The A38 through Plymouth

[Pannywagon]

Have just been moved back to our Plymouth office after working in Truro for 2 years and was just wondering if any other Plymothians have noticed how awful the driving is in Plymouth?

What is it with drivers here that stops them from ever using lane 1? They just tootle along in lane 2 (morning and night) irrespective of what's happening.

I live just outside Plymouth on the Cornish side and driving to Truro every day is actually more pleasurable then the short hop into Plymouth. My blood boils almost every day.

Anyone have a tactic they use for making progress on the A38? I drive in before 8am and drive out after 6pm so the road's not at its busiest.

[Fox-]

They are all hugely dim. Only today I sat behind a J reg Nova Saloon sitting in the outside lane all the way down Embankment.

[Negative Creep]

Happens all the time on the embankment. I just pull into the inside lane, where by doing the speed limit it allows me to pass on the inside in accordance with the highway code. Not to get past of course............

[wadgebeast]

The thing with the embankment is the lane separation at both ends. People will usually pick their lane at one end and just stick with it ALL of the way down. Hence, it's usually safe and legal to undertake them because they're in a slower moving separate lane of traffic....

Agree with the A38 comment - I used to commute from plymouth to dartmouth every day - and every time I drove home at night, lane 2 past plympton would be chockers with the lane 1 completely empty. Again, the idiots know that they need to be in lane 2 in 5 miles time so that they don't get streamed off at marsh mills, so they make their move illegally early.

[Fox-]

wadgebeast said:

The thing with the embankment is the lane separation at both ends

But its 3 miles long!

[wadgebeast]

I wasn't justifying it! I don't do it! I just know why the numpties do it.... and why it's reasonable to undertake them.

[ol' dirty]

I don't know what it is about that stretch of road...

It's getting near 1 bad accident/week along the Tamar Bridge to Ivybridge turn off- it may even be higher.

I've given up caring about trying to make good progress on the commute, seems to take- on average 35-40mins to get into the City from Ivybridge.

Whereas the Wife does Brixham every day & seems to get in before me- despite it being twice the distance!

Edited by ol' dirty on Friday 12th December 11:14

[mep12345]

Even worse is the roundabout lane discipline - particularly at Marsh Mills and the Estover roundabout above the A38!!!

[CaptiV8ted]

ol' dirty said:

I've given up caring about trying to make good progress on the commute, seems to take- on average 35-40mins to get into the City from Ivybridge.

35 mins? What time are you travelling? I leave sunny Ivybridge at 6.55 - 07.00 and I'm at Stonehouse by 7.15 - and not driving like an ass either. Perhaps you get caught up in school runs and god knows what else?

[Fox-]

I used to get from Plymouth to Totnes in 30 minutes when I worked there, so 35 from Ivybridge seems a bit odd.

[ol' dirty]

Ill leave at 0840 and be outside work- city centre for 0915. Most days, no silly routes- marsh mills, embankment, exeter st, royal parade, cornwall st. If embankment is chocker, ill take the laira narrows. On a good day i can do it in 25-30, nothing on the road- 20mins.

[MiniMan64]

Very odd.

I find it the other way around living in Plymouth! Even sits in the inside and seems positively scared overtaking. And God forbid that you should "sneak" down the outside merger lane using it like it supposed to be running past the nice long queue like some kind of criminal. The amount of times I've had hand signals, bepped horns and even cars shifting right to try and block me is insane.

[smeagol65]

hello there used to live at saltash,st stephens road.the driving wasnt bad then mind i was young then.whats the place now like?.havenot been down for ages,must visit next year!