on breaks off etc for a few miles eventually as I passed as you guessed it playing with her mobile phone resting it on the steering wheel!FFS

I can beat that – corsa being driven quite aggressively down the M53, followed it round the sliproad onto the M56 and it was, for want of a better word, “corkscrewing” around the entire corner at around 75-80mph. No way you could not have noticed it – looked terrifying.

The corkscrewing effect was due to her rear offside tyre being very low pressure. Having made the bend she went back up to 80-90 and carried on tailgating in lane 3 – the tyre lasted until just after Chester services whereupon it started to disintegrate with plenty of smoke, she still drove it at speed in lane 3 until just before the Runcorn exit when it hand-grenaded, still in lane 3 and probably around 80mph. Everyone else in lane 2 and 3 was hanging well back by now! As soon as the tyre went, she braked hard, then swerved across to the shoulder, just missing a Hoyer HGV minding his own business at 55 in lane 1. Quite amazing lack of awareness I thought.

Anyway, up to 2.15 hours to drive 56 miles to Manchester from Wirral means I’ve started to use the train – bloody awful road.

The M6 in either direction between Stafford and Knutsford. I never feel safe driving (or being driven) on there.
I also really hate the A6 between Stockport and Hazel Grove – it’s always busy, with hundreds of traffic lights and people turning in and out of side roads across 4 lanes, a high density of big lorries, loads of parked cars and usually some roadworks. All that can be avoided with a short train journey.

Anywhere East or South of where I live. Just because.

The M4 in South Wales. It needs demolishing and re-building. That’s South Wales needing the attention, not the M4.

But while they’re doing it, can they re-do the motorway to three and four lanes, without short sliproads, adverse cambers, tight bends and inept drivers.

A205. The best reason never to venture into South London.

Slowoldgit 🙁 thats home.

M4 from Coldra to Cardiff can be a bit iffy.

A354 to Salisbury from the West is grim on a wet night, loads of standing water and pitch black, not helped that it can be stupidly quick.

I think I’ve been on a good 75% of roads mentioned here and agree with pretty much all of them.
The M3 from Winchester to London way is just bloody booring, even more so when they had those silly 5omph speed limits last year.
The A14 from the M25 to Colchester, mainly because there always seemed to be roadworks somewhere with miles of 50mph, zzzz.
The M62 at nigh was an interesting one, coming back from a wedding about 11pm and the inside lane was empty, but plenty of cars in the middle lane. Never encountered so many middle lane hoggers. I just sat in the inside lane at 70mph and went past them all. Odd.
The M6 South of Birmingham to North of Preston, oh god, thats a busy bit of road.
The M8 in central Glasgow can be quite mental, as the designers packed in a lot of right hand entry / exit lanes. So if you’re coming from Great Western Road heading into the city and take the slip on the M8 East, which is a long tight left hand curve and then spits you straight into the outside lane.

I also really hate the A6 between Stockport and Hazel Grove – it’s always busy, with hundreds of traffic lights and people turning in and out of side roads across 4 lanes, a high density of big lorries, loads of parked cars and usually some roadworks. All that can be avoided with a short train journey.

That’s my cycle commute to work!
On a bike, it’s actually not too bad but you do need to be on your game to avoid trouble.

West Malvern Road

Very true!

A449 from Worcester to Kidderminster – for some reason it seems to be the darkest road in the world at night and it’s just horrible to drive in the dark for for reason.

Did you ever drive it when the new, solar (I think) cat’s eyes were installed?
At night we’d have fun down there with the lights off..

For me, anywhere in Ledbury. I think most people who drive in Ledbury only got their license because their brother’s – mother’s – aunty’s dog was the driving examiner

A65 is a good shout – a country lane posing as an arterial route, fricking terrifying at times.

Anything north of Glasgow.

Because it means I’ve already been in the car for 6+ hours, through most of the roads mentioned, and because everyone in Scotland’s history was violent thug you all decided to live a long way from each other, which means it’s another 3 hours to wherever I’m going, probably stuck behind a campervan.

I think I mentioned this before, but I did about 6k miles last year driving (mostly) the roads between Glasgow and Newbury and back, between April and October, and I didn’t see a single traffic patrol car.

Is it any wonder that the standards of driving are so poor? The roads are virtually unpriced- apart from cameras.

Anyone else noticed the drop in their presence?

