I was a Coventry councillor from 2011-2015. The £14m spent on the bridge deck was partly because of the Friargate development, partly to get rid of the brutalist concrete around the train station so that the first thing visitors saw if the city wasn’t a prison of 10-story high concrete towers - instead they’d see a nice field with safe, wide walkways to the city centre. Also, the funding came from the EU development budget, not the Council itself.
I've got to say it's a bit more of a pain in the arse to drive around now but the experience as pedestrian coming from the train station as you mention is light years better now
As a recent visitor to Coventry for the first time I might say there is no hiding the brutalist concrete structures of Coventry. Whatever was around the railway station before can't be any worse than now .. an uninspired station extension, a carpark and a bland plaza. That said, I enjoyed Coventry and was inspired by its post war construction story and much else it has to offer.
0:57 I was a student at Coventry University 89-91 and on one occasion when my Mini broke down I had to wait in that lay-by for the RAC. 3:17 I can assure you there was nothing 'nice' about any of the subways that ran under the ring road.
Well done to Coventry council for identifying that removing a single bottleneck could get rid of the need for a clean air zone. For a city whose livelihood has long been associated with vehicle manufacture it's not really too surprising that they are car friendly. Unlike Bradford council which actively creates bottlenecks to discourage vehicles, creating more air pollution and the necessity for said clean air zone. Couldn't be anything to do with the fact that they've made a lot of money out of it.
the council put in a lot of effort to making sure we didn't get a clean air zone. have to give them credit for that. though there are no shortage of bottlenecks in the road network, worst is probably junction 8. almost always piled up with traffic. the two-lane portion of the road should be widened but there is housing close to the road either side.
For all of us who grew up here and drive on it all the time, it's honestly just fine 😂 It's the absolute textbook definition of just driving predictably being the recipe for success!
Should be noted that as Motofest is increasing in stature, it's having a world Rallycross event as part of next years Motofest, I'm amazed and constantly surprised it goes ahead but glad it does, great day out
Now I've never known anything of Coventry, I still know nothing interesting of Coventry. Just perfect. Love this Channel. John, you are brilliant & hilarious. I think you could make just about anywhere entertaining. Good on you, proper job! 👏
It had a large car industry and an attractive medieval centre. It got flattened during the second disagreement. Now it has an unattractive centre and no car industry.
The remodelling of Junction 6 was also done to give people a nicer route, on foot, from the railway station, rather than scuttling through a concrete dystopia.
G'day Jon, After a week we finally finished our loop of the Coventry Ring Road with for some reason being stuck between Junctions 4 & 5, maybe being the City it was Christmas Traffic 🤷♂??? But thank you as like every roadtrip with you it was still FWickedSweetAWESOOOOOMMMMME! & I clicked the button specifically for that👍
Never ceases to amaze how many people don't know how to drive around the ring road. Stick to the right lane unless you're entering or exiting the ring road, then you don't have 100 cars all fighting for the same 10 feet of road
Except at junction 4 anticlockwise where if you stick with that rule you'll be onto the road towards the tip and the A46 (having to exit and then rejoin to stay on the ring road as mentioned in Part 1 of this pair of videos). Not mentioned in the pair of videos is the back to front sign when entering the ring road from Junction 3 to go clockwise... over the carriageway the sign splits the lanes into Ring Road/M1 South, M40/Rugby/Warwick on the left and Coventry Airport/Whitley/Technology Park on the right; except the Ring Road is really the right hand lane and Coventry Airport is the left hand lane. I kind of enjoy the batcrap craziness of it all.
One of the weirdest things about the project to cover over the ring road at junction 6 is that you can see there's a full-sized mature tree in the middle of the new green space on top, despite the project only being 10 years old. They actually transplanted a fully grown tree there. I didn't even know that was something you could do before they did it, but apparently it is. There are some other trees in the city centre that were also transplanted there fully grown during the redevelopment work leading up to the 2021 City of Culture year. Even most long-term Coventry residents don't know they did it, because most of them went in during Covid and by the time people were walking along those streets again they'd forgotten what they used to look like. My own mother still doesn't really believe me and swears they've always been there.
I would love to see a burger trailer parked up in one of them tiny laybys. It should call itself "blink and miss it burgers". :) Thanks John. Your vids make my day..
Argh, you nearly got me by not waving. I always wave back. It’s like if someone smiles at you, you have the urge to smile back. Great show. Happy Christmas and see you next time, ba-bye.
