Biggest going the wrong way cockups

[Myboyonlybreakshisfavouritetoys]

Today stopped on the way to holiday, then got on the wrong A road and drove back the way we came. Attempted to get off at next junction to turn around and then got back again in the wrong direction and had to drive another 6 miles in the wrong direction before I could turn around. 20 minute journey back 45 minute journey!

Help me feel less of a tit and tell me yours.

My friend drove hours across country to a gig in Newport... the wrong Newport.

I'm pretty sure road engineers in that area were having a competition over who could make the most complicated roundabout system. And that ots like the moving staircases in Hogwarts... the roads go different places on different days.

ETA... replying to @RedRec About the M62!

Nothing to do with the thread topic, but are you associated with the steam railway or the vineyard? (I live nearby)

When I was a teenager, my stepdad was driving my mum and me from just south of Glasgow to north of Aberdeen, where we lived.
I didn't pay much attention until I realised we were on the Forth Road bridge, north of Edinburgh.
We had literally driven east then turned north, instead of just taking the motorway north.

Worst of all we were still lost, so went back over the bridge, back from Edinburgh to Glasgow, then north to Aberdeen. A four/five hour journey took about 10 hours!

I thought this thread was going to be about going the wrong way as in driving on the wrong side of the road, so I’ll answer it a such 😜

we spend a couple of months each year in Spain and switching back to uk driving can be a challenge (not helped by driving an automatic abroad and manual here!).

Twice I’ve been round the roundabout the wrong way in Spain, fortunately in a very quiet part of the countryside.

the worst is coming home. We live in a cul de sac and I constantly drive up it the wrong way for several days, luckily correcting myself before joining the main road 😥
Also once I had picked up DD from school and managed to drive the wrong way down their (thankfully) long drive, only noticing when my normally calm DD screaming at me ‘what the hell are you doing, do you want me to die ‘

I now repeat the mantra ‘driver in the middle of the road’ until I’ve got it!

also forgetting to change gears and wondering why the car is revving like crazy 🤪

When I was very young, my and my boyfriend moved to Gloucester from Bristol, but we were still working in Bristol. I was scared shitless of the motorway so would usually go on the a38 the whole way. Well, one day I braved it and hopped on the motorway to go to work, completely fucked up and ended up in Wales. Still not sure how I did it, I remember calling boyfriend (on loudspeaker) and freaking out, trying to describe where I was when this massive WELOME TO WALES sign appeared. He managed to remotely direct me (has an epic sense of direction and could work out exactly where I was, despite my stroppy unhelpful responses when he was asking what the next sign says and I said "I DON'T KNOW IT'S FUCKING ALL IN WELSH"... it wasn't, I was just stressed and being dramatic). I've never been so relived as when I saw the WELCOME TO ENGLAND sign. Was mega late for work though 😅

I read this and thought, its just Jn 27 its bloody obvious BUT then I realised it IS jn 27 but then you bear left almost immediately and then turn right, go to a roundabout, bear left and then turn right at a roundabout so its not obvious at all.
You can see Ikea from the motorway but getting to it isn't easy if you don't know how

As a new driver in the late 80’s we didn’t have any motorways in Sussex so driving to Liverpool to see my now DH was going to be challenging.

I purchased a road map and wrote out the route, asking at the local petrol station when fuelling up how would I know whether to turn left or right when I reached the M25.

Arrived without incident, had a fantastic weekend and left holding on to DH’s instructions ‘get onto the M62 and you will be fine’
A hour later I was marvelling at the scenery and started to realise this was not somewhere I had passed on the drive up, pulling into the services to consult my map I could see instead of turning off for the M6 South I was now on Saddleworth Moor.
Had to turn around and retrace my route arriving home late only to find I was locked out as my parents had gone to bed.
Simple times really before mobile phones and sat nav’s.

Driving on a provisional license with a friend supervising from London to Manchester. Neither of us realised that the A11 becomes the M11 in parts. Cue absolute panic upon realising I was driving illegally on the motorway. Following this ensued the Sat Nav did not use motorway’s.

I found getting out of Central Edinburgh a bit stressful yesterday. I knew roughly where I needed to go, but wasn't in the right lane and couldn't move over (a queue of buses.) So I figured it was safest to carry on. It worked out in the end.

I am about to go through another British city I don't know at all...

Two months after passing my test I was driving from Skye to Edinburgh. First long distance drive with baby ds. And first long long distance on my own. Had travelled the road to Glasgow many times so planned to go that way even though it wasn’t the quickest. Rang my friend halfway who insisted I need to go via Stirling, so for some reason I took a long detour back north. Ended up in the wrong lane somewhere and was forced into this town that had this huge quasi-roundabout which totally freaked me out. It was rush hour by this point and I wasn’t prepared for the place (had researched my original route thoroughly). I parked up somewhere and cried, then got myself back into traffic and escaped. The motorway was far less intimidating!