The Snake Pass – such a nice road through gorgeously bleak scenery – should be epic, but 999 times out of 1000 it’s a symphony of plodding with a shithole at either end.

Agree with most of these.

The M6 seems to have this bizarre epicenter of ass-hattery as you head south and approach Manchester / Liverpool, it settles down again as you approach Brum.

The M8: I live in Glasgow so its not exactly unfamiliar but if you had never driven it before its full of WTF sections all the way through the centre of Glasgow – slip roads on the wrong side, it’s 5 lanes, now it’s 3, now it’s 5 now it’s 2 now its 4!

The A9 – its actually less shite now, average speed have calmed things down quite a lot, its still a very boring road though!

Duke Street though!

M6 and M1 as above

I use to enjoy the M40 as its was one of the few motorways where lane discipline was largely respected. Sadly no longer the case, especially from the “cut” as I call it N of H Wycombe and the M25. Having said that is was ok going N on Sat and S last night. Only two total twunts in 240 miles so not a bad result.

Little Langdale – from Coniston road to Wrynose, can create horrible b’necks
Kings Heath in Brum – link from M42 into Edgbaston. Endless queues
Around Peaslake – too many cyclists 😉

…and the lorries even ignore the ‘no lorry overtaking’ zones. Very annoying.

there are no ‘no lorry overtaking’ zones between cambridge and the a1 on the a14.

Any of the motorways that go to 4 lanes – all the asshats in lane 2 now “graduate” to lane 3.

The A9 – its actually less shite now, average speed have calmed things down quite a lot, its still a very boring road though!

It seems more the 50mph for trucks that have calmed it down because there’s less to inspire the lunatic overtakes. But very very dull, especially Balinluig to Perth on the way south.

Perth – Dundee – Aberdeen though. Hateful.
And the M8. either direction, any time. All rules of the road inverted.

Is it any wonder that the standards of driving are so poor? The roads are virtually unpoliced – apart from cameras.

This. Part of the reason we’re in this mess is not only the lack of investment in the roads (or alternatives to keep people off them like cheap trains, good quality bike lanes etc), but also part of it is the frankly shocking ability of a lot of the motorists who don’t know how to make swift yet courteous progress on the same said roads

Most of these motorists I’m convinced think that just because they don’t speed, then that makes them good drivers. Due to the focus on speed, and the lack of police on the road then cue plenty of lane hogging, mobile phone use, incorrect lane usage, 40mph drivers on NSL roads, lack of observation or mirror use, lack of planning or thinking ahead, incorrect merging at obstructions causing tailbacks, tailgating, lack of indication, dog eat dog mentality etc. Speeding really is the least of our worries, because due to most of the above it’s rare anyone gets the opportunity to speed these days anyway.

I hate that new one – that bypass near you that they are working on at the moment with its false promise of faster journey times and less traffic through village x but in reality will within a few months just be a rolling road block and make f-all difference to village x anyway. But we have to keep building as we need somewhere for the ever increasing number of cars to go …. we’re all doomed I tell you!

Decade’s fastest growth sees almost 32 million cars on the road

I felt like the biggest improvement to the A9 was all the signs they put up saying “dual carriageway in 2 miles”, especially with the electronic ones “dual carriageway in 3 minutes”, massively cut down dickhead overtakes as people are more likely to wait for a dual

(there’s a special circle of hell set aside for people who slowly overtake in the duals though- I had one dude with a caravan take the entire length of one, passing a truck with about a 1mph speed differential. Police marksmen is the solution there.)

Last time I was on the A9 on a Saturday evening it was actually a pleasant drive thanks to the new cameras. I was in a group of cars, the leader obviously set their cruise control to 60 on their satnav, the rest followed at 100-m or more spacing. Then those who wanted to do upped to 70 on the dual sections.

A32, Fareham through Alton to Basingstoke, but only on a Sunday when it’s full of the MotoGP/World Superbike leather clad idiots riding bikes at 100mph through some very quiet villages and such.
For some reason there are no speed cameras along that route, for some reason Plod thinks it’s ok to let the idiots ride at such a speed, the council have done their best by putting 2 “Watch for Bikes” yellow signs on one lampost just outside of Wickham.

Nice.

Like a frikin racetrack it is.

The stretch of road from Prosilio down to Kardamili – don’t really know why, the views are great but it just seems the most tedious few kms. that I know. I can put up with it going north/uphill, but going south/downhill it’s mind numbing.