Considering that Coventry copped it more than most in the UK, I am mighty surprised there was nothing here about the Second Small Disagreement (SD2). Slipping, Jon!
When I first saw the vid was about Coventry I thought it was just going to be 7 minutes of John sitting wide eyed in maddened terror, hugging his knees to his chest and screaming with all the power his lungs could muster whilst rocking back and forth until he screams himself to red faced hoarse silence. Then the closing shot from the drone as it takes off into the sky to the haunting sound of Barber's Adagio for Strings with John fading slowly from view. Your version was better though John, nice vid!
It’s not a Sunday, it’s too many episodes a week for me to comprehend. I might have to sit in a dark corner for abit. Maybe ill just sit listening to the gentle shhhh noise of tyres on tarmac until New Year. Have a Wicked sweet awesome Christmas
Love this! As an aside, one of the more interesting quirks of the ring road is that it was designed for road users to use the right hand lane as the travelling and only get into the left hand lane to exit. This doubles the problem of such small sections to enter and exit the ring road itself.
Just navigated my way right across it. Work started on it in the 50s and I can remember very few cars on it in the 70s. Now its so busy you sometimes can't get off at your designated exit and either have to come off somewhere else or go round and round until theres space for you. I'm very used to it now but most of all I fear the fearful outsiders as thats when problems start. Give way to the right is the rule but not everyone grasps this...
The Coventry ring road really is a wonderful thing! The few times I have used it (many years ago) I got completely confused, ended up exiting at a random junction, then had to park on a side street and get my map out to work out where on earth I was!
There used to be a pedestrian underpass at Junction 6. It was an easy route from Gray friars Green out to Central Six shops. Same journey now involves crossing three roads.
There still is a pedestrian underpass at J6. From Central 6/Anarchy Bridge, follow Grosvenor Road toward town and you walk straight under the Ring Road.
You never showed the canal basin bridge in its full glory, on a hot day when walking over it you can feel it wobbling and see people holding the rails in panic.
When I was a student there I always found that the painted C in Canal always looked suspiciously fresh, like somebody was regularly covering it up and challenging the council to see how fast they could paint it back on
As a citizen of Cov and frequent user of the ring road I can say you do get used to it (only takes about 6 months!) and after that it’s actually quite effective and you can then smile politely at the newbies (easily spotted by the fear in their eyes) as you shoot past. The changes at Junction 7 have actually made a huge difference during the rush hour, so no need for your sniffy dismissal. Anyway enjoyed the vid and it did make me smile so thanks 👍👍
Having lived in Coventry, this was a treat! A few suggestions for roads to check out: When you inevitably return to the midlands, Birmingham’s inner (A4540) and outer (11A/11C bus route, historical) ring roads have a lot of history and curious junctions. The A45 from Birmingham to Coventry has a weirdly half-arsed connection to Cov city centre, and would be worth looking at alongside the A46 which it connects to. Elsewhere in the country, up in Leeds the A61 from the grammar school to the M621 also has some strange junctions going on - make sure to check it out going both north and south for the full nightmares. And Cardiff. Just… Cardiff. All of it. That and Liverpool are my hard nope cities. Ring roads in general are an endless font of content - Leicester A594 I believe used to be tricky in places but I can’t find the worst spot years on when I check street view.
Thanks Jon. Hasn't made me want to visit Coventry again. Its a ringroad which does - something. I get the feeling nobody is sure what it does but its there. Like so many places, the great ideas were never finished leaving everyone feeling that their dream was cut short just as it got to the interesting bit.
The big change was all about making getting into the centre from the station more pleasant, making a good first impression for rail users into Coventry.
You know I had never spotted the lay-bys! The reason for the junction 6 bridge was to make a green space from the railway station to the city to try and make a nice walk - the council made a study and concluded the ring road cuts off the city from everything outside of the ring road unless you have a car, they are trying to merge the space
Will tie in with City Centre South redevelopment too. Cov has the fastest growing station outside London in terms of numbers so worth investing aroung there.
Imagine breaking down in one of those laybys and then finding that you're too deep down to get a 'phone signal. And there's no safe pedestrian route out of your hopefully temporary tomb.
