Best Roads Bristol or Exeter

[whythem]

If you drew a circle around each of the towns, say a radius of 100miles, which town would have the highest number of good driving roads?

Im thinking Bristol has south wales and somerset, while Exeter has the Jurassic coast and devon. But which is better.

[Chris71]

I'd say Bristol because of the proximity of South Wales, Zig Zag Hill and the overlap with North Devon.

Exeter has Dartmoor and Exmoor (the latter being shared with Bristol's 100 mile radius...) but they're busy in comparison to the Black Mountains in mid Novemver!

I'd be chuffed with either though. I grew up in East Devon - not a million miles from either - and the sort of roads I used to pop out for a pint of milk round there were better than 90% of my Sunday morning hoon roads round here in the south east.

[RizzoTheRat]

Bristol purely for the roads around Abergavenny, and less traffic in south Wales than in Devon from my experience.

[Allyc85]

Bristol by a mile, I hate going for a drive around here now as the roads seem to be getting busier all the time and the 40 limit over Dartmoor restricts the fun a bit.

[Chris71]

Allyc85 said:

The 40 limit over Dartmoor restricts the fun a bit.

Have they actually started policing that?

I remember training for Ten Tors with the sound of racing engines ringing in my ears as people used to go up there for (utterly illegal) shake down sessions before the IoM TT. Can't remember if the 40 limit had come into effect back then, but it was a bit academic either way.

[snowmuncher]

Dartmoor isn't the best for spirited driving - the ponies and sheep seem to have taken to sleeping on roads

From a technical point of view; If your buffer zone were based on Bristol, you'd have many more roads to choose from. If your buffer zone is based on Exter, some form of amphibious car could be an option, as almost 50% of the area is water.

A little map:


Personally I'd go for Exter; Recon North Devon and North East Cornwall have the largest number of continous good demanding tarmac

Edited by snowmuncher on Thursday 25th November 21:27

[davepoth]

Devon does have some good Tarmac, but then Bristol would have pretty much every special stage from Wales Rally GB...

[whythem]

So for a driving holiday it would seem that Exeter is OK, Bristol is great, but I really want to be in Wales. (Not counting Scotland, as I would be travelling originally from London via Bristol)

[snowmuncher]

I think alot depends on the type of roads you want TBH

North Devon has roads of all types, from the dual-lane A30 (way way too easy to way way too fast !) to 'green-lanes' which require a 4x4 with muddies to get through.
Overall North Devon has light traffic volumes too.

Whenever I've been to the Brecon Beacons/Black Mountains and above, there has always been sufficient slow moving traffic to make driving very frustrating.
Particully when you're driving an old vw van and need to build up speed going down hills to get up the other side

[davepoth]

snowmuncher said:

I think alot depends on the type of roads you want TBH

North Devon has roads of all types, from the dual-lane A30 (way way too easy to way way too fast !) to 'green-lanes' which require a 4x4 with muddies to get through.
Overall North Devon has light traffic volumes too.

Whenever I've been to the Brecon Beacons/Black Mountains and above, there has always been sufficient slow moving traffic to make driving very frustrating.
Particully when you're driving an old vw van and need to build up speed going down hills to get up the other side

You need to find some better roads then - there are some that don't really go anywhere that are often empty.