Had occasion yesterday to traverse a busy roundabout, in the rush hour. So.
A multi-lane road bridge over the motorway. Roundabout immediately off one end. Slip roads from on/off Mway onto roundabout. Busy "A" road onto roundabout. "Quiet" road also onto roundabout. At other end of bridge traffic-lights control slip-road access, and access along the very busy road on the bridge. 200 yards along the busy road from the bridge is another traffic-light controlled junction.
So, it's all very busy with big lorries, cars, vans, you name it. Traffic is solid both ways on the 100 yds of the bridge between the roundabout and the traffic lights at the other end of the bridge. The slip road off the motorway onto the roundabout is solid. Traffic is backed up solid on the A road leading onto the roundabout. The roundabout itself is packed solid. Nothing can get off the roundabout onto the motorway or onto the busy A because it's obstructed by the heavy traffic stationary on the roundabout. The traffic lights at the other end of the bridge obstruct traffic flow that way. At the other end of the bridge, traffic is backed up on the "off" slip road, and segmented by the short stretch of road before the next traffic-light controlled junction.
Well, I came up the "quiet" road, wanting to go across the roundabout, and over the bridge, through the two further junctions, and on. Every time the lights change, 100 yards of traffic moves - traffic roars off the motorway, and onto the roundabout; it also roars off the bridge and onto the roundabout, and attempts to roar off the busy A onto the roundabout. Then there's a huge jam again. It's dark. HGVs are revving their engines. There's quite a bit of bad-tempered beeping going on whenever anything moves.
What do you do?
1) Wait for the roundabout to clear (an hour or so, possibly).
2) Creep forward in the vain hope that someone lets you in (!) and you don't get your
nose bashed off..
3) Boot it, and jam yourself into a space between a couple of HGVs doing 20MPH a car
length + a gnat's whisker apart.
4) Something else.
Oh, did I say? There're road works on the "quiet" road, so you can't turn tail.
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As an experienced
a: M25 driver
b: London drive
Its 3) every time
You will get eaten if you dont down here.,
And dont look anyone in the eye while you do it, unless you know you look more insane than they do.
Edited by Altea Ego on 04/11/2009 at 17:40
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Spot on AE, heh heh.
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Quite right AE and Lud and indeed as it should be. Much the same in Edinburgh and Glasgow too but try that sort of malarky either side of the M6 and they respond as if you have just goosed their wives. Chips on both shoulders.
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And that, in a nutshell proves that car drivers do actually think lorry drivers are good, concentrating 100% and able to stop on a tanner, despite all the criticism we get:)
Pat
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you choose your lorry driver victim with care pat
for example.
Skip lorry or other waste products you never argue with. He will throw you in the skip and feed you to his rabid junk yard alsations.
Eddy Stobart drivers you know you can bully, anyone who wears an outfit like that and drives a lorry called "daisy anne may" or "edith" has to be a wooly woofter.
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AE, that sums it up so nicely and I couldn't agree with you more:)
Don't try it with tipper drivers either!
Pat
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FotheringtonThomas,
In this scenario, are you approaching from Husbourne Crawley and heading towards Brogborough by any chance? If so, that roundabout has been an absolute nightmare ever since they changed the road markings. I use it quite regularly as I travel from the North to either the A421 east or the A507 east, and it's always a bit of a mad head-down scramble to get through in one piece whichever start and finish points you choose.
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That's the one - I was up there visiting. There's a little less rubber on the tyres now - there *must* be a better way!! Goodness knows where they all come from, but that roundabout is an absolute corker. Once off it and over the bridge, it's plain sailing (but s-l-o-w with the 100-yard-at-a-time segmentation).
On the map, it doesn't look too bad, but, oh boy!
tinyurl.com/yfmuby4
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/11/2009 at 12:44
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If you think thats tough, try the A404 / M40 rounabout when its busy.
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That's much bigger, and not so bad IME!
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