In the 1970s I broke down in my old Viva HA but made it to the layby. Even back then it wasn't a great place to be late at night. Managed to get going again, avoiding the walk home. I never thought about there not being a pedestrian route out from that day until today, and have past it thousands of times over the years lol
Nice to see where you live on this channel. Especially the actual building, in one point, providing a light show too :-) Welcome to the city fella, hope you were treated well :-)
I had the misfortune of living in Cov due to studying in Coventry uni 7-8 years ago I never had an issue with driving on the ring road it was generally free flowing and there was hardly ever any traffic jams. I didn't get to see the redevelopment of junction 7 as I had by then but the car park and those underpasses were rough as nails we'd have to cross to go to a pool bar and it was it aways an experience
3 minutes in - the Junction 7 work took a while but has made a difference, traffic flows a lot easier, even if i do seem to be unlucky at having to stop due to traffic lights being on Red
The ring road is easy and simple though. Keep right at 40 MPH and only be in the left lane to join and leave. To be fair if not used to it, yes it can be scary. when learning to drive I asked my instructor for a lesson specifically on it and now I use it multiple times a week to go to and from work. Feels weird to be watching an auto shenanigans episode on a stretch of road I use frequently.
Junction 7 flows much better than it did as a roundabout. The subways were not nice - I had found two victims of muggings in that location- I’m not sad they’re gone. Junction six works better as a link between the station and the city centre for pedestrians but the question really is ‘why would you?’
Reminds me of the, now demoslished, Bispelokket (trafikkmaskinen) in Oslo. Oslo still has a closely reminding junction right next to Sinsen T where road 4 (Trondheimsveien) meats Ring 3 (59°56'15.2"N 10°47'05.3"E).
Coventry is the Centre of England not Birmingham although The Gravelly Hill Interchange and it`s construction destroyed endless quarters of accommodation . Why was Coventry not chosen as the home of Spaghetti Junction ?
I don't know if it's still the case but the ring road was 40mph all round except for the flat bit at the island for the Foleshill Rd. There was one speed camera and it was sneakily installed under either the Warwick Rd bridge or the Butts Road one (I think) it was in semi-darkness and it pointed in the direction of travel so you'd generally only see it as you drew level and if you were speeding, by then it was too late.
Junction 6 was a real nightmare for many as the railway station is just south of it so having the road from the station go over to the city centre without a roundabout clogging it up is a good idea.
Legend has it that if you drive around the ring road fast enough, you'll reach escape velocity and never have to visit Coventry ever again.
Sounds like a blessing
Would that be the Coventry Climax then?
@@vibingwithvinyl love that obscure reference lol
😂😂
But youre still stuck in England 😢
I was a Coventry councillor from 2011-2015. The £14m spent on the bridge deck was partly because of the Friargate development, partly to get rid of the brutalist concrete around the train station so that the first thing visitors saw if the city wasn’t a prison of 10-story high concrete towers - instead they’d see a nice field with safe, wide walkways to the city centre. Also, the funding came from the EU development budget, not the Council itself.
why let the truth ruin a great story😂
I've got to say it's a bit more of a pain in the arse to drive around now but the experience as pedestrian coming from the train station as you mention is light years better now
As a recent visitor to Coventry for the first time I might say there is no hiding the brutalist concrete structures of Coventry. Whatever was around the railway station before can't be any worse than now .. an uninspired station extension, a carpark and a bland plaza. That said, I enjoyed Coventry and was inspired by its post war construction story and much else it has to offer.
Once upon a time, we heard Brexit is a great idea.....😅
As someone who is tempted to visit Coventry to see brutalist buildings I'm saddened to hear you've got rid of some!
Did I just watch TWO videos about the Coventry Ring Road? What have I become?
Ah, was it two videos, or two HALF videos about a whole?
It could have been worse.
. It could have been about Nuneatons "Ring Road" the Roanne Ringpiece.
Welcome to the hobby called roadgeekery (yes it’s a reap hobby).
One of us! One of us! One of us!
I think the technical term for us is 'sad'.
0:57 I was a student at Coventry University 89-91 and on one occasion when my Mini broke down I had to wait in that lay-by for the RAC.
3:17 I can assure you there was nothing 'nice' about any of the subways that ran under the ring road.
6:00 motorists driving past: “who’s that berk on the pedestrian bridge? And who is he waving at? Must be from Nuneaton!”
More like “Bedith”.
Only if he's waving with 6 fingers! 😂
Nope. Definitely Bedduff.
Lol as if he's from Nuneaton... They see cars and still wonder where the 'orse attaches... 🤪
This ringroad looks like the motorway version of "couldnt this meeting have been an email?"
I'd love to grab some paint, get up onto all those bridges with WELCOME TO COVENTRY on them, and change the EL to HY.
