Road Safety on A14
Discussion
Hi
On Friday had cause to travel down to St Neots near Cambridge from the West Midlands so went via the A14 off the end of the M6. As I was unfamiliar with this road I switched on my speed limiter to 70mph so I would not fall fowl of the speed cameras. Funny thing was though when I saw a camera I still hit the brakes even though the limiter stops me from exceeding the speed limit.
I needed to pull over so used one of the laybys. To get back on there was nothing but a give way and a straight pull out onto the DC. Plenty of cars coming down at 70 so took a while and finaly got out and had to floor it.
Now my point is this. Even if everyone was doing below the limit the design of the layby exit was dangerous and could so easily result in an accident. This accident would be nothing to do with speed just poor road design. There are so many examples of this around the country. Why can't we have a campaign to improve the poor design and reduce accidents this way.
Also the junction with the M6 is a joke. If this was the US there would have been a complete interchange with north and southbound access lanes etc. but no lets just have a few traffic lights and a half island and allow the traffic to back up. On the way back the traffic was backing up on the M6 to get onto the A14 again poor design and evidence of road construction being done down to a budget rather than upto a safe design.
Anyone got other examples of crap road layout?
PS. Was in a Merc ML 320 and got 31.1mpg over the whole trip with 4 adults on board. So effectively did 800 man miles round trip yet most of the smaller - "greener" cars around me had 1 person in them.
On Friday had cause to travel down to St Neots near Cambridge from the West Midlands so went via the A14 off the end of the M6. As I was unfamiliar with this road I switched on my speed limiter to 70mph so I would not fall fowl of the speed cameras. Funny thing was though when I saw a camera I still hit the brakes even though the limiter stops me from exceeding the speed limit.
I needed to pull over so used one of the laybys. To get back on there was nothing but a give way and a straight pull out onto the DC. Plenty of cars coming down at 70 so took a while and finaly got out and had to floor it.
Now my point is this. Even if everyone was doing below the limit the design of the layby exit was dangerous and could so easily result in an accident. This accident would be nothing to do with speed just poor road design. There are so many examples of this around the country. Why can't we have a campaign to improve the poor design and reduce accidents this way.
Also the junction with the M6 is a joke. If this was the US there would have been a complete interchange with north and southbound access lanes etc. but no lets just have a few traffic lights and a half island and allow the traffic to back up. On the way back the traffic was backing up on the M6 to get onto the A14 again poor design and evidence of road construction being done down to a budget rather than upto a safe design.
Anyone got other examples of crap road layout?
PS. Was in a Merc ML 320 and got 31.1mpg over the whole trip with 4 adults on board. So effectively did 800 man miles round trip yet most of the smaller - "greener" cars around me had 1 person in them.
Edited by SLACKER on Monday 19th March 15:55
I've been up and down the A1M/M11 section of the A14 a lot in the past year, and for me the most unsafe part of it is the quite shocking ruts, particularly in the left-hand lane.
Driving a little L reg Polo with its narrow track, it's quite unnerving to have to steer sharply to change lane because otherwise you'll just bounce off the side of the rut and back to where you started!
It's reputed to be a dangerous road (hence all the cameras) - but if other small cars handle oddly because of the awful road surface, I could easily imagine that it would be a contributory factor...
Driving a little L reg Polo with its narrow track, it's quite unnerving to have to steer sharply to change lane because otherwise you'll just bounce off the side of the rut and back to where you started!
It's reputed to be a dangerous road (hence all the cameras) - but if other small cars handle oddly because of the awful road surface, I could easily imagine that it would be a contributory factor...
Hopefully, I will do my last trip down the A14 on 5th April.
I agree that it has the most crass lay-by systems, very few have acceleration lanes and even some of the services have only short ones. Mind you I did see a shunt even when the traffic was creeping one morning when a light van exited a lay-by into the back of a Fiesta so it's not just the speed of trafic but awareness too.
As for the M1/M6/A14 interchange, this is stupid in both directions with the tiny bridge choking access to and from the 14. Rumour has it that it will be improved sometime.
I hit two other bits of bad layout too, the north end of the M11, where all the A14 traffic waltzes about before being able to continue and you need to be psychic to get into the right lane at the right time. and then there's the turn at Huntingdon, where the comparitively minor road has the through line and the A14 gets the slip road and traffic light treatment.
AAAGGGHH! I hate it, roll on Thursday.
(mind you next week I shall be mostly taking the train)
Rob
I agree that it has the most crass lay-by systems, very few have acceleration lanes and even some of the services have only short ones. Mind you I did see a shunt even when the traffic was creeping one morning when a light van exited a lay-by into the back of a Fiesta so it's not just the speed of trafic but awareness too.
As for the M1/M6/A14 interchange, this is stupid in both directions with the tiny bridge choking access to and from the 14. Rumour has it that it will be improved sometime.
I hit two other bits of bad layout too, the north end of the M11, where all the A14 traffic waltzes about before being able to continue and you need to be psychic to get into the right lane at the right time. and then there's the turn at Huntingdon, where the comparitively minor road has the through line and the A14 gets the slip road and traffic light treatment.
AAAGGGHH! I hate it, roll on Thursday.
(mind you next week I shall be mostly taking the train)
Rob
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