Many people may know this, but I didn't until I contacted the Lancashire Constabulary. With reference to the M6 Forton services near Lancaster: police confirm that you are permitted to join and leave the motorway both N and S bound, to and from the C-roads which allow access to these services for staff etc. Presumably, this applies to all other motorway services as well. I thought that using these exits was illegal, a notion supported by all the road markings and signs forbidding the use of these exits to 'Unauthorized Vehicles', at this service area at least.
I am now asking the police if the same applies to the entrance/ exit at Claughton/ Catterall, which would be very convenient for those in the Garstang area, to avoid the jams on the A6 at Broughton near Preston.
Edited by Pugugly on 27/10/2008 at 18:55
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I used to do this at the services near Newbury on the M4 as it saved me several miles. I never got stopped but I did feel guilty driving past all those signs. I guessed at worst I'd get turned back.
Edited by nick on 27/10/2008 at 16:53
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Private property though isn`t it? Perhaps if enough people did it they would have to deploy those rising posts ;)
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Indeed it is, but I'm an anarchist at heart!
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Be careful Nick! Check out the un-numbered exit west of Newbury and going North off the M4 and/or use Google Earth to search for Welford. There are some gates but you could find yourself in the middle of UK biggest weapons store!
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I've have been there but in the course of my employment at the time!
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Back to Forton: the rising posts are well and truly knackered, and judging by the speed of the massive wagon hurtling over them this morning, they'd soon be ripped out if they were. They can hardly re-introduce these posts when they have habitually not been used for years.
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I used to do this at the services near Newbury on the M4 >>
But Chievely (spellin?) services are on a junction anyway?
I have done it a few years ago on the M3 Fleet Services southbound.
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It used to save me driving down to the junction and back, quite a saving if you lived where I did then.
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Used to this at Strensham on the M5.
Trouble was the gate was shut sometimes and it was a good few miles to the next junction and back to where I lived then.
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The joys of growing up in Worcestershire..!
Used to do this when Strensham was the only place for miles open after midnight. Drive down the M5, sit round a plate of chips for an hour then sneak out the back entrance.
I was convinced it was illegal to leave by the back entrance and we always expected to see a blue flashing light following us!
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Strensham barriers work intermittently. But then I've got the code, so it doesn't matter :)
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.....Used to do this when Strensham was the only place for miles open after midnight.
Drive down the M5, sit round a plate of chips for an hour then sneak out the back entrance....
Did much the same, the service area was operated by Kennings then and we called it Ken's cafe.
It was also where I perfected my Space Invader skills - arcade gaming machines were a bit thin on the ground in rural Worcestershire.
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>> I used to do this at the services near Newbury on the M4 >> But Chievely (spellin?) services are on a junction anyway?
Membury Services is just up the M4 from Chieveley, and there are a couple of service roads that are very handy if you want to take the scenic route through Lambourne and over the downs or just want to swap from East bound to West bound on the M4.
Maybe Nick was referring to Membury Services?
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/10/2008 at 19:24
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Aha, yes indeed! I used to live near Lambourn. It was a long drag down to Hungerford. Thanks for reminding me.
Edited by nick on 27/10/2008 at 19:35
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Aha yes indeed! I used to live near Lambourn. It was a long drag down to Hungerford. Thanks for reminding me.
All makes sense, I used to stop at Membury a few times a week when working in London and commuting from the West Country, usually for a pee in the morning and a sometimes a can of Red Bull on the way home, Red Bull might be bad for you though it helps keep you alert so is a lot more healthy than falling asleep at the wheel ;)
EDIT: Membury has the large mast, at night you can see the lights while still 10 miles or more away.
Edited by cheddar on 27/10/2008 at 19:39
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Heston was always handy too for parts of west london.
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I used most of them as a breakdown engineer and there were never any problems on service areas. Bolton West on the M61 has no access at all apart from the motorway meaning a long trip up to J8 to get back on the southbound and some of the others were gated off.
I used the Catterall one a couple of times (with beacons on) to get back on the southbpound track but I wouldn't recommend it in a car The 'No entry' signs on these works units are on the motorway and are probably legally binding. There's one near Stafford on the M6 and another on the M62 between Eccles and Croft which leads directly on to the Culcheth road and isn't a work unit although it is signed as such. Just an access point for emergency vehicles on a long stretch of road.
Best idea is buy a scruffy yellow Transit pickup, put a sticker on the back saying 'Motorway Maintenance'.....you'll be safe then !
Ted
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P.S. To the OP...I don't know why anyone would want to leave at Forton....there's a proper junction about a minutes drive north.
Ted
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P.S. To the OP...I don't know why anyone would want to leave at Forton....there's a proper junction about a minutes drive north.
The reason is that when M6S is jammed, people often leave at J33 Lancaster South to join A6, which rapidly becomes even more jammed because of traffic lights at Broughton near Preston. Therefore, a tactic for locals around Garstang now we know about the legal Forton exit is to sit out M6S jam till Forton, then get off onto C roads, without touching A6 at all. There are other tactics depending on circumstances.
The real benefit, which was behind my question to the police, would be permission to use '32a' at Catterall/ Claughton but I think the police are going to say 'That's different!', although it isn't really.
Many people do use the Forton entrance/ exit both N and S- I know because I observed them before contacting police.
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Heston was always handy too for parts of west london.
Yes I have used Heston on a couple of occasions when the elevated was backed up.
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Surely the famous exit was at Keele on M6 - students have used that for decades AFAIK.
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The Oresund crossing between Sweden and Denmark , 60% tunnel , rest bridge , cost to cross in 2004 about £40 one way. Driving to Denmark after a brilliant month driving in Norway/ Sweden, we stopped to look over the side and marvel at the view, the sheer drop and sweeping structure , and saw an unmarked slip road leading down to the bridge support.