Well done to Coventry council for identifying that removing a single bottleneck could get rid of the need for a clean air zone. For a city whose livelihood has long been associated with vehicle manufacture it's not really too surprising that they are car friendly.
Unlike Bradford council which actively creates bottlenecks to discourage vehicles, creating more air pollution and the necessity for said clean air zone. Couldn't be anything to do with the fact that they've made a lot of money out of it.
the council put in a lot of effort to making sure we didn't get a clean air zone. have to give them credit for that. though there are no shortage of bottlenecks in the road network, worst is probably junction 8. almost always piled up with traffic. the two-lane portion of the road should be widened but there is housing close to the road either side.
People of Coventry, please start using those laybys. Yes the location is terrible, but it's a facility that's been provided for you.
Looks like an ideal place to break out the primus and have a brew……….
Ring-road Lay-by BBQ anyone?
tail-gate party
take the dog for a walk in the laybys? (asking for a friend :-) )
We all know lay-bys were built just for pissing in. A Coventry lay-by rave might be cool though.
For all of us who grew up here and drive on it all the time, it's honestly just fine 😂
It's the absolute textbook definition of just driving predictably being the recipe for success!
Who does that these days ? It's a nightmare !
Fun fact, I lived near Holyhead road and in my childhood often would see the Alvis tanks being road tested up to Coundon and back.
Should be noted that as Motofest is increasing in stature, it's having a world Rallycross event as part of next years Motofest, I'm amazed and constantly surprised it goes ahead but glad it does, great day out
Now I've never known anything of Coventry, I still know nothing interesting of Coventry. Just perfect. Love this Channel. John, you are brilliant & hilarious.
I think you could make just about anywhere entertaining.
Good on you, proper job! 👏
It had a large car industry and an attractive medieval centre. It got flattened during the second disagreement. Now it has an unattractive centre and no car industry.
The remodelling of Junction 6 was also done to give people a nicer route, on foot, from the railway station, rather than scuttling through a concrete dystopia.
You say concrete dystopia like it’s a bad thing.
But I love a concrete brutalist dystopia. I'm from Sheffield...
G'day Jon,
After a week we finally finished our loop of the Coventry Ring Road with for some reason being stuck between Junctions 4 & 5, maybe being the City it was Christmas Traffic 🤷♂???
But thank you as like every roadtrip with you it was still FWickedSweetAWESOOOOOMMMMME! & I clicked the button specifically for that👍
The tunnel is a great section for bikes to go BRRRRAAAPPPP as they pass through
6:12 gran turismo memmories🤩 thanks for remember me againmof the good old times
I got excited about part 2 of Coventry ring road and then the nurse came and gave me my meds
Stop, what...? Moto Fest...? Why is this not promoted....? I'm there next year...!
I found this video to be exceptional in its satisfactoriness.
Never ceases to amaze how many people don't know how to drive around the ring road. Stick to the right lane unless you're entering or exiting the ring road, then you don't have 100 cars all fighting for the same 10 feet of road
Except at junction 4 anticlockwise where if you stick with that rule you'll be onto the road towards the tip and the A46 (having to exit and then rejoin to stay on the ring road as mentioned in Part 1 of this pair of videos).
Not mentioned in the pair of videos is the back to front sign when entering the ring road from Junction 3 to go clockwise... over the carriageway the sign splits the lanes into Ring Road/M1 South, M40/Rugby/Warwick on the left and Coventry Airport/Whitley/Technology Park on the right; except the Ring Road is really the right hand lane and Coventry Airport is the left hand lane.
I kind of enjoy the batcrap craziness of it all.
Always worth watching Jon. Informative dry humour at its British best!
Thank you John very interesting with a splash of humour as always. 👍
Used to be static speed cameras in those laybys, removed as part of the West Midlands odd camera switch off in 2012
J7 used to be a car park
One of the weirdest things about the project to cover over the ring road at junction 6 is that you can see there's a full-sized mature tree in the middle of the new green space on top, despite the project only being 10 years old. They actually transplanted a fully grown tree there. I didn't even know that was something you could do before they did it, but apparently it is. There are some other trees in the city centre that were also transplanted there fully grown during the redevelopment work leading up to the 2021 City of Culture year. Even most long-term Coventry residents don't know they did it, because most of them went in during Covid and by the time people were walking along those streets again they'd forgotten what they used to look like. My own mother still doesn't really believe me and swears they've always been there.
I would love to see a burger trailer parked up in one of them tiny laybys. It should call itself "blink and miss it burgers". :) Thanks John. Your vids make my day..
