Roads you hate to drive and why.

M25 – Sooo many people sitting in the outside lane or middle lanes with nothing on their left, doing 50mph. There are 5 lanes pullover if you wanna dawdle or just F*** off and die.
Number of times I’ve also passed cars at night with no lights on, usually black and german.

M23 – Same as above. Minus the 5 lanes.

The M4 isnt that bad, it’s definitely a bit of a nightmare once you get into Wales with all the peeling off lanes and those stupid tunnels near Newport. Whoever designed and then signed off the bit passed Port Talbot needs taking outside and shooting.

The small experience I have of the M6 was interesting… why put so many corners in?!

A17 between the A1 at Newark and Norfolk. It just goes on forever…

Having said that, in a car it is painful, on the motorbike it’s a different matter. Like when I was riding home from Wales yesterday in the cold crisp afternoon with the sun setting, it was bliss zipping between the cars.

Rachel

Most town centres are pretty dire

Drivers dawdling, daydreaming, picking their nose, messing around with something on the passenger seat

It’s the general lack of awareness, bumbling around, pootling that drives me nuts

slowoldgit – Member
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.

Anytime I’m driving the A9 it’s in a van, so stuck at 50……. you can almost feel the hate building up behind

A34 from Winchester to Oxford, always knackered coming off the ferry late at night not lit hate it, always queues on the way south.

No way! One of my faves – southbound = holidays. If theres traffic building, cut off just after Sutton Scotney and through Winchester and pop out the other side (admittadely into more traffic that is at least moving!) onto the M3. Northbound = always dead quiet as you’ve just got off an evening ferry.

Surely the winner of this HAS to be the M6 between Manchester and Birmingham? A hateful road. I literally cannot think of a single time I’ve driven it and got stuck in traffic and seen massive tailbacks in the opposite direction too. Doesn’t help that it seems to be inhabited by idiots.

40 mph dual carriage way. The inside lane is inhabited by people who drive at 38 mph and need to do something really important before they can pull away from a green light.

2mph below the limit? Yes, I can see how that leaves you impotent with rage.

Moving up to Hebden last year I was warned about the M62, ” yeah yeah” I thought,”I’ve done my fair share of driving, Ive used some pretty bad roads”

Ohmy **** goodness… It’s like distilled idiocy thrown together with too much traffic and badly designed just for fun. I look at is as the price I have to pay for access to the nice bits of scenery

The A14 between Brampton and Girton.

EVERY. Friday. An articulated lorry would tip over on the roundabout trying to get the last Felixstowe ferry that would get them home for the weekend. It would block the road for hours and hours. They put in sensors, 6m high flashing signs, calming measures and still it continued.

This road changed my life. The next job I had I stopped driving to work, won’t do it again either. Thanks the A14.

To follow on from the earlier comments about the M62. I’ve just returned from a drive eastbound 21 – 26 and then an hour later the same journey in reverse. Heading out and the W/B carriageway was heavy with a queue caused by 2 vehicles in the outside lane trying to occupy the same space. Police were just arriving on scene.

Heading back, satnav said it was clearing, news report said all lanes re-opened so I chanced it (the alternative being a trek through Halifax). One of those queues where sometimes it’s 15mph, sometimes it’s 40, then back to 15 and so on.
There were at least another 4 shunts over on the hard shoulder where people had run into the back of stationary traffic ahead of them which would then cause knock on queues and people accelerating out of the front of one queue into the back of the next one. Just insane driving.

M180/A180 The Noise!!! Rippled concrete, you feel like you’re going to lose fillings too. And to cap it all, you end up in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

Regarding the M62, its not exactly helped by the Highways Agency’s new la-de-dah managed motorway guff. Dead clear motorway, traffic moving at 70/80 as per normal. All of a sudden, 50mph signs appear. Stick on for a mile or two and then clear again. No breakdowns, no crashes, no signs of anything. Just slowing the traffic down to go past a junction. I like to imagine its just someone sat bored in a control room who want to pour misery on drivers for no reason. To be fair, I’d probably do the same…

A417 between Hope under Dinmore and Gloucester. Terrifying. Around almost every corner you’d be confronted with a speeding Merc or BMW on your side of the road. Especially bad on a Friday afternoon and during some competition or other, World Cup I think, when England were playing that evening, it was real heart-in-mouth stuff. I wasn’t being over-sensitive either as at least weekly there’d be a big smash and a diversion. They started leaving the burnt out cars on the verge as a reminder. And they did have unmarked police cars too. Once cycled past some big shot businessman trying to argue with one such copper in the car park of the Trumpet. It was all I could do not to stop and laugh at him – ****.

Other memorable roads include the famous Interstate 90 across South Dakota. It goes through Wall, home of the fabulous Wall Drug! (read with sarcastic tone of voice). Mostly though it’s 600 miles of featureless plain. Fun once, however every road-trip somewhere interesting from my in-laws’ house involves this road so I’ve driven it about five times, and probably will again.

Oh yeah – M62 – or almost anywhere in that region. FFS northerners do NOT know how to drive.

The Pan Am highway. In Ecuador. In a bus. Routine overtakes three abreast on blind bends, with the outer car/bus overtaking the one that was already overtaking. Often it did not end well, with the emphasis on end.

Compared to that sort of thing, UK roads are like soft play. That said, I’m regularly bemused by the sheer randomness of driving anywhere within about ten miles of the M25 perimeter. Step in time Mary Poppins…

M83- a big letdown, I loved We Own The Sky but I saw them live and they were dreary…

A14 from Cambridge to M6/M1. That bit past Kettering seems like it gets repeated about four times on one trip – it just goes on and on and on and on and on. I’ve not been to Kettering but that road alone puts me off going.

A12 from M25 to Colchester – no slip roads, they’re junctions. And always backed up from London to Chelmsford.

M65 from Junction 3 to 6 West and eastbound on the hill sections it goes from 3 lanes to 2 at the crest. The endless idiots who bomb up in lane 3 and force their way into lane 2 at the very last minute. Drops lane 1-2 down to 10-15 mph or stopped. And s accident every day!

On the A9 it is the sometimes suicidal actions of people overtaking going in the other direction that I find most worrying. I’ve had a near miss and a VERY near miss, where somehow my pal managed to avoid a head on with someone overtaking at reckless speed heading the other way. When the traffic is light, it is a lovely stretch of road.

A417 between Hope under Dinmore and Gloucester. Terrifying

Glad I read that just now and not earlier tonight, as just drove its length for what I believe is my first time ever! also got momentarily lost in Gloucester down some housing estates and nearly got fronted by kid (must’ve been all of 14yrs) on a dirt bike with no lights.

The A8 autobahn across pretty much all of Germany because it’s 83 gazillion miles long and I’m the only one not doing 180mph 2 inches from the car in front.