Towns that desperately need a bypass - your nominations

[zafferana]

Aylesbury

@pinkyredrose

Crawley. Not to divert the traffic or anything, it's just a shithole.

Well at least it’s not full of snobs.

Holmfirth

Doncaster

Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast.

People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what’s so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there, and what’s so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.

(by the late great Douglas Adams)

@ThatPosterIsSoRight

The trouble is, this is how bypasses go:

1. Bad traffic
2. Build a bypass
3. Build retail parks on the town side of the bypass
4. People drive on the bypass to go to the retail parks
5. Build houses in spare land town-side, right up to the bypass.
6. All those new people drive
7. Build houses on the non-town side of the bypass
8. Bypass now gridlocked
9. Sat nav always tells you to drive through the town/city as quicker

10. Town traffic now worse than before the bypass.

Chichester is an example of this.

Beautifully put (as your username would suggest).

The multiple people saying Dundee prove exactly this point.
It has a bypass (the A90) but it's no longer thought of as a bypass because the land around it is so built up. Similarly Worthing, and several of the other suggestions.

We need to use cars less.

Llandeilo’s has been on the cards for at least 40 years. My mum remembers pushing me in my buggy along the high street and being inches from thundering lorries and hoping the talked-about bypass would happen sooner rather than later. Now that Ysgol Bro Dinefwr has opened the traffic is worse than ever.

@queenrollo

Boston. It's something that has been campaigned for, for years. Traffic in the town is a nightmare. One incident will back up the entire town within minutes. I have to drive from one side to the other daily. If you do this journey at night it's 10 mins tops, during rush hour you can take 45 mins. If there's an accident you might as well kiss goodbye to the next two/three hours of your life. We also have a lot of agricultural traffic moving through, and lots of HGV. But then the docks are in town, and there would be no alternative route for their traffic.

I’ll second this ,everything you said ,no wonder the town is dying .

I’m with all the Tintwistle/Glossop/Mottram nominations! It’s so bad in that whole area, at all times of day, it’s not a rush hour problem, I’ve been sat in traffic there at 11pm!

@Soundofshuna

Bath

Definitely! They’ve been talking about one for at least 55 years, ever since I was a child 🤬

Leeds.

Ring road to the north is a mess of roundabouts, traffic lights and single-carriageway road. They're building a new road linking the worst bit to near the top of the M1, but even that will be full of roundabouts and traffic lights.

Also seconded Harrogate - all roads lead to the centre and I always get lost on the Stray. Can add 30+ minutes to the simplest cross-town journey.

Sheffield is a city. We have no ring road, never mind a bypass. Only major city in Europe not to have one….

Closest one to me opened last month and its brill!!!

Tourists coming through will be happy and so will i not having to be stuck behind the ugly caravans. And im home in no time!!

Town had died anyway, nothing but barbers, oriental nail bars and charity shops. Nothing to lose really.

@Thursday37

Melton Mowbray- allegedly it’s coming……

It's been coming for the last 40 plus years! I'm sick of waiting.

Allegedly, the Inner Relief Road (Norman Way) got built instead of a proper bypass because the councillors (all old white men, local business men) thought that a bypass would take the "passing trade" away. Even then, they didn't build the entire design, which would have provided a little more alleviation of the traffic.

I also suspect other reasons, but let's just say that the old nickname for the council was the "40 thieves" back in the 70s and 80s.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Sheffield is a city. We have no ring road, never mind a bypass. Only major city in Europe not to have one….

I used to work there and could have sworn I drove round the inner ring road every day. There’s massive signs saying “ring road”. 🤷‍♀️ But yes traffic is shit and no bypass.

@OldTinHat

Worthing

Worthing definitely needs a bypass.

Chepstow

@AlexCabot

Up until a year or so ago I'd have said Lincoln but now the bypass is (finally) finished it's so much easier.

Agree with Boston. DH actually turned down a very good job because it would have involved dealing with the traffic every day and he couldn't face it.

I wouldn’t say the bypass is complete. There’s a massive bit missing between waddington and south hykeham. But yes it’s better.

My vote would be for Tintwhistle. I’d hate to live there. I hate driving through, puts me off going to north Wales. There’s been posters up for at least 30 years demanding a bypass.

Reading, oh save us from Reading 🙄
Northwood, most of London suburbs, really.
All small towns in Devon and Somerset.
Slough, probably on top of the list.
Birmingham.
Manchester.
I'm really not tolerant of ugly, well, to me, places.
Clearly my problem and all towns,cities/suburbs listed above are actually nice😳
Sorry if I've offended anyone. Disregard as nonsense 🥸

Newport. Yes, we have the M4 but the Brynglas tunnels are such a bottleneck. A two lane tunnel on a major motorway that you have to go through to get to Cardiff and West Wales is ridiculous in this day and age. Millions were spent on looking into a relief road but Mr Drakeford decided against it. Bet he doesn’t have to sit in the traffic on a daily basis.

Hertford.

Oh yes please to an Aylesbury bypass. I counted 6 sets of temporary lights on the school run last week...

A41. Bloody nightmare

@Jules58

Stourbridge West Midlands. It's a nightmare and has been for years.

The stupid ring road annoys me SO MUCH - the signs are wrong so if you believe them, you end up going the wrong way!

Kidderminster's ring road (1960s?) was left with one section unfinished. Perhaps they could finish it off!

@SiobhanSharpe

Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. The evening crawl to get through it takes forever. And even longer during the very frequent road works that plague the main road.

The land earmarked for a bypass 30 years ago is in the process of having 500 new houses built on it. 😩 It will be interesting to see if the new M11 interchange solves the traffic problem otherwise what a complete waste of millions of pounds.

Has no one mentioned Henley-on-Thames??

All those HGVs getting stuck on corners and trashing the bridge… Mind, it’s another place where there isn’t anywhere to put one, because of the, you know, Thames!

My family live in Hertford so I put in a third vote for this. Technically they have Gascoyne Way but this is basically a mile long car park whenever I drive through there, basically no longer fit for purpose. And the town centre can't cope with the level of traffic that results from it.

Totally agree with whoever said Sawbridgeworth too. I have to work nearby sometimes and a friend has DCs at Leventhorpe and it's a nightmare.