A road you get to loathe

jgsi

Anyone else have a particular road that because there is no alternative except to add 10 miles to go another way, but you absolutely wish you don't have to use it.
Mine is a B road,5 miles a bus route, a madcap full on car commuter rat run, narrow, national speed limit for most of it.

Oh yes, I did try to avoid yesterday - went down on ice for my trouble.
I just now grit my teeth and pray to the good Lord to take mercy on me.

((On lunch break))

teagar

Histon Road (the Cambridge end) in Cambridge.


A narrow road with a cycle lane painted on both sides. It's narrow enough that all the cars more or less have to drive on that white line.

But because there is a cycle path, they don't slow down for you.

They all get very close.

Not fun.

hisoka

One I have on my commute is over a railway bridge and to a major crossroad too. The railway bridge is 5 lanes wide (3 one way, 2 other) and always taken as full speed as people race from or to lights. Both sides have the metal bar pedestrian fences right on the edge of the pavement. Cars never give even a gnat's hair of space on your side and you are out of sight within a couple of seconds of reach the top. So with all that it feels like a suicide mission riding over it every night. I tend now to really push as fast as I can, just to get it done.

Gazzaputt

Old Kent Road. Worst road surface I know of.

singlespeedexplosif

Happy-ish now I'm back up north, no real issues.
Used to be the A40 from Uxbridge to TCR, however. Evil, evil, evil.

MrBlond

Cable Street

kurako

MrBlond wrote:

Cable Street

Cable St, London?

It's crappy but Commercial Road is a good alternative.

asprilla

Hurst Road between Walton on Thames and Hampton Court.

It's just dull and has no redeeming features,

Roastie

I've got a nasty little bit of country lane near Tilbury Town - just a few hundred metres, but national speed limit and frequented by scrap metal lorries so never fun, especially in the dark.

Also, not a great fan of Vauxhall Cross or Elephant and Castle in the mornings.

And while I'm complaining, Nine Elms is rubbish too - if only because it is such an ugly stretch.

MrBlond

Yeah, Cable Street London - I'm going down the Commercial Road now

bigease

The A10 from Harston to Foxton just outside Cambridge. A Single Carriageway A Road with no Cycle Path. and lots of Traffic calming through Harston, which leads to lorries and Buses not being able to get past and getting more and more angry.

Wallace1492

For all my slagging off of Maryhill Road, I miss the old girl!! I feel it is time her and I get aquainted again. Though there is a nasty bit on Garscube Road on the way home that I do not like, with buses pulling out to outer lane and cars weaving to get to inner lane with yours truely in the middle.

kurako

Come to think of it I hate pretty much every part of the main road from Tooting Broadway to London Bridge. In no particular order there's too many lights, buses, taxis, cars, bikes, mopeds and other cyclists.

Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy git :shock:

teagar

bigease wrote:

The A10 from Harston to Foxton just outside Cambridge. A Single Carriageway A Road with no Cycle Path. and lots of Traffic calming through Harston, which leads to lorries and Buses not being able to get past and getting more and more angry.

You're nuts going down there on a bike!

It's bad enough in the car when everyone's bombing it at 60 mph!

Cafewanda

Yep! @ Kurako





My loathes: E&C roundabout, Vauxhall roundabout and St Thomas Street/jcn Borough High Street coz of those flaming lemmings aka peds :x

prawny

Most of my commute. Crap surface and too many cars.

Clever Pun

Kurako wrote:

MrBlond wrote:

Cable Street

Cable St, London?

It's crappy but Commercial Road is a good alternative.

when I was going that way, I found cable street more dangerous than commercial road, which is just mental really

kurako

Clever Pun wrote:

Kurako wrote:

MrBlond wrote:

Cable Street

Cable St, London?