Argh, you nearly got me by not waving. I always wave back. It’s like if someone smiles at you, you have the urge to smile back. Great show.
Happy Christmas and see you next time, ba-bye.
I was thinking of visiting Coventry just to travel it's ring road but then John made these videos. Thanks for saving me a lot of money!
And on a lighter note.
A new video from John.
Thanks
I've always said this about cov ringroad. You need to throw a six to start !
😆
In my 62 years of life I have been to Coventry four times, or was it five. I certainly won't bother again.
The full drive around the ring road at the end was nicely enhanced by the funky background music. So good I played it three times.
@autoshennanigans yayayay! More of these videos! Also great to hear the original theme music again, with a bit of a revamp!
"Hello, and welcome to Jaaazz Club ....."
Considering that Coventry copped it more than most in the UK, I am mighty surprised there was nothing here about the Second Small Disagreement (SD2). Slipping, Jon!
Wicked, sweet awesome! Safe travels Jon atvb 👍🦊
1:23 the ring road is also scheduled to host a round of the FIA world rallycross championship next year which will be quite cool and unique
Wow, I never knew about the Moto Fest and sprint race. That's awesome. If you are ever in Tokyo you would be amazed at how they save traffic problems.
Another fantastic video John 👍⚓️🧲🤝
* waving hand* Hiya John. Thanks for another wicked sweet video tour. Merry Christmas to you & yours. Take care & stay safe.
When I first saw the vid was about Coventry I thought it was just going to be 7 minutes of John sitting wide eyed in maddened terror, hugging his knees to his chest and screaming with all the power his lungs could muster whilst rocking back and forth until he screams himself to red faced hoarse silence. Then the closing shot from the drone as it takes off into the sky to the haunting sound of Barber's Adagio for Strings with John fading slowly from view.
Your version was better though John, nice vid!
It’s not a Sunday, it’s too many episodes a week for me to comprehend.
I might have to sit in a dark corner for abit. Maybe ill just sit listening to the gentle shhhh noise of tyres on tarmac until New Year. Have a Wicked sweet awesome Christmas
Love this! As an aside, one of the more interesting quirks of the ring road is that it was designed for road users to use the right hand lane as the travelling and only get into the left hand lane to exit. This doubles the problem of such small sections to enter and exit the ring road itself.
As somebody who works security for Coventry university. Even if they had kept the subway you wouldn't want to use it
Ah, infested with Dementors, was it?
yep, the original subways at jn7 were piss filled shitholes. same with the ones that still exist around junction 6
Lovely... a 2 parter taking us exploring around Coventry's ring piece.. sorry road
Danke! These videos are works of art. Merry Christmas to you! 👍
Great video. Love these little histories on motorways, ring roads etc.
Just navigated my way right across it. Work started on it in the 50s and I can remember very few cars on it in the 70s. Now its so busy you sometimes can't get off at your designated exit and either have to come off somewhere else or go round and round until theres space for you. I'm very used to it now but most of all I fear the fearful outsiders as thats when problems start. Give way to the right is the rule but not everyone grasps this...
Looks crazy, especially from the onboard. It's definitely how you described it last week, Jon
Hoofing it around that ring road Jon, nice!
I'm so sorry you had to go there to film this poor lad. Talk about working hard for the money. 😂 Bless.
Ringway Rudge - as in Rudge motorbikes, astonishing 4v/cyl preww2 devices. Brit bike maker - so bust long long ago
Glad you mentioned motor fest. It's a great event, and the street sprint track is awesome to race on
The Coventry ring road really is a wonderful thing! The few times I have used it (many years ago) I got completely confused, ended up exiting at a random junction, then had to park on a side street and get my map out to work out where on earth I was!
Brilliant Jon
Thank you
There used to be a pedestrian underpass at Junction 6. It was an easy route from Gray friars Green out to Central Six shops. Same journey now involves crossing three roads.
There still is a pedestrian underpass at J6. From Central 6/Anarchy Bridge, follow Grosvenor Road toward town and you walk straight under the Ring Road.
@ Did they reopen the tunnel after they completed the roadworks ?
Whoop whoop. Midweek upload 😊
Whoop Whoop! 🤡
The motofest event sounds like a bit of fun - will have to look into that.
Ah, Coventry rong-road, where else can you pass the very place you wanted . . . whilst still 50' up in the air?! : )
You never showed the canal basin bridge in its full glory, on a hot day when walking over it you can feel it wobbling and see people holding the rails in panic.
