Where to start!
The worst missing ones are:
Southbound M1 to M69
M1 M6 A14 junction missing several!
M40 A43 several needed again
Problem is all these have had extensive re-modelling that has simply not solve the issues!
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The M6 M1 A14 junction.
How many people need to die or be seriously injured there before somebody responsible does something about it.
Obviously the most dangerous section is the approach south on M6 when the last minute stopping in the middle lane and forcing into the A14 queue has caused multiple accidents and will continue to do so, and many truck drivers (mainly container trucks as usual) are equally to blame, which i am very sorry to say.
As the A14 was constructed we watched with amazement the works at the top end, and couldn't for the life of us see how there were going to be 4 lanes of traffic passing under the M1 flyover.
Well remarkably bearing in mind the designer must have been very clever but as usual having no common sense whatsoever, it was deemed only to need a single lane for the traffic to flow from M6 onto A14...motorway to high speed dual carriageway...main east west link.
I suppose they trotted out the old chestnut of unforseen traffic levels, well thicko truck drivers like me could forsee, so why not the experts.
I do have a bee in the bonnet about this junction in particular, because it is so dangerous, and paople are severely injured or worse every week.
On Friday afternoons, when the drivers from hell usually take to the road, i come off at jct 1 M6, and use the link road across to jct 20 M1 and drop down to the junction from there, its a few miles, but its quicker and far safer on a Friday.
Try it sometime, it seems longer, but if the queue ahead signs are flashing, you will be faster to go round. (this info only for BR by the way,,:)
On the subject of that junction, why does anyone try to kill themselves by blasting past a truck thats already entering the underpass where it narrows into one lane.
One of our trucks had a prang there last week with a late chancer, (no crumple zone on the side of a car carrier, and nowhere to go either) and a fortnight ago, a older chap with a lady passenger in a meriva came blasting down past me at about 50 mph to get in front in a 100 yard single lane, unbelievable., how he didn't hit the side and richochet into the oncoming trucks is a miracle, and i assure you i never force the issue there, i go through steady expecting this and always let 2 or 3 cars go before me anyway.
If it was a case of being stuck behind the truck for 100 miles of single road i could understand, but its single for 100 yards and then dual again.
Does anyone know what makes them tick?
I agree the other junctions need sorting too by the way.
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Quite correct GB. Silly junction. I was coming from the A14 on Thursday PM to join the M6 N'bound. A truck had broken down actually on the roundabout. Looked as if he'd come from the M6 S'bound with the intention of using the A14.. Chaos. I don't suppose he planned to stop there but it was about the most inconvenient place it could have happened. Felt a bit sorry for him really. Some other drivers seemed to think that sounding their horns would miraculously fix his truck.
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Ah, that was probably our pranged truck SS, he refused to move until he'd taken pictures etc. Was it an empty car carrier?
I was in the queue up on the M6, so we almost had an 'eyeball'...;)
You'd know its me as the grey hair with the tanned complexion make me look like a negative.
Edited by gordonbennet on 29/06/2008 at 11:47
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Didn't get a good enough look to say what kind of truck GB. On the phone, having a fag and eating a sandwich at the time :-)
Sounds like we look similar though !
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What not reading and drinking coffee ?
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"The M6 M1 A14 junction.2"
Any chance of Google earth coordinates so I can have a good skeg at it from Yorkshire GB?
Edited by oilrag on 29/06/2008 at 12:38
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Put Swinford in Google Maps and you'll find it. Perhaps the most boring road I've ridden on the A14 - at least it was traffic free last Saturday going north.
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Any chance of Google earth coordinates
>>
Try these OR
52^ 24'20.25" N 1^ 10'40.94" W
That'll probably take you to the some restricted area in Nth America and earn you a visit from extremely polite and surprisingly agile chaps...;)
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That's my house you've found !
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Are things that bad in the legal profession these days.
Camping used to be such a nice activity before other connotations were introduced,,:)
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Henlys corner and green lanes junctions on A406 North circular road get my vote.They're traffic lights would you believe on what is virtually a motorway.In fact the whole section beetween bounds green road and green lanes is a Livingstone/TFL inspired joke IMO.Lets hope Boris grasps the nettle, bangs some TFL heads together and gets it sorted.What an embarrasment this will be when the olympic crowds get here,not to mention the millions of lost work hours and unnecessary pollution its been causing for years.I find it unbelievable that a road this busy reduces to one lane in one direction and two in the other.Grass verges either side taking up valuable road space.They have got rid of the 'chicken' lane system though.
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isisalar wrote: 'Henly's corner...'
Henly's garage has not been there for, what, 20-odd years?
Looks like the name has stuck.
Road junctions and their names - I feel a new thread coming on.
