Came home via M40 today and got off at Jct15 southbound. I used to come off at this junction before we moved house and remembered this great roundabout. As you come off the m'way there is a small-ish roundabout straight in front of you. You can see whats coming a long way off, 99% of traffic turn left onto M40 anyway and can take it with a quick left/right if you time it nicely. Always puts a smile on me face at 70-80mph!!!
..the round about at the swallow hotel as you come into dundee from perth...usually taken flat out in third at 3 am in whatever im drivin.....frightens the passengers a treat...
Not a fun one to drive round, but a good example of a roundabout designed by a traffic engineer who must have been on drugs for the whole of the 60 and 70s! Gildersome, Leeds - roundabout connecting M62, M621, A58 and A62 and main access to 'Ikealand'!. Absolutely horrific to negotiate at any time fo the day. Loads of exits and plenty of drivers not having a clue about which lane to go in to get to their exit. The M62 eastbound slip ends at the roundabout, but to turn left from the A62 you have to enter the slip road from a very slow speed! Going all the way round the outside lane to turn right is a popular way of avoiding the queues, but a good way of getting a 38 tonner in your rear quarter panel.
Originally posted by daveyjp: Not a fun one to drive round, but a good example of a roundabout designed by a traffic engineer who must have been on drugs for the whole of the 60 and 70s! Gildersome, Leeds - roundabout connecting M62, M621, A58 and A62 and main access to 'Ikealand'!. Absolutely horrific to negotiate at any time fo the day. Loads of exits and plenty of drivers not having a clue about which lane to go in to get to their exit. The M62 eastbound slip ends at the roundabout, but to turn left from the A62 you have to enter the slip road from a very slow speed! Going all the way round the outside lane to turn right is a popular way of avoiding the queues, but a good way of getting a 38 tonner in your rear quarter panel.
I've got lost on that one!
There are a few that are fun to drive around my part of the world.
One is just of the A1M, it is a fast dual on a long left hander - the left lane takes you onto the motorway sliproad, the right hand lane is normally empty. It takes you to the right hand side of a traffic island and over a built-up roundabout. It has a load of camber on the roundabout. So dive into the righthand lane, quick dab on the brakes to settle the front end, left-right to cut the roundabout - suspension goes light (used to get some air in some cars) and straight on.........
Other one is Bishop Auckland way, fast dual carrageway again, big roundabout with exits at 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 1 o'clock. Right hand lane approaching, stay in that lane and take the 3rd exit (exit is another dual). The exit has a slight left hander on it with a bit of camber after 50 yards so the suspension loads up and your away. You leave people standing.
Oh the simple pleasures of taking a nice piece of road - not to be tried when there are other road users about, obviously.
When I want a bit fun, I have the joys of Weardale, Tynedale, Teesdale and Northumberland all within half an hours drive (Wile-E, knows the joy of these roads).
Before exploding oil refineries put us on the map, the one thing Hemel Hempstead was famous for was the Magic Roundabout...so many people have so much trouble with something which is so simple! In my first driving lesson, my instructor put me on it ("You live in Hemel, you'll have to get used to it at some point!") Ignore the large cental roundabout, and just treat it as a circular road, with a series of mini roundabouts close to each other. Each has an approach road, and two exits. If you are going right, be in the right lane. If you are taking the left, be in the left lane. Not brain science, or rocket surgery, but surprising how many drivers manage to cock it up! BTW, my grandfather used to live 20 yards from the worlds first roundabout, in Letchworth...just a bit of trivia for you!
The past is history...The future a mystery. This moment is a gift...That's why it's the present.
Originally posted by Gimpl: I live in Milton Keynes - what else can I say !!!!
Sorry if I offend you Gimpl but isn't MK the weirdest place? You pull off the dual carriage way, not a building in sight and suddenly you're in the middle of a housing estate!!
Well I wasn't born here (see the scottish thread) but I have lived here for most of my adult life and I love the place - honestly ! Sure people always take the p1ss but we have very very low unemployment (used to be the lowest in Europe - don't know if it still is), arguably the best road network in the UK - 5 cars = 'total gridlock' (see Lilt ad), more coast line than Jersey and a really good central location. I have to travel all round the country with work and I couldn't ask for anywhere better. Euston 35 minutes by train, Nottingham an hour away, Sheffield 1.5 hours etc etc etc.
