...but more so if you are a motorcyclist.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7480693.stm
Edited by Pugugly on 30/06/2008 at 10:08
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Reading that, it sounds like the 'most fun' road, hence lots of bikers having too much fun. It would be a real shame if it gets straightened because of this..
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I've driven along it many times. Some motorcyclists have obvious issues with speed and safety:driving along to face a motorbike coming towards you at 90 fully on your side of the road is not fun.
Edited by madf on 30/06/2008 at 10:12
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So the Road Safety Foundatin and the BBC have revealed something which has been common knowledge and widely published for many years....:-)
The road won't be "straightened out" either - it's probably impossible for much of its length or on the grounds of sheer cost.
Edited by Stuartli on 30/06/2008 at 10:40
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I 'ran in' a hired mk1 Focus 1.6 Zetec across that road one evening... One of those drives that you finish sweaty palmed and buzzing from head to toe. Amazing piece of road. Can see why it has such grim statistics though.
Cheers
DP
Edited by DP on 30/06/2008 at 11:11
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This road has lots of double apexes - so particularly easy to get caught out. Fortunately when it happened to me I was in the car (and there was nothing coming the other way)rather than on the bike!
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They re-release this particular piece of information about once every 6 months. It's not so much that the road is dangerous - it's that the road is fun, and you always get some nutters who can't tell the difference between enjoying themselves and being an idiot.
I personally prefer the road next to it - Congleton to Buxton. It has two advantages:
1) It's not as well known, so the swarm of bikers buzzing around you is slightly smaller.
2) I live in Congleton, so it's a route I use, rather than a road perpendicular to my starting point.
The other day I had the experience of driving this road on a dull day. I hadn't realised before, but it was a boon. The road was perfectly dry, but the bikers weren't out because of the threat of rain. It really is an enjoyable drive, and constantly rising and dropping through the rev range on an Alfa V6 makes it a memorable experience.
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Congleton to Buxton is fun: but I've twice met manic drivers coming my way on my side of the road on it as well: one motorbike and an Audi A4..
Mind you , the drive to and hairpin at the Methodist chapel take some beating.
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Last year the A682 was named as Britains most dangerous road. With no improvements, changes of speed limit or anything else it seems to have redeemed itself. Perhaps people now drive more carefully knowwing how dangerous it is ?
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6235058.stm
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The Telegraph says that if you ignore the accident figures for donors (or bikers, if you must) the road is actually one of the safest.
It is a fun road to drive.
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The "Cat" is a beauty on a bike when there is no traffic about, but it will bite you if you don't treat it with respect. I lived in Macclesfield for 10+ years and my parents lived on the opposite side of Buxton, so happy days.......but that was in the late 80's and early 90's. The local Plod use Islander spotter aeroplanes to "do" the bikers who stray onto the wrong side of the double white lines, etc. I'm not sure if they apply the same force to the car drivers though?
The Buxton - Congleton road is VERY undulating as described by a previous BR. I used to use this road very seldom, but in a bouncy MK lV / MK V Cortina back in the eighties it was very easy to make a queasy passenger physically sick! And yes, the hairpin at the chapel is a great bend.
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Driven it numerous times both from Mac and Congleton to Buxton and onwards to Hathersage. Mainly in my fully laden diesel Mondeo. Not ideal.
Have also done it a few times in a Westfield ( before I had to sell it .......) Once in impromptu convoy with a Cerbera. The TVR was way quicker on the few straights but the wee Westfield always caught up on the twisty bits. Probably the effect of lower entry speeds and lack of weight. Glorious road. Of course neither of us ever went beyond 59.9 mph. ( Or should that read "below" ) My favourite though is the A702 Moffat to Auchendinny road. About 40 miles of sheer fun. If ever anyone is driving from south of the border to Edinburgh, make time for this one. It is locally known as the "Devil's Beeftub" road and is in my view one of the most fabulous stretches of tarmac in Britain.
Edited by Shoespy on 30/06/2008 at 18:39
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Glorious road. Of course neither of us ever went beyond 59.9 mph.
You're claiming the wrong speed to be legal these days. They've re-banded the whole lot to 50mph limit.
Because of course that'll adequately combat the fact that a ton of mental bikers killed themselves while breaking the old speed limit anyway.
I just love that logic. People are breaking the speed limit, what should we do? Make the speed limit lower. Riiiiiight.
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What Shoespy meant was that he and the TVR never, of course, came even within 10mph of the speed limit...
:o}
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"Many a true word.................." Lud. Except maybe on a couple of the tighter hairpins. ;-)
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What surprised me was the comment that the LA had installed crash barriers, yet still the fatalities occurred. Have they not grasped that crash barriers are useful only to cars and certain larger vehicles, but agents of decapitation to bikers?
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