Most Dangerous Roads in UK

[trainer]

Yep StevieB we live between Endon and Bagnall. I drive up Dunwood Lane quite a bit to get across to the hills so pass by your way.

The average speed cameras on the Macc and Congleton roads concentrate on the top sections where it is straighter and not the bad bends.

 

[finisterre]

I have just been told that one of the average speed camera pairs on the macc road covers a section that has an old short-cut so they cannot be sure of the speed and the hugely expensive gantry and assorted gizmos is not in use.

It is not our money though so that's okay.

 

[finisterre]

Where do you start here ......

The roads are for the public, private race tracks are for racing - and dying if you so wish.

It's the flagrant disregard for basic road safety that makes these roads dangerous and necessitates the use of additional measures to try and control lunatic attitudes.

I know that but the existing system is causing us all some inconvenience and all it does is displace the idiots to some other road where you are not expecting them.

I am sick of them screaming around the place. The moors over between Macclesfield, Buxton and Leek are almost purpose built for a UK Nurburgring. I would be content to sacrifice the use of those roads on a Sunday for a bit of peace and quiet.

Let them die on the moors and then the rest of the Peak District will be quieter and safer.

 

[trainer]

Finisterre I have heard it doesn't take the short cut into account too. Strange as probably 20% or more of the cars use it.

 

[Uncle Fester]

A249 in Kent, between the M20 & M2.

This is dual carriageway with steep hills tight bends and......U-turns and right turn sections in the barriers. Fatalities are common place as are severe injuries. These are often the result of artics doing u-turns accross the carriageway and cars going under the trailer units. Despite many campaigns to have the speed limit reduced to 50 and or the right turn/u-turns closed (see A249 killer road on Facebook) no action has been taken to reduce deaths or accidents. So it is a motorway with traffic doing U-turns or crossing in front of you and all legal if not fatal.

I live a few hundred yards from one of the right turns and witness the carnage on a regular basis.

They put mobile revenue cameras there instead, it's much more lucritive!!!!!!!

 

[dtr]

A39 gets my vote. Porlock hill is particularly dreadful, particularly if you are in an underpowered car (something far worse than an A Class). A few miles up a 25% incline is bad enough, and there are turns and twists all the way up, that can't be even seen. If you succeed there is a 25% descent either way. The only way is 20-30mph and very good car.

A537 videos on youtube look as scary. Luckily I am quite far away from the Peaks.

 

[jepho]

the common factor in the reason for the accident figures on all these roads is they suffer from the blight of recreational motorcycle use

Not the blight of car use? Horse use? Tractor use? Bicycle use? Bus use? Truck use? Van use? Caravan use? RV use? Bin lorry use? Military vehicle use?

Absent you being able to access information which I am not able to see, I just wonder how all of the road accidents on so-called 'bad roads' can be ascribed to just motorcycle use. I used to ride motorcycles for around twenty five years so I was not just a fairweather biker.

In those halcyon days, I used to think that it should be made compulsory for all car drivers to spend the first two years of their motorised lives riding a motorcycle. It was my belief that it would help car drivers to better see, understand and account for motorcyclists... as equal road users.

I drew that somewhat hasty and possibly unfair conclusion through being an active motorcyclist and a volunteer trainer, at a motorcycle club, of young guys who wanted to learn to ride bikes, in the hope that death and injury (through careless bike riding) would be avoided. The most common injury was sustained because of the car 'T' boning a biker. The most common excuse given was, "I didn't see him". Do you think that has changed today? If so, what do you think has happened to bring about a change?

The figures are very interesting and highlight a simple fact, if we banned all two whell transport we would cut casualties by a massive percentsge at a stroke.

If we banned people with an IQ of less than our own... from breeding or doing anything we didn't like, we would improve the gene pool and be able reserve the roads for our own self-approved brand of idiocy. In fact we could abort them before birth and then we would not have to suffer their stupidity.
/sarcasm

I know many cyclists will protest, but surely some people need to be protected from their own folly,

I cannot believe that cyclists are still prepared to ride on country roads which are unlit, without carrying lights on their bicycles and wearing dark clothing; at night. I also cannot believe that they can ride across zebra crossings even if the front wheels of a moving car are already over the line and about to cross legitimately. I frequently see many urban cyclists who do not appear to think that red traffic lights apply to them.