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" 52^ 24'20.25" N 1^ 10'40.94" W "
I`m still in Outer Space looking down. Is that for Google earth?
No worries, i have a map in the car ;)
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Course not PU. That would be irresponsible and dangerous while negotiating a roundabout. I'm surprised at you. Notwithstanding that, it's really tough to get the top off the thermos if you are liable to need to change gear. Far better to wait until you can switch the cruise on so you can wedge the flask between your knees and unscrew the top with your non-fag hand.
;-)
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The guys I was on my bike holiday with reckoned I should have a cup holder on my bike for some reason.
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You would think with modern touring bikes there would be a hot coffee piped up to the helmet option
All we got was grit and flies, between the helmet and the goggles.
;)
Edited by oilrag on 29/06/2008 at 13:19
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I can usually manage to boil the in-car kettle and fill the Pot Noodle at 80mph, it's just stirring and eating it that's the problem.
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Been thinking about your Pot Noodle problem ifithelps. I may have thought of a solution. If you were to twist some wire around your steering wheel at the 12 O'clock position while carefully but loosely catching in one handle of a small bulldog clip, a resulting handy hanging place for your Pot Noodle would be permanently available. The key feature would be that by allowing some play in the wire the Pot Noodle would remain upright due to gravity at any point on the arc roughly from the 9 O'clock position to the 3 O'clock position. This would be sufficient to allow for any emergency lane changes etc which may be caused due to distraction from eating the noodles. Care would have to be taken to ensure finishing the noodles before attempting any parking due to probable fouling of the pot on knees but for general usage this may help to resolve your dilemma.
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The French cineaste Claude Lelouch is known as the auteur of a very good short car film, 'C'etait un rendezvous', shot in Paris from a Mercedes saloon but with Ferrari or Porsche-like sound effects.
What is less well-known is that Lelouch, a keen driver, is also a disorganised worker and has often been reduced to editing film in his car while driving. Of course no one could be less vain and self-absorbed than a French film actor, but it is said that his more narcissistic passengers used to grovel on the 'cutting-room floor' when Lelouch was giving them lifts in the hope of finding a few frames containing their own images.
He gave up the practice after causing a massive pile-up on the N7, fortunately without fatalities, while trying to thread a broken 16mm film through an unfamiliar editing console jammed into the front passenger seat for some last-minute sound-synching on the way to Cannes.
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The above post is all completely untrue except for the first paragraph. I don't know what came over me.
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"The above post is all completely untrue except for the first paragraph. I don't know what came over me."
That's a shame. It's one of the best things I've seen on this forum.
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Don't listen to that dangerous suggestion ifithelps, my usual solution to meals on wheels is a much simpler one. That SS chap is a bad influence.
Boil kettle as you seem to have no problems there, make tea in large insulated mug, and if wide and flat bottomed, will sit anywhere, but not on dashboard as the steam and resultant condensation will result in unwelcome attention, its better with an auto as you can balance the cup behind the gearlever, and it leaves two hands for squeezing the teabag out.
Then you can dunk biscuits of any variety in that lovely cup of tetley, be careful holding down the digestives for too long as they will break off, and thats going to result in using a spoon to fish the sludge out, and back to the original problem, also be quick between cup and chops as a half a boiling point custard cream on the top of the left leg smarts.
I find this works best with ginger nuts, and very nice the Lidl's ones are too, this way unless you use a soft breakable biscuit, you will have a hand left to turn the pages of your latest bestseller, whilst adjusting the TV and again with the ginger nuts there should be no droppings onto the pages.
There, the roads safer already..;)
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gordonbennet and Shoespy,
Thanks for those helpful replies.
I'm going to print both of them out - it will give me something to read next time I'm overtaking on a blind bend.
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Dunking on the move GB ?.......respect man, respect ! Wonder what the charge would be ? "Dunk Driving" perhaps !
Before I go....... Ever dunked on the Thelwall ? ( Flyover reference) ;-)
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? "Dunk Driving" perhaps !
Groan...help!........pity the good old Royal Scot isn't around any more, made dunking just that little more special, and much more fitting to be seen dunking in a luxobarge, talking of which has the Oily one found his way back to the planet, and having examined PU's gaff, examined the offending route?
This topic may have gone slightly off route Henry, sorry, its all SS's fault, he resides in my Dad's old stomping ground so to be expected..:)
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It was my fault it went off topic..:-(
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
But it's rather fun when it goes off topic!
Thinking about flyovers, or even flyunders, there's a seemingly pointless example of compulsive digging at M4 J13, where they just can't stop digging up the M4 / A34 roundabout even though through traffic on the A34 has been able to pass under without stopping for some time now.
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