I'm not sure I agree with you about not a building in site as i can't think of a single place where that applies. Usually the comment is about not seeing people when driving around as all the Redways (walkways) are seperate from the road and offer very scenic walks from place to place.
As for facilities we have the snowdome with the new flying thing, the longest water ski cable tow in the country, the national hockey centre, the national badminton centre, good shopping and theatre.
All this makes perfect sense for companies who flock here to set up their UK and European HQ's, VW, Mercedes, Abbey and so on.
That's my toursit officer bit out of the way - Saw my first Aston Martin V8 today, not surprisingly just driving out of the AM factory in Newport Pagnell, v.v.v.v.v nice - I want one.
Originally posted by Gimpl: Well I wasn't born here (see the scottish thread) but I have lived here for most of my adult life and I love the place - honestly ! Sure people always take the p1ss but we have very very low unemployment (used to be the lowest in Europe - don't know if it still is), arguably the best road network in the UK - 5 cars = 'total gridlock' (see Lilt ad), more coast line than Jersey and a really good central location. I have to travel all round the country with work and I couldn't ask for anywhere better. Euston 35 minutes by train, Nottingham an hour away, Sheffield 1.5 hours etc etc etc.
I'm not sure I agree with you about not a building in site as i can't think of a single place where that applies. Usually the comment is about not seeing people when driving around as all the Redways (walkways) are seperate from the road and offer very scenic walks from place to place.
As for facilities we have the snowdome with the new flying thing, the longest water ski cable tow in the country, the national hockey centre, the national badminton centre, good shopping and theatre.
All this makes perfect sense for companies who flock here to set up their UK and European HQ's, VW, Mercedes, Abbey and so on.
That's my toursit officer bit out of the way - Saw my first Aston Martin V8 today, not surprisingly just driving out of the AM factory in Newport Pagnell, v.v.v.v.v nice - I want one.
Only been once so a very general comment about houses etc. Gimpl - I didn't even get to see the concrete cows!!
Whirlies Roundabout in East Kilbride, a gargantuan thing with such a complicated layout of lanes... And some big metal globe things in the middle as a bonus!
You could easily fit a couple of houses on it too!
Originally posted by daveyjp: Not a fun one to drive round, but a good example of a roundabout designed by a traffic engineer who must have been on drugs for the whole of the 60 and 70s! Gildersome, Leeds - roundabout connecting M62, M621, A58 and A62 and main access to 'Ikealand'!. Absolutely horrific to negotiate at any time fo the day. Loads of exits and plenty of drivers not having a clue about which lane to go in to get to their exit. The M62 eastbound slip ends at the roundabout, but to turn left from the A62 you have to enter the slip road from a very slow speed! Going all the way round the outside lane to turn right is a popular way of avoiding the queues, but a good way of getting a 38 tonner in your rear quarter panel.
Aaah I know it well! So many times have I come from the Ikea side and tried to get off on the road that goes down past Asda Morley only to have trucks think I'm going down the M621 (even though I'm indicating to come off at the Asda exit) and nearly take off my bonnet! I know several grown adults who've been driving for many years who flatly refuse to use that roundabout.
Another personal favourite (and I'm being sarcastic) is the Lawnswood roundabout on the Leeds Ring Road as you drive away from Headingley. Three lanes of free-for-all where no one knows which lane they should be in and bendy buses think they own the road!
Originally posted by b308: What about that one in Swindon? The one with a big roundabout and then lots of little ones beautifully arranged round it's edge?!
Thats called the Magic Roundabout..
I try to alleviate the boredom of driving around bland Swindon by varying my direction around the Magic Roundabout. Sometimes I go under the bridge to the left, sometimes under the bridge to the right.
Originally posted by daveyjp: Not a fun one to drive round, but a good example of a roundabout designed by a traffic engineer who must have been on drugs for the whole of the 60 and 70s! Gildersome, Leeds - roundabout connecting M62, M621, A58 and A62 and main access to 'Ikealand'!. Absolutely horrific to negotiate at any time fo the day. Loads of exits and plenty of drivers not having a clue about which lane to go in to get to their exit. The M62 eastbound slip ends at the roundabout, but to turn left from the A62 you have to enter the slip road from a very slow speed! Going all the way round the outside lane to turn right is a popular way of avoiding the queues, but a good way of getting a 38 tonner in your rear quarter panel.
