What is it with the diabolical level of car driving on this road?
Why do car drivers think that it is perfectly safe to overtake on a SC road with oncoming traffic because it's wide enough if everyone moves over to make room to squeeze through?
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Ah, the bit of road that's affectionately known as suicide road - or some such.
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I used to drive on that road heaps - whenever I went to visit the parents in Wrexham. Absolutely hated it. People flying down the middle of two lanes of traffic pulling into the gap between you and the car in front to avoid hitting someone doing the same thing the other way. It should have been a dual carriageway but I guess they didn't have the budget after spending all their money on those big bridges.
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Dunno. If we took as much freight off the road as we could, and the incompetent truck drivers that go with it, that would releive the strain to some degree.
Then we need the traffic police to be increased to deal with the remaining idiot car drivers, of which there are undoubtedly plenty.
By the way, can anybody remember how to spell "troll" ?
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I don't follow.
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I was replying to the original note, not yours. Sorry.
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My mistake. I should have "viewed threaded"
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If it was in France, every driver content with their rate of progress would, without thinking use the full width of the road to make room for others without any inconvenience to themselves. If only drivers here had that level of maturity.
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I don't see what you're getting at. I don't think anyone's suggesting that blocking people's overtaking manouvres is a good idea. The point is that if a local authority built a 60mph road with three lanes (one in each direction and one in the center for people to overtake in either direction) it'd be labelled as insane. That's effectively what this road is.
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The point is that if a local authority built a 60mph road with three lanes (one in each direction and one in the center for people to overtake in either direction) it'd be labelled as insane. That's effectively what this road is.
It's drivers who are insane, both those who can't wait for a safe overtaking opportunity, and those who don't drive with consideration, by moving over and leaving reasonable gaps.
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Those do exist eg on the A59 near Skipton.
However the person who has posted below sums it up perfectly. Stupid overtaking is precisely that, but not using the whole width of the road to make it easier (ie safer) for people to overtake is equally stupid and leads to people taking uneccessary risks.
I know the road well and have often found people driving at the speed they are comfortable with but well into the centre as if to discourage others from passing.
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I have never understood why I should drive in the gutter to take up less room. There is either a gap in the oncoming traffic sufficient to allow overtaking or there isnt. My position on the road is irrelevant.
There are a very small number of very wide sc roads that could have a middle/suicide lane, they tend to have lots of head-on smashes.
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Given the amount of traffic on this road, especially in the summer, perhaps the most stupid person involved with it was the one who allowed the planners to only make it single carriagway. Another planning fiasco.
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This is an exceptionally wide road for long stretches so there is no need whatsoever to drive in the gutter. If you drove as far from the verge/kerb as you would normally on any other road there is ample room for others to overtake safely and legally.
Bizarrely some people position themselves towards the centre, making it needlessly hard to overtake. It's childish behaviour.
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I use this route a lot.
The A483 from the A5 is now nearly all fast dual-carriageway except for a couple of miles of narrow SC at the southern end - where no overtaking can take place.
The wide SC part is mainly a few miles before and after Oswestry on the A5. I am no fan of lorry drivers but most of them keep well over to the left on this stretch. The problem is normally caused by 'timid' drivers who close up to these trucks and position themselves in the middle of the road but do not overtake in situations where most drivers would.
Inevitably this causes a queue of cars behind the lorry and eventually someone at the rear of the queue overtakes several cars and cuts up someone.
There is ample room to have the road marked as a 3 lane with alternate stretches having dual or single lanes; as they do on the uphill stretch after crossing the river.
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Those do exist eg on the A59 near Skipton. However the person who has posted below sums it up perfectly. Stupid overtaking is precisely that, but not using the whole width of the road to make it easier (ie safer) for people to overtake is equally stupid and leads to people taking uneccessary risks. I know the road well and have often found people driving at the speed they are comfortable with but well into the centre as if to discourage others from passing.
People weren't doing this. THey were leaving a large gap in the middle.
Point is that people have done it on this road so much that it's become acceptable. I have seen far too many occassions where someone in each direction have decided to do this at the same time.
What made it worse on Thursday was that they were doing it everywhere including areas hatched off for right turns.
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By the way, can anybody remember how to spell "troll" ?
Not a troll. Doing over 400 miles a day all over the UK, this stretch of road is by far the worst for it. Only really seen it on the A120 as well but nowhere as bad.
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>>Doing over 400 miles a day all over the UK
Am I supposed to be impressed ? I do almost half that just to *get* to work.
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Being a shropshire lad i often drive the A5/A483 and also the A41 which has until fairly recently had similar stretches of wide single carriageway. This has now been redone to have stretches of 2 lanes in one direction and a single lane in the opposite direction and this alternates every couple of miles.
All it has really done is give proper lanes for what people had been doing for years. The main problem with these stretches of wide carriageway has already been mentioned - drivers who sit close to the centre line and make it difficult and dangerous for people to overtake slow moving lorries.
Before people start saying there is nothing wrong with sitting behind lorries i will disagree as lorries on single carriageways are limited to 40mph and recently the local police have been clamping down on this so several large local haulage firms are forcing drivers to stick to the limit which for a car driver is extremely frustrating
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>>Doing over 400 miles a day all over the UK Am I supposed to be impressed ? I do almost half that just to *get* to work.
Can we stop with the petty arguments please.
Although this message is in reply to No FM2R's, it is also directed towards others in this thread as well. Take note!
DD.
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CDM on the way (Cadburys dairy milk)
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I lived in Shrops (Oswestry, since you ask) while this bypass was being built. This is the only fast road within 30 miles, so the Shrops boy racers use is as a race track, basically from roundabout to roundabout. As I recall some loon was killed by crashing his Mk2 GTi at in excess of 120mph on the stretch nearest Oswestry. Dont recall what he hit - might have been a truck.
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This is the only fast road within 30 miles
You obviously don't know the right roads then ;-)
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"Am I supposed to be impressed ? I do almost half
that just to *get* to work"
Daves dead right,whats the point in this statement.
Who has asked this poster about the distance he drives to go to work.For craps sake,thats not what the original posters on about.
The original post is just a discussion on the state of traffic on the A5 and A483.Full stop.
Dysfunctional communication skills!
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You obviously don't know the right roads then ;-)
I was nobbut a lad at the time. By the time I passed my test (in Oswestry - only one set of traffic lights at the time) I hadnt even driven on a dual carriageway - frightening really.
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