House on dual carriageway - it's a no, right?

[A90neighbour]

I really like the look of this house (some redecoration aside) and it's a good amount of space for the money.

But it's right on a busy dual carriageway. Traffic goes at 70mph along it and there are accidents pretty regularly due to a lot of the junctions not having flyovers (so people have to cross lanes and/or slow right down to turn on and off).

So it's not just the traffic noise and pollution but also the danger of getting to/from the house!

I need to discount it don't I? Or is it worth a look?

Listing here https://www.tspc.co.uk/4-Bed-Detached-Villa-For-Sale-Blouberg-Tealing-DD4-0QU

Google view of road should be attached.

I once lived next to the M4 and yes you do get used to the noise, but it was screened by trees which made it a bit quieter and meant you couldn't actually see it, plus had proper crash barriers and a large fence. And of course I had a little local street I could walk down. With no kids at the time but doing a lot if travelling my biggest annoyance was it was two miles to the nearest junction. I'd be worried about pollution now I have kids.

I’d also urge you to read up on the health impacts of air pollution op.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-air-pollution/health-matters-air-pollution

Wouldn't be an immediate no from me. Living on a main route means it will always be a priority to keep passable in snowy weather.
The evolution of cars will improve the air quality in the future.
Maybe there are options to install an embankment or intelligent fencing.
I think it would definitely rule out cat ownership though.

I live on the outskirts of a city and we have a busy road at the side of our garden. But 40mph and we have a 20m verge plus trees, shrubs and thick and tall hedgerow, plus a large garden so the house is quite a way back from the road. There is some traffic noise but it's not bad and our air quality is OK because of all the planting and screening.

However I know the road you're looking at and I wouldn't. It's far too close and with no screening or distance the noise is likely to be very intrusive and I would really worry about the air quality.

I used to work with someone who lived in a house overlooking the A80/M80 near Cumbernauld which is a similar road to the A90 and she said she was very happy living there and had been for decades. However, there were crash barriers between her house and the road and her house was surrounded by trees on the three sides not facing the road so I expect that absorbed some of the noise and pollution. She also had an access road behind the property so she didn't need to come straight off the dual carriage way. I think this would be a no for me.

Don’t underestimate the benefit of trees in Filtering the sound it does make a huge difference. Our neighbours have lost theirs, we haven’t. It does make a massive difference.

Go and have a listen when it’s raining. The noise is twice as bad. That noise will be there, electric cars or not. We are probably 20+ years away from 100% electric HGVs.
I don’t even know why you’d consider it to be honest.

I'd rather buy a tiny house on a cul de sac miles away from any major roads. My sister bought a house that's about 150m from the m6 it backs onto beautiful fields and is a really nice house but it's on a main road which is a pain to park and then all you can hear in the lovely looking back garden is a drone of motorway noise. When we viewed houses if my husband could so much as hear the distant drone of any major roads it was immediately binned. I'd also feel anxious about small kids tottering out the front door (our youngest is only 2 so it's my first thought, maybe also a consideration for anyone with dogs too). I just couldn't get past the negatives, people have obviously lived there before so they were willing to see past them though, maybe you could?

Being extremely sensitive to extraneous noise, it's a massive no from me.

We bought a house on a rural A-road in the south of England and stuck it out for 3.5 years, although I never got used to it and hated living there.

The house was a chocolate box Georgian thatch (never buying another one of those either!), three storeys high, front door straight onto the pavement type, although we had a driveway to the side and there was a layby between the pavement and road.

Not only was it terribly noisy all day from about 5am till well into the night, but when juggernauts etc went past - often breaking the 30mph speed limit - the whole house shook.

We had a gorgeous 0.3 acre garden but even out there at the furthest point, because of the way the road curved, you could hear the rumble of heavy traffic as it approached the village.

The pollution caused awful black dust over everything in the front rooms, of which we had three on the ground floor. Fortunately we had no DC living at home (and our cats were house cats), but I doubt we'd have purchased if we had.

We did sell without any issues although that was down to the renovation we'd done and the fact we priced low to achieve a quick sale.

No, would drive us mad.

Wow, it's literally on the road. I just assumed there would be some screening. You could never just go for a walk surely & would always need a car? Too dangerous & I would feel trapped.

I know that road well and no way. 70 mph is if you’re lucky - people regularly go at 90 along there and while it’s not got the traffic levels of an A road in England, that’s because in a more built-up area it’d be a motorway. You know how if you break down on a motorway you’re told to get out of the car and get up an embankment or similar? Your garden is that dangerous. I always wonder who lives in the houses right on the roads! Plus, basically everyone on the thread has said they wouldn’t buy it so who would ever be willing to buy it off you in the future?