Took it nonchalantly , cruising ( wish I knew how to link up a photo here = 1000 words ? ), turned back under the bridge , and got a ' free ' return crossing to Sweden and back..
Try it if you can one day ..
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There's no problem using service station exits. You certainly would never be stopped by anyone on my shift.
However, we take a dim view of people using our emergency turn around points. We often go through those at a fair rate of knots and don't appreciate meeting someone taking a quick shortcut head on.
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Knutsford services have cut several miles off my journeys in the past, as has Charnock Richard (South bound) and Leicester Forest East. Have never come across a locked barrier or working bollard.
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I must admit that I've always thought it was illegal to enter or leave the motorway other than by a "proper" (and I assumed that meant normal junction) entry/exit.
Quite recently I met the in-laws from a coach at Knutsford services Northbound - there was certainly a barrier (full width metal rising road) and I had to explain why I needed to enter. Same leaving but the person reponding to the button push told me I should have joined the motorway (J19 is just a few hundred yards away and in practice probably would have been quicker).
When I said I thought that would be illegal as I'd entered using the service road they opened the barrier.
Edited by Bill Payer on 28/10/2008 at 12:58
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I must admit that I've always thought it was illegal to enter or leave the motorway other than by a "proper" (and I assumed that meant normal junction) entry/exit.
This is the point- it's not at all illegal to come onto the motorway, or leave it at these service areas. They are entitled to install rising bollards but it sounds as if almost all of these are not in use, for the obvious reason that they are a pain for those working at the services. They can't suddenly put the rising bollards into use when they have been out of use for ages, or they will be liable for damage to cars. The problem is that they've left all the road markings and signs (at Forton, at least) in place when they have no utility or force behind them, which rather brings these signs into disrepute.
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.
Edited by b308 on 28/10/2008 at 15:50
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Not sure, what about the staff they're intended for?
Edit: where did the previous post go to?
Edited by nick on 28/10/2008 at 15:51
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Sorry, nick, I had another look at the op which indicated that they were legal thoroughfairs so it would seem it is legal... though what would happen if everyone started using them I'm not so sure...
(you were a bit quick to reply!!) :)
Edited by b308 on 28/10/2008 at 15:54
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The very reliable and helpful PC has come back to me with more definitive information: the other un-numbered access points which are not service areas are largely for works access, such as Catterall near Garstang. These have no slip roads and the important feature is that you have to cross the hard shoulder to gain the carriageway. Therefore these access points come under the Road Traffic Acts and Motorway Regulations, and unauthorized vehicles will be prosecuted if caught. The question then is how likely you are to be caught. I'm not going to risk it, particularly since the police didn't just say 'sod off and stop bothering us' , but actually gave me the true story about these access questions.
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I knew someone who wanted to meet a friend coming thro' the Dartford tunnel but did not want to drive over the bridge to the A2 and then come back.He contacted the Tunnel services who escorted him thro' their access roads and let him park in their area till the other car came thro'.
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The question then is how likely you are to be caught
I have seen patrol cars parked on both Catterall and the M62 works units in positions where you can only see them when you have committed yourself to the turn.
Ted
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Sorry if I've posted this before.
In 1973 I went from Lagos to Calabar in southern Nigeria in a hot-wired early Nissan Patrol, a stark canvas-roof job definitely past its best. It had quite strong torque steer that pulled it to the right, but would roll along at 90 guzzling petrol in large quantities.
On the way to Calabar we used the old road, mainly big potholes, with piles of rusting wrecks in the watercourses under every one of the 42 ill-placed bridges between Lagos and Benin City. Every panel in the Nissan rattled and clanged over every bump. A bit tiring although I was only 35 then. On the way back though, we found our way onto a new motorway-type fast road, still being finished and not yet open. Empty, straight and smooth, it took us for many miles at our gas-guzzling maximum. Eventually though we were caught and overtaken by a grey Peugeot 404 pick-up containing, like our Nissan, a European and two Nigerians. As it passed I pointed my camera playfully at the driver.
A few miles further on we came to a heavy padlocked chain across the road over a culvert that rendered it un-bypassable even in our jeep thing. The Peugeot was waiting on the other side of it. One of the Nigerians came back and said to me: 'Tell your boys to come and speak to my master.' They weren't 'my boys' - one was a friend's bodyguard, the other a barking mad acquaintance of his who had stolen the Nissan we were driving from his rich father - so I went over myself. The European was an Italian road engineer. He wanted to know why I had photographed him. When I explained that I hadn't really, I had just been fooling, he agreed to unlock the chain and let us through, but said we should leave the road at the next opportunity as it wasn't open yet. Decent of him I thought, as we would otherwise have had to drive back ten or twenty miles to find an exit.
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A dear friend, sadly these 20 odd years no longer with us, was driving home to the Oxford area from somewhere which allowed him to use a section of the then under construction M25. He was, I'm afraid, prone to driving after enjoying a party to the full. He took the exit for what he was sure was an appropriate slip road at some speed in his Capri. Unfortunately the road was not finished and the car embedded itself in a trench full of mud and gravel. He was unhurt but the car was quite poorly. His initial reaction was to get out and walk until he could find an alternative means of getting home. After a while he decided that it was too cold and dark and that it would be much more comfortable to return to the stranded Capri and spend what remained of the night in it.
As dawn broke, he was woken to a knock on his window by a passing police patrol. Having explained himself he was invited to blow in the bag which produced a predictable result.
Fortunately for him though, he had managed to lose his keys somewhere on his original foray into the night and was therefore not technically in charge of the vehicle. I think the officer also took a view that even if he had wanted to drive and had found his keys that only a crane and a bodyshop was going to make that possible.
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