Aaah I know it well! So many times have I come from the Ikea side and tried to get off on the road that goes down past Asda Morley only to have trucks think I'm going down the M621 (even though I'm indicating to come off at the Asda exit) and nearly take off my bonnet! I know several grown adults who've been driving for many years who flatly refuse to use that roundabout.
Another personal favourite (and I'm being sarcastic) is the Lawnswood roundabout on the Leeds Ring Road as you drive away from Headingley. Three lanes of free-for-all where no one knows which lane they should be in and bendy buses think they own the road!
Originally posted by daveyjp: Not a fun one to drive round, but a good example of a roundabout designed by a traffic engineer who must have been on drugs for the whole of the 60 and 70s! Gildersome, Leeds - roundabout connecting M62, M621, A58 and A62 and main access to 'Ikealand'!. Absolutely horrific to negotiate at any time fo the day. Loads of exits and plenty of drivers not having a clue about which lane to go in to get to their exit. The M62 eastbound slip ends at the roundabout, but to turn left from the A62 you have to enter the slip road from a very slow speed! Going all the way round the outside lane to turn right is a popular way of avoiding the queues, but a good way of getting a 38 tonner in your rear quarter panel.
Aaah I know it well! So many times have I come from the Ikea side and tried to get off on the road that goes down past Asda Morley only to have trucks think I'm going down the M621 (even though I'm indicating to come off at the Asda exit) and nearly take off my bonnet! I know several grown adults who've been driving for many years who flatly refuse to use that roundabout.
Another personal favourite (and I'm being sarcastic) is the Lawnswood roundabout on the Leeds Ring Road as you drive away from Headingley. Three lanes of free-for-all where no one knows which lane they should be in and bendy buses think they own the road!
Originally posted by b308: What about that one in Swindon? The one with a big roundabout and then lots of little ones beautifully arranged round it's edge?!
Pah! Not read my thread earlier in the page? Hemel's Magic Roundabout is much better! 6 mini roundabouts, compared to Swindon's 5, and the central roundabout is rasied, so you can't see what's comming round the other side!!
The past is history...The future a mystery. This moment is a gift...That's why it's the present.
Originally posted by b308: What about that one in Swindon? The one with a big roundabout and then lots of little ones beautifully arranged round it's edge?!
Pah! Not read my thread earlier in the page? Hemel's Magic Roundabout is much better! 6 mini roundabouts, compared to Swindon's 5, and the central roundabout is rasied, so you can't see what's comming round the other side!!
Yes cupraR04 it is - i sometimes go around that one in a different form too, to - as Rob Brydon would say "ring the changes". There is always a hellish traffic jam approaching that one from the road which goes to the train station, before you go along the St Albans Road. Nightmare. Unfortunately i know that area quite well & think its horrible.
Im sorry if you have to live there cupraR04, i lived not far from there for 1 year & that was more than long enough...
Damned right! Hate the area! I grew up here, so am used to it, and the roundabout...but spent a few years in Milton Keynes, and can't wait to get back there! Typical council planning...where the roundabout was working fine, they have put trafic lights/pedestrian crossings, on 4 of the 6 roads approching it...(wasn't any need for the crossings, because you will probably know there is an underpass system for pedestrians) Not the traffic gets snarled up because when leaving the roundabout, they hit a red light, trafic quickly builds up, and gridlocks back behind them. It works much better when traffic is alowd to freely pass around and off of it...But they have to earn their money somehow! (God only knows why some bright spark hasn't suggested filling in some of the potholes in Hemel! Our roads look like the suface of the moon!)
The past is history...The future a mystery. This moment is a gift...That's why it's the present.
Originally posted by CupraR04: Damned right! Hate the area! I grew up here, so am used to it, and the roundabout...but spent a few years in Milton Keynes, and can't wait to get back there!
A man with taste ! Not keen on Hemel either - used to go out with a girl from Feldon, dead posh though !