I know that area. I think there used to be a petrol station there. You can get a bus going south into Dundee easily. You'd need to use the bus "round the back" to get home though - getting off at Haley's Garage - if you didn't want to cross the A90.
The wind tends to come from the West so it's the noisier side of the road.
Hope this helps.

I rented on a very very busy junction once. I remember my poor little dd playing out in the garden and she was trying to talk to me but I could not hear a word she was saying. I could never have the windows open. I could not hear the telly with the windows open never mind sleep. Boy racers at night were a nightmare. I did sort of get used to it in a way when there but I also remember leaving my house and driving to my childminders at the other side of town and just standing outside her house shocked by how quiet it was. She lived on a normal street and couldn’t understand what I was talking about. I could hear the birds and realised I’d not done so for ages because of living on the road. It was then that I decided to move.
Don’t do it op.

God no. The noise will be horrendous along with the pollution.

My grandmother lived in a house on a dual carriageway (it was a quiet rural single carriageway when she moved in, and hemmed in by motorways a few years after she died). She had masses of breaking as it had no immediate neighbours and the dual carriageway offered an excuse for driving by and a quick getaway.

break ins*

I know that road well and no way. 70 mph is if you’re lucky - people regularly go at 90 along there

They now tend to stick to 70mph due to all the average speed cameras

Yes I don’t understand the rationale to want to be rural but then to move right next to a honking dual carriageway

I grew up living next to a dual carriageway, though it was urban and the speed limit was 50mph,though it was pretty busy most of the time. The noise didn't bother me unduly but then I had never known any different really as before we moved there we'd lived on a fairly busy single carriageway A road. I live somewhere rural now so I think if I moved back the noise would bother me at lot more. But i think you can zone out of noises you hear frequently. My aunt lived under a flight path and I used to jump out of my skin when we visited as it sometimes sounded like planes were coming through the roof, but my cousins could sleep through it. My sister complains she can't sleep at my house - the animals on the farm next door are too noisy. I never notice them.
The thing I hated about living on a dual carriageway however was access. When I learned to drive getting in and out of our house terrified me. There was at least a junction with traffic lights a bit further down the road so there would be a brief hiatus when all the lights were red within which we could pull in or out of our drive safely. I got better at it with time, but it never ceased to stress me.
You can learn to tolerate anything more or less, but the question I would ask is do the plus points of the house really outweigh the downsides, and is finding the location just tolerable actually good enough? For me, the house would have to be spectacular to make me want to live so close to a very busy road again. If you are having to talk yourself into it, it's probably not the place for you.

Why would you choose to live there if you don't have to? The carcinogenic brake dust and micro particles of tyre rubber and exhaust fumes all over your house, garden and your lungs.. the sirens from emergency vehicles and slow loud vibrating trucks at all hours. Crashes that will inevitably happen nearby. Plus, I never expected to have to stop driving, but I became disabled before turning 30... Which can happen to anyone. I wouldn't want to be trapped in a place that basically requires a vehicle to get out of, in that case. Plus you might struggle to shift it in future.

This.

The saying location, location, location was coined for a reason.

The house is cheap for many reasons.

Noise, pollution, restrictive access.

Given the photo my biggest fear would be a risk of a severe accident wiping out the whole property due to a lack of embankment.

One fuel truck and a lorry collide in the wrong place and it won't matter about square footage - it could be obliterated.

You might get used to the noise.

You might be able to live with the restrictive access.

The pollution? I wonder how you'd feel if your family started experiencing respiratory illness? Even 20 years from now would you wonder if it was as result of buying that house?

Re: potential accidents. Your home is your safe space.

The possibility of a catastrophic accident right next to house is low. But the consequences if it does happen are life threatening/changing.

I wouldn't live in this house if it was given to me. I certainly wouldn't buy it.

Walk away OP. It's a terrible life and financial investment.

I live in Angus and tbh I wouldn't actually say it's that cheap considering you're right on the road.

TSPC has loads of 4 bed properties for that price or lower if you just search for Angus, there are some lovely ones around Monifieth, Forfar, Kirriemuir, Carnoustie and Arbroath amongst other areas. If you need to be close to Dundee then I would say Arbroath at the furthest would give you a good search area still. It just depends what else you're looking for of course.

I don't know the other side of Dundee much to say if there would be anything affordable that way though but I have friends who live in Invergowrie and like it there.

I've ruled it out now but my hope was that in desperation they'd take a lot less! It's true that Angus is cheap but I wouldn't want to be as far out of Dundee as most of the cheap places are.

Yes the average speed cameras have made people slow down a lot. The junctions are still dangerous though.