It's crappy but Commercial Road is a good alternative.

when I was going that way, I found cable street more dangerous than commercial road, which is just mental really

Sure you're not thinking of Limehouse Link? That's way too narrow for 2 lanes each direction and has big lorries going down all day. It's especially bad eastward because of the traffic flow. Westbound traffic tends to back up which means you can filter.

Commercial Road is wider and has bus lanes. There's also loads less traffic although the surface leaves a lot to be desired in places.

MrBlond

I'm thinking of Cable Street.

Nothing particularly scary about it (biggest danger seems to be a head on with another cyclist if you use the nasty cycle path), I have just grown to loathe it...

kurako

MrBlond wrote:

I'm thinking of Cable Street.

Nothing particularly scary about it (biggest danger seems to be a head on with another cyclist if you use the nasty cycle path), I have just grown to loathe it...

Cable St is one way westerly, right? You have the cycle path on the pavement but it crosses loads of side roads which is bad since you have to look out for loads of traffic rather than having right of way as on the main road. Then when you get around Shadwell there's loads of broken glass in the path and randoms wandering around without paying attention. It is undoubtedly the worst of all options :evil:

MrBlond

Yup

benno68

City Road in Cardiff. Cos that's when the fun on the bike ends and work starts

Porgy

Kurako wrote:

Come to think of it I hate pretty much every part of the main road from Tooting Broadway to London Bridge. In no particular order there's too many lights, buses, taxis, cars, bikes, mopeds and other cyclists.

Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy git :shock:

+1 - except starting from colliers Wood. thankfully I don;t go that way anymore.

I did hate the Old Kent Road, found an alternative, and now I hate the A200 from Tooley Street to greenwich. think I'm going to find some creative alternatives for the spring even if it takes me longer to get to work.

kurako

Nightingale Lane, Clapham is another bad one. Fast downhill but narrow and speed humps forcing you to ride in the middle or the door zone. On the MTB its fun to jump over them but on the roadie best avoided altogether. And lets not forget tools in big 4x4s!

Burntwood Lane, Wandsworth. Another fast downhill. Stupid cycle lane which is too narrow even though the road is plenty wide enough. Ill advised pinch points and stupid little islands right about where I would want to be riding if all that crap wasn't there.

biondino

New Kings Road is no fun in either direction. It's bumpy and crappy northbound, and southbound I'm invariably knackered by this point and it's ugly and still bumpy.

Canny Jock

Brookmill Road, Deptford. A real boneshaker, poorly surfaced with dangerous bits either end.

Has anyone else noticed more potholes since the big freeze?

shouldbeinbed

Hollins Road, Oldham, particularly going uphill. narrow, pitted, cars dropped everywhere and nutters whizzing past so close you share their paitwork.

kurako

Canny Jock wrote:

Brookmill Road, Deptford. A real boneshaker, poorly surfaced with dangerous bits either end.

Has anyone else noticed more potholes since the big freeze?

Re potholes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8454514.stm

Although it does read as though they're going to repair/ preserve the holes rather than fill them. Shoddy journalism IMO :roll:

will3

Kurako wrote:

Canny Jock wrote:

Brookmill Road, Deptford. A real boneshaker, poorly surfaced with dangerous bits either end.

Has anyone else noticed more potholes since the big freeze?

Re potholes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8454514.stm

Although it does read as though they're going to repair/ preserve the holes rather than fill them. Normal journalism IMO :roll:

Fixed that for you

rolf_f

will3 wrote:

Kurako wrote:

Canny Jock wrote:

Brookmill Road, Deptford. A real boneshaker, poorly surfaced with dangerous bits either end.

Has anyone else noticed more potholes since the big freeze?

Re potholes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8454514.stm

Although it does read as though they're going to repair/ preserve the holes rather than fill them. Normal journalism IMO :roll:

Fixed that for you

Lol! But true.......

Not much in the way of horrible roads in Leeds that I know though I'd be singing a different story if I commuted on a road bike. Even without the new craters the road surfaces in Leeds tend to be pretty bad.