tommydazzle
Well-Known Member
Cov ring road featured on Auto Shenanigans (2 parts) - quite funny to read the comments of strangers using the road being traumatised by their experience.
Cov ring road (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter tommydazzle
- Start date
Covkid1968#
Well-Known Member
It’s a thing of beauty and so easy… if we all know and use the basic rules. So stay in the outside lane until you are ready to exit and then move across .. simples
Nuskyblue
Well-Known Member
No one does this which makes it a shit show!
Some of the exits and entrences are a proper shit show, to the entry from London and immediate merging of the main carriageway and vice versa with traffic approaching 60 mph or similar,then to be followed by a Sharp bend on the exit again with no room and speeding vehicle's attempting to get across 2-3 lanes to enter sky blue way.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
It's not a thing of beauty - it's an eyesore to look at.
It works reasonably well if used correctly but there always seems to be some twat speeding down the lane people are supposed to be in and tailgating cos they think its an overtaking lane, hence a lot of people staying in the left hand lane and causing problems at the junctions. I know it's put a lot of outsiders I know from outside the city off. Not only is it ugly to look at as you approach they find it quite a horrid experience as they get quite shocked to find cars moving across to come off in the same space they're using to get on. So that is their first impression and it's a very negative one - we're fighting an uphill battle to win them over after that. And I've been on three different coaches that couldn't navigate their way back onto it from White St and just ended up going round the island at the bottom.
Houchens Head
Fairly well known member from Malvern
I remember the city before the ring road was built, but I'm going back to the early 60's.
Covkid1968#
Well-Known Member
Boooooooooo
If a Coach Driver cannot navigate his way on and off Coventry Ring Road he or she should have their license taken off them, a professional driver should have the ability to read (and understand) road signs and act accordingly, as should anyone with a driving license.
Have never understood why people get so upset about missing their turn off, it's a Ring Road, keep driving and a couple of minutes later you can have another go. If it's used as it was designed it works well, and thats where the Council should step in and make it clear to the Coventry driving public how it should be used.
So many people seem to blame the Ring Road for all of Coventry's problems, and think that if it were to be dismantled the City Centre would suddenly transform into some beautiful cosmopolitan utopia, it wouldn't..........it would be the same hotchpotch of buildings with very poor traffic management and hence associated problems.
After the war Coventry Council destroyed so many historic and culturally significant buildings in the name of progress, the one thing they got right (maybe there are others but for the life of me I cannot think of them) was the building of the Ring Road. It works, it does what it was designed to do which is get large amounts of vehicles around the City quickly.
If we are going to start knocking down ugly post war structures in Coventry, there are many others that should be hit with the big iron ball before it ever happens to any part of the Ring Road.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
If three different people who drive professionally for a living and have taken extra driving tests to drive large vehicles can't navigate their way back onto the ringroad then that tells me the problem is with the road itself somewhere.
You're right in that it can get cars around the city centre quickly. Trouble is it encourages very few of them or the people inside them INTO it, and our city centre gets way less use than a city with our population should do, especially as it's quite a compact city.
You're only as good as your weakest link and the roads the junctions feed onto aren't big enough to cope with the heavy traffic levels the ring road forces onto them in rush hour because everything is forced inwards towards the city centre if they want to cross the city, especially on the west side (J6 - J9) where the queues to get off can sometimes end up backing up into the previous junction, with cars at a standstill preventing people from getting onto the ring road. If someone does leave a space for them to get on they've then got to go from a crawling start to merge into the outside lane with traffic travelling 40mph+. If it can't handle traffic at its busiest time then it's not up to scratch.
Plus we're having to put cheap buildings next to it like MSCP's and student accommodation because no-one wants to be on an awkward plot of land next to a raised carriageway (which is EIGHT lanes across in some places!) making the land far less valuable than it should be for what should be a prime central location.
The pedestrian subways have always been hated and even where that has been changed to walk under the raised carriageways is very unappealing. Ever since it was built it has been noted how pedestrian traffic from nearby areas has dropped massively because they don't want to negotiate it, with every attempt to change that over the years being an abject failure. It's effectively cut the city centre off from the rest of the city.
But hey some cars can get around the city centre two minutes faster than if it were a more conventional layout.
Gynnsthetonic
Well-Known Member
I saw somewhere that it couldn't be built now because of the short space for the exits and entrances. The whole thing though works remarkably well and there are so few accidents
Don't agree, if professional drivers (Coach Drivers) cannot negotiate and understand the signs of entry and exit I would still suggest the problem lies with them and they should stop passing the buck and blaming the Ring Road for their lack of ability to do the job they are trained to do.
As for the City Centre getting not as much use as it should am really not sure what you mean, whenever I go into the City Centre it appears as busy (or not busy) as any other comparable City of its size, any lack of footfall/activity (in my opinion) can be placed squarely at feet of the Council who have turned it into what it currently is. The Ring Road was completed in the early 70's as a way to keep traffic (cars etc) out of the centre and it still does a pretty good job. If the City Centre does get less use than it should, thats due to lack of decent amenities, entertainment venues and shops that people want to go to, not the Ring Road although it does become a convenient scapegoat for those with an axe to grind.
Cars backing up on slip roads is due to sheer weight of traffic, not the design or position of the Ring Road, and I think I am right in saying that no one anticipated the level of traffic currently on the roads back in the 70's. The problems you describe are (in my opinion) due to poor driving skills and a lack of considerate driving, not the lack of capacity on the Ring Road.
The decision to put cheap accommodation next to the Ring Road again sits squarely with the Council who have encouraged students into the City as a means of generating wealth and revenue in the City, who else would have built on that land? Again it sounds as thought the Ring Road gets scape goated again.
