Is this the most bizarre diversion of all time?
Discussion
I just spotted this Cambridge News front page. After a quick check that we hadn’t travelled backwards in time to 1st April, I can only assume that someone at the Local Authority (or possibly The Cambridge News) has a grudge against their employer and wants to make them look stupid.
There are any number of ways in every direction to get from Barton to Cambridge, avoiding the affected stretch of Barton Road and adding only a couple of miles to your journey.
Anyone know what’s going on here?
At a guess, any prescribed diversion route has to be suitable for HGV traffic, which usually involves a long roundabout journey on suitable A-roads.. The alternative is often a stream of HGVs pouring through local villages.
More often than not, locals will simply use their own much shorter routes and rat-runs.. But a lot of the time, you can have a trunk road in a rural area being the only route suitable for HGVs, so if you want to close a mile or 2 of it for resurfacing, the alternative route has to be signed from miles away and take them a long way round.
Of course many will still ignore the miles of signs and warnings, and end up sitting facing a hard closure on an A-road in the middle of the sticks at 2am, with no safe point to turn around. Or one of them figures out they can rat-run through a local village, gets on the radio to their buddies, and you have a train of artics rumbling through all night.
More often than not, locals will simply use their own much shorter routes and rat-runs.. But a lot of the time, you can have a trunk road in a rural area being the only route suitable for HGVs, so if you want to close a mile or 2 of it for resurfacing, the alternative route has to be signed from miles away and take them a long way round.
Of course many will still ignore the miles of signs and warnings, and end up sitting facing a hard closure on an A-road in the middle of the sticks at 2am, with no safe point to turn around. Or one of them figures out they can rat-run through a local village, gets on the radio to their buddies, and you have a train of artics rumbling through all night.
smithyithy said:
At a guess, any prescribed diversion route has to be suitable for HGV traffic, which usually involves a long roundabout journey on suitable A-roads.. The alternative is often a stream of HGVs pouring through local villages.
More often than not, locals will simply use their own much shorter routes and rat-runs.. But a lot of the time, you can have a trunk road in a rural area being the only route suitable for HGVs, so if you want to close a mile or 2 of it for resurfacing, the alternative route has to be signed from miles away and take them a long way round.
Of course many will still ignore the miles of signs and warnings, and end up sitting facing a hard closure on an A-road in the middle of the sticks at 2am, with no safe point to turn around. Or one of them figures out they can rat-run through a local village, gets on the radio to their buddies, and you have a train of artics rumbling through all night.
Is the correct answer, diversion needs to be suitable for the tallest, widest, heaviest vehicle that could be on the road. More often than not, locals will simply use their own much shorter routes and rat-runs.. But a lot of the time, you can have a trunk road in a rural area being the only route suitable for HGVs, so if you want to close a mile or 2 of it for resurfacing, the alternative route has to be signed from miles away and take them a long way round.
Of course many will still ignore the miles of signs and warnings, and end up sitting facing a hard closure on an A-road in the middle of the sticks at 2am, with no safe point to turn around. Or one of them figures out they can rat-run through a local village, gets on the radio to their buddies, and you have a train of artics rumbling through all night.
Puddenchucker said:
My understanding is any diversion route must be on the same standard of road as that closed (Motorways excepted).
So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
This did cross my mind, but according to the report in the paper the roundabout on the M11 will remain open - so anyone arriving at that from Barton could just turn left on to the M11 and then take the next slip road to the A1303 (the Madingley Road into central Cambridge).So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
My other point would be, that the Cambridge News is presumably not under Government (central or local) control, but nowhere on the front page or the article inside, does it point out that this night time diversion will be completely irrelevant to locals who are presumably the readership of the paper.
Foss62 said:
Puddenchucker said:
My understanding is any diversion route must be on the same standard of road as that closed (Motorways excepted).
So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
This did cross my mind, but according to the report in the paper the roundabout on the M11 will remain open - so anyone arriving at that from Barton could just turn left on to the M11 and then take the next slip road to the A1303 (the Madingley Road into central Cambridge).So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
Google Maps is great until it gets confused by closed roads. It would be helpful if Google Maps had a button for alternative routes which shows a random new route every time you press the button. You could then choose a suitable alternative or even a fun alternative. Of course you drive 1/4 mile and by default Google frustratingly switches back to the original route.
Krikkit said:
Foss62 said:
Puddenchucker said:
My understanding is any diversion route must be on the same standard of road as that closed (Motorways excepted).
So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
This did cross my mind, but according to the report in the paper the roundabout on the M11 will remain open - so anyone arriving at that from Barton could just turn left on to the M11 and then take the next slip road to the A1303 (the Madingley Road into central Cambridge).So, if they close an A-road, the diversion route must be on an A-road,
The diversion for those heading from Mansfield to Chesterfield was south on the M1 to junction 28, do a 180 and head north again back to junction 29; not what I wanted to do in my 62 year old Riley, at dusk, in rain.
GiantEnemyCrab said:
Glenn63 said:
Is the correct answer, diversion needs to be suitable for the tallest, widest, heaviest vehicle that could be on the road.
Is this not just a little daft?Big, heavy traffic... that way.
Cars.... that way.
eg... two signs? Feel like that is achievable in 2025!
You can't physically stop HGVs going the 'wrong' way if they're determined to, it's just too dangerous, or would require too much additional traffic management and control that it would increase delays exponentially.
We have a scheme on the ground now Inna rural area, closing a trunk A-road that passes alongside a small town. There's a single B-road that diverges off the A-road, directly through the town, that would bypass the works entirely, and the amount of management and work it's taken to appease the local council and MPs has been huge. And understandably so, in all fairness..
95% of HGV traffic will be driving close to the full length of the A road, say 20 miles. If they follow the diversion from the start of the A road at 'large town A' and rejoin south at 'large town B' their net delay will be about 15 minutes. It looks like a large diversion route, but the net delay is minimal.
But at 9pm when the road is closed, it's guaranteed we'll still have a queue of wagons trying to get into the rat run and force their way through the town. It's happened many times before, and ended up with MPs getting involved and news coverage etc.
We can specify motorway and non-motorway traffic routes, and have done previously where the main diversion uses a short stretch of motorway but we make an alternative route available that bypasses that section (small A-roads etc) for farm vehicles and similar.
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