How and ever, each to their own and if they want to ride in that really dangerous manner, without any shred of self-awareness or thought for their own safety, I cannot stop them. I must drive with due regard for the possibility that a cyclist (and other road users too) may do something that is either unlawful, downright stupid or both. Banning everyone (who isn't me) is a rather blunt instrument and it is a completely unjustified response, in my opinion.

its no different argument than the seat belt debate or the crash helmet laws and will make a much greater contribution to reducing road deaths than all speed or drink limits legislation,

Knee jerk reactions and slippery-slope type arguments serve to indicate that insufficient consideration has been given to the matter, in my experience. Banning those we dislike says nothing about the possible and contributory poor behaviour of car drivers.

I don't think a biker will fall asleep at the handlebars in winter. The car driver listening to a selection of their favourite music, in the artificially warmed atmosphere of a luxury car, which cocoons the driver from the outside world, is quite likely to be too relaxed while driving during winter.

How about re-testing drivers every five years thereby mandating that they update their driving skills? What about rewarding different skill levels with better insurance rates? How about limiting the speed of drivers with just a basic driving test completed? What about permitting properly trained advanced drivers to go faster than the current national speed limits, where it is safe and appropriate to do so?

Currently, there appears to be little incentive to drive well. The law only deals with those who it can catch driving badly.

/rant

 

[nick.ged]

there is a common link to the roads in derbyshire, buxton, south yorks... they all form part of the route to or from matlock bath, which is a bikers haven.

when bikers fall off, they usually die or are seriously injured.

same level of misjudgement in a car usually means bent bumper and drive home.

i also believe there are no dangerous roads, just more challenging routes, mistakes and occasional bad driving / riding.

 

[jepho]

Aaaah... Matlock Bath, a name to invoke some great memories. You are right, nick.ged, it is a bikers haven. I recall that we used to include that particular route on the RAC/ACU Round Britain Rally. I forget where the roads were closed (ageing brain cells) but the police used to assist the rally participants during the final stages of the rally somewhere near Matlock. Bike cops and the occasional jam sandwich were on hand to time bikers over a particular run. The winner of the stage was the biker who could get nearest to maintaining an average of 30 miles an hour over the whole of the timed run.

Good fun, aided and abetted by a helpful police presence.

 

[Dryce]

How about re-testing drivers every five years thereby mandating that they update their driving skills?

I advocate this. It's senseless to let people have a licence at 17 and then not bother about them until they are 70.

What about permitting properly trained advanced drivers to go faster than the current national speed limits, where it is safe and appropriate to do so?

No chance of making that work. It's unenforcable. And just one bad speed related accident above the limit would raise a whole host of issues.

 

[jepho]

I advocate this. It's senseless to let people have a licence at 17 and then not bother about them until they are 70.

I think so too. I don't see any incentives to encourage a person to become a better driver... other than the rather obvious ones of not injuring oneself or others. If skill levels would net extra benefits in terms of insurance premiums, it ought to be possible to have people voluntarily trying to improve their own skill levels.

I don't know if the IAM test nets any benefit to the driver by way of improved insurance premiums but I would willingly take the test if I thought it would knock 20% of my annual premium. Perhaps the police are now ready to make additional income from members of the public who are prepared to pay for an advanced driving course. Once again the higher skill level ought to be reflected in our annual premiums.

No chance of making that work. It's unenforcable. And just one bad speed related accident above the limit would raise a whole host of issues.

I guess. I recall the early days when the M1 was not governed by a speed limit. IIRC it was an AC Cobra coupe which was professionally driven at 186mph by Jack Sears, prior to the Le Mans race, that sealed the fate of unlimited speeds on British motorways.