My uncle couldn’t get used to having people in the car and after 7 years of driving me to school once or twice a term still needed to be directed (less than 2 miles). I tried spreading for him on a couple of longer journies and actually swore at him one time as he ignored my directions and tried to insist of going his way which was the opposite direction to where we needed to go. My mum, surprisingly, didn’t say anything.

Another time he was driving London to Edinburgh. He wanted to avoid Birmingham so we joined the M6 north of the city. Stopped at services, got back on the motorway and merrily ambled along for however many miles, passed a turnoff then I spotted a sign for ‘B’ham and the south’. An hour later we passed the services we’d stopped at earlier!

Not a going the wrong way issue, but yesterday I twice thought I was going through a red light because the lights were so confusing. There was a turn lane to the right that had a separate set of traffic lights, and I was going straight on - it was very hard to tell which lights went with which lane as they didn't have arrows on the red light, only on the green and one of the sets of lights had obviously been knocked out of place by a lorry. I played it safe and slowed down while I tried to work it out in case I had to slam on the brakes, and was then beeped at furiously from behind.

I prefer when the lights at a large junction near me are not working because they are so poorly timed and cause huge tailbacks. When the lights are not working, which seems to happen about once a month, it makes everyone slow down, and ironically it keeps traffic flowing better with no jams!

My recent cock up was in Wales and I maintain the duel language signs threw me (as well as a terrible sense of direction).

Did a visit for work to a family in a Welsh village up a steep hill
Assumed there would be a proper turning space at the top.

Nope

Ended up doing a 30 point turn where one side fell away into a deep drop.

I was sweating and on the verge of crying

Every time after when I had to visit people I'd ask if road access was OK!!

In northern Spain, on honeymoon having got off the plane and picked up the car, DH directed us to Villa Nova. It was the wrong Villa Nova. The right one was about 150km away. Good job I loved him.

When I first past my test, I lived in a small village just outside Bury St. Edmunds. However the village was right on the Cambridge boarder. If you are driving from the Cambridge side you use the A11 to access the nearest small town which leads you to the village. For the first few months I would forgot to move over into the A11 junction and continue on the A14 to Bury St. Edmunds. Adding at least 30 minutes onto the journey.

I’ve done loads of stupid things, most embarrassing was when I had my manager out with me for a day and stopped at the services for a coffee and then ended up going back down the road we had just come up…it was also 20 minutes to the next junction, so not only did it add 40 minutes to the travel but I also had him joking about it for years!

Sorry if this doesn't make sense to people who don't know the road but The A606 in Bradford turns into the M62 at Jn 25. For many years I got off the A606, round the roundabout and back on the other side where it had become the M62.
I had my manager with me one day who asked me why I did that, I was a bit surprised but explained that I needed to get onto the M62.
He very patiently explained it wasn't necessary

Drove through the Mersey tunnel several times over the years while just trying to find parking in Liverpool City centre at the end of the East Lancs Road. Adding an accidental trip to the Wirral became more or less a habit.

I drove back to somewhere I used to live and the A road and roundabout exit layout had all changed. I drove round the roundabout 3 times figuring out if my exit was the same or if it said no entry (unclear signage is my defense) then took the back routes and an extra 30 mins on my 40 min journey.

I once spent almost an hour trying to get out of Bank underground station. At one point I sat down and had a little cry.

Another time I went to an interview, but went to the wrong city.

i once went down the up ramp in a multi story car park. met a car coming up who very kindly reversed to let me out (they had only just started on the ramp and i was almost at the bottom.) I apologised profusely.

I once flew to Australia expecting to meet my dad at the airport who was picking me up. It was only when I arrived I didn’t recognise the airport and I asked someone am I in Brisbane ? And they said no you are in the gold coast (I had booked a ticket thinking the Gold Coast was Brisbane) they told me you need to catch a bus and a train to get to Brisbane. I had to borrow a mobile from someone and call my dad and tell him I was delayed a bit (2 hours) Not great with massive jet lag,

Oh and driving in Melbourne is a horrible HORRIBLE experience and every time I have driven in the city I have ended up on the Westgate bridge by accident IYKYK it’s terrifying as you are stuck on four lanes of traffic with trucks and tradies and you can’t get off.

Leaving the ikea and never getting in the correct lane for the M621. In the thirty-odd years it’s been there I’ve never managed it.