Not sure what can be said about the pedestrian subways except that am sure they are no less safe than most of the street around Coventry, and even if it were the case that pedestrian traffic from certain areas has dropped off over the years that does not justify dismantling the Ring Road.
Like it or not the vast majority of people find the Ring Road very useful and convenient, it saves a lot of people a lot of time, it keeps a lot of cars out of the City Centre, I for one think it is the only thing Coventry Council got right post war, but like the push for bike lanes (that don't seem to be used) there is a push to discredit it.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
If the cars backing up is due to weight of traffic, then that is down to the design. It can't handle the weight of traffic therefore it is not capable of doing it's job at peak times. I think much of that is because there isn't an outer bypass on the west side of coventry like the A46 on the east which would help.
The cheap accommodation etc is there because the council can't get anyone to develop the land as anything else. It may be a choice but it's pretty much cheap shit or nothing - no-one wants it because of the ring road.
As for the subways, you may be right, but it's about peoples perception rather than reality. People are naturally more wary of things like underpasses because they are enclosed. Regardless of how actually safe they are, if people don't want to use them they won't.
It's not the worst thing in the world, but ask yourself if it's so great why has pretty much no-one copied it since?
AOM
Well-Known Member
I work outside of Coventry and peoples experiences of the ring road sound similar to what I imagine the Vietnam War was like.
Drives me absolutely mental when you're trying to get onto it, and someone is just stuck in the left hand lane not budging and so it makes it difficult/dangerous for everyone involved.
Being from the city and knowing how to navigate it feels like being part of an exclusive club
Drives me absolutely mental when you're trying to get onto it, and someone is just stuck in the left hand lane not budging and so it makes it difficult/dangerous for everyone involved.
Being from the city and knowing how to navigate it feels like being part of an exclusive club
SkyBlueCharlie9
Well-Known Member
Ring road is shocking in many aspects... destroys fabric of city and acts as a barrier to pedestrians and cyclists movement and puts people off visiting. Other places such as Brum have addressed it over last 40 years to huge idenity and economic benefit, Cov a lot slower but have been talking about it for 30 years aand one day who is will be righted... but expensive and petrol/diesel heads will continue to moan to local politicians who rarely get the full picture.
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
You're describing two problems there that could be literally any city in the country so I would say not at all related to the ring road.
I don't often go into Cov during rush hour but when I do I have to be at a client that's in the city centre or requires using the ring road first thing I find the congestion far less than other places I've lived.
Similarly you can go to pretty much any university city and have the locals moaning that the city centre is being taken over by students and the only thing being built is student accommodation.
If cars are backing up then that may well be due to hold ups further down the line manifesting the problem onto the Ring Road, wasn't the knocking down of buildings (mostly historic) in Spon End and the widening of the road by the Butts supposed to address this problem?
The cheap accommodation is there due to the fact that no one wants to invest in Coventry, and that is not down to the fact it has a Ring Road. The reason for that (I suspect) is the crap council that runs the City, what investor would want to deal with them? (Wasps I hear you all shout!!)
In one part of the Ring Road a pedestrian bridge has been installed (bottom of Upper Hill Street) and, if possible, this could be done in other parts to reduce the need for subways.
Agree its not the worst thing in the world, or by any means the best, but (in my opinion) it adds far more to the City than it takes away. As for other City's with inner Ring Roads they have one in Bradford, Sheffield (been there quite a few times and its horrendous), Watford, Leeds, Norwich, Wolverhampton and Derby.
How are you supposed to stay in the outside lane, when you have a BMW tailgating you cause they want to drive at 60mph.
Covkid1968#
Well-Known Member
You should act like any other mature and reasonable person would do and wind down your window give them the middle finger. I drive a Fiat 500 so you can imagine how much that pisses of the BMW drivers!!
Derby's is horrendous, especially trying to get on/off the A52.
TBH, quite like driving on the ring road. It's the J3/Sky Blue Way roundabout which makes my blood boil. Ubers treat that roundabout like there are no lanes.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
There was the blame about 20 years ago to level between J1-3 and of all the plans that have failed to materialise that is the one I wish had happened most. I think once you start changing it people will realise you can still have an effective city centre bypass without the need for huge flyovers creating dead zones and it would snowball.
Sky_Blue_Dreamer
Well-Known Member
I agree it's roads like Holyhead Road/Allesley Old road/Radford Road that cause the problem because the amount of traffic coming off the ringroad is too much for those roads to handle, especially when they have traffic lights which stop traffic for 30 seconds at a time or whatever.
I don't think the extra bit of lane added in on AOR has helped much as t leads to the RR not off it. The watchmakers cottages were taken down ages ago and that space is now just landscaped. The did knock down a pub for the current works but it was unused and the fixtures had been updated many times over the years. After that is still the Nissan garage and an empty carpet warehouse which could go/be relocated IMO. Then the derelict pub opposite BPA and the petrol station.
I think there are things that could be done (most of AOR is single lane because residents now seem to use one of the lanes as a parking lane, so whack some double yellows down and increase the capacity (though you still would get a bottleneck by the Maudslay).
I have thought about other things as well. Main one is completing the outer ring road past Allesley which could alleviate the extra traffic on the west side. Another is altering the junctions so that rather than all of them connecting to the ringroad, half connect to the ring road while the others only access the city centre. Then focus on making those roads that connect to the RR dual carriageways so they have the capacity to take the traffic, you can have longer sliproads and also it makes using the city centre more appealing as you're not stuck in all the other traffic that just wants to go around it.