Maybe cars could be electronically limited based upon skill level... not by manufacturers as now but by DSA staff?

 

[The mallard]

The benefit of having qualified Traffic patrol officers in a patrol car, assuming you allow them to use discretion in their work, is that they can be more selective of who is prosecuted and who gets warned and who gets a gentle hint.

So the guy who is slightly over the speed limit but generally driving sensibly usually got ignored, the idiot who treated every set of lights as a race start, and drove inches of another cars bumper and drove with little planning or thought got pulled very quickly. Minor indiscretions were dealt with by a gentle word of advice.

It was a great system, was generally fair, and did not alienate the Police from the public.

There was a well known police saying, more drivers talked themselves into Court than out of it!

Then the beancounters took over Policing became a business, and cameras made money and lots of statistics, minor offences made good statistical returns and the real bad guys get ignored........................

 

[st13phil]

Then the beancounters took over Policing became a business, and cameras made money and lots of statistics, minor offences made good statistical returns and the real bad guys get ignored........................

There's a well known expression in business: "What gets measured gets managed". Good managers also recognise that if you measure the wrong thing, the wrong thing gets managed.

What was it that Robert McNamara said during the Vietnam war? "Measure what is important, don't make important what you can measure". There's great wisdom in that statement.

 

[brocco]

As I live in buxton, it comes as no surprise to see the A537 'cat and fiddle' road on the list, but I am surprised to see other roads which a regularly use on the list. There seem to be a lot of roads on the list from Derbyshire, so it strikes me how is the list has been generated?? Is it accidents per usage, serious accidents per year or by another means?

 

[flango]

How about re-testing drivers every five years thereby mandating that they update their driving skills? What about rewarding different skill levels with better insurance rates? How about limiting the speed of drivers with just a basic driving test completed? What about permitting properly trained advanced drivers to go faster than the current national speed limits, where it is safe and appropriate to do so?

Currently, there appears to be little incentive to drive well. The law only deals with those who it can catch driving badly.

/rant

As an advanced driver Instructor I re take my driving test every 3 years and learn something new everytime.

If you want to reduce your insurance considerably do the RoSPA driving courses not the IAM as this gives you a bigger discount.

Licenses should be awarded according to ability and in order to drive a high performance car you should first have to prove you are capable of driving it and not just physically capable but mentally capable as well and I would certainly use psychological profiling for this just as they do when instructing novice racing drivers as some people really are too stupid or too arrogant to get behind the wheel of a high performance car

 

[219]

Perhaps the police are now ready to make additional income from members of the public who are prepared to pay for an advanced driving course.

That has been happening for over 30 years - at least .

I started out in advanced driving by doing two such courses , run by different forces in the late 1970's . I can't remember the cost , if any , but it would not have been a lot , or I would not have done them whilst still a student .

 

[s88]

The roads are a hundred years old!

Times move on, and we have poor road design. Lots of simple things could be done to improve them ( at a cost).

The fact that so many are near the pennines is it related to water and rain?

 

[finisterre]

There have been three motorcyclist deaths this last few weeks on the A6 into Buxton. I don't read the local rag so there may have been more. These are just the ones that have impacted my irregular commute.

It isn't the roads or the weather, it is the excessive speed, exposed vitals, and low cross-section.

It is also their choice.

 

[JOB-BLACK-RAT]

I feel that 4 wheeled vehicles should be subject to such retrictions such as motorcycles, age v CC or max speed output. It wont solve all the issues but I feel would help.

The standard driving test should also be amended. At the moment student drivers appear to just be taught to pass the test and very little on how to drive on the roads.

Almost every vehicle now has ABS and yet students are not taught how to use it!

Lets start with the basics and improve driver standards.

 

[jepho]

That has been happening for over 30 years - at least .

I started out in advanced driving by doing two such courses , run by different forces in the late 1970's . I can't remember the cost , if any , but it would not have been a lot , or I would not have done them whilst still a student .

Seems like a good idea to me. How did you come to get on the courses in the first place, if you don't mind me asking?