I call that the Murder Bridge after a woman was pushed off it. Never noticed a wobble.
@@niallrussell7184 You were too busy pushing the woman, to notice the wobble!
When I was a student there I always found that the painted C in Canal always looked suspiciously fresh, like somebody was regularly covering it up and challenging the council to see how fast they could paint it back on
As a citizen of Cov and frequent user of the ring road I can say you do get used to it (only takes about 6 months!) and after that it’s actually quite effective and you can then smile politely at the newbies (easily spotted by the fear in their eyes) as you shoot past. The changes at Junction 7 have actually made a huge difference during the rush hour, so no need for your sniffy dismissal. Anyway enjoyed the vid and it did make me smile so thanks 👍👍
Awesome video, really interesting. Merry Christmas 🎄
Part 2! What a start to my day! 🎉 great content as always and interesting facts too! Well researched
Me a Texan:
Finally some decent content.
Merry Christmas from Mr & Mrs 6thDayBlue. X
Thanks for the mention! Of course, we love the ring road but we may also be a tiny bit biased...
john sums up my opinion of Coventry having lived here for over a decade "we could go, but lets not."
Which part of this dump do you live in? I'm in Longford. The only good thing about Longford is that it hasn't been merged with Foleshill....yet.
Having lived in Coventry, this was a treat! A few suggestions for roads to check out:
When you inevitably return to the midlands, Birmingham’s inner (A4540) and outer (11A/11C bus route, historical) ring roads have a lot of history and curious junctions. The A45 from Birmingham to Coventry has a weirdly half-arsed connection to Cov city centre, and would be worth looking at alongside the A46 which it connects to.
Elsewhere in the country, up in Leeds the A61 from the grammar school to the M621 also has some strange junctions going on - make sure to check it out going both north and south for the full nightmares. And Cardiff. Just… Cardiff. All of it. That and Liverpool are my hard nope cities.
Ring roads in general are an endless font of content - Leicester A594 I believe used to be tricky in places but I can’t find the worst spot years on when I check street view.
0:57 - That layby used to have the only speed camera on the clockwise side. Now all the connecting roads have average cameras instead.
Evenin' 👍
Thanks Jon. Hasn't made me want to visit Coventry again. Its a ringroad which does - something. I get the feeling nobody is sure what it does but its there. Like so many places, the great ideas were never finished leaving everyone feeling that their dream was cut short just as it got to the interesting bit.
I'm really enjoying these in-depth mini documentaries about some of the good and bad infrastructure of our motorways. I dont even drive either 😂
The big change was all about making getting into the centre from the station more pleasant, making a good first impression for rail users into Coventry.
A great video with a wonderful comment section, Merry Christmas 🎄
Looks as though you were speeding at the end. 🤣
J6 looks like a missed opportunity to build a diverging diamond interchange.
Awesome stuff Jon. Thank a lot and if you miss posting on Sunday for some reason - Merry Xmas.
That lay-by also had one of the first speed cameras in the country
I remember that bugger.....it would appear out of nowhere
You sure gave that ring a good seeing to John.
You know I had never spotted the lay-bys! The reason for the junction 6 bridge was to make a green space from the railway station to the city to try and make a nice walk - the council made a study and concluded the ring road cuts off the city from everything outside of the ring road unless you have a car, they are trying to merge the space
Will tie in with City Centre South redevelopment too.
Cov has the fastest growing station outside London in terms of numbers so worth investing aroung there.
Imagine breaking down in one of those laybys and then finding that you're too deep down to get a 'phone signal. And there's no safe pedestrian route out of your hopefully temporary tomb.
In the 1970s I broke down in my old Viva HA but made it to the layby. Even back then it wasn't a great place to be late at night. Managed to get going again, avoiding the walk home. I never thought about there not being a pedestrian route out from that day until today, and have past it thousands of times over the years lol
Free entry to drive in circles sounds fun
the new tunnel does make it a much more pleasant walk from the station
I changed my GPS to talk to me with a British accent, so that it would say slip road! I love that so much.
[Gives a Christmas e giggle]
Nice to see where you live on this channel. Especially the actual building, in one point, providing a light show too :-) Welcome to the city fella, hope you were treated well :-)
I had the misfortune of living in Cov due to studying in Coventry uni 7-8 years ago I never had an issue with driving on the ring road it was generally free flowing and there was hardly ever any traffic jams. I didn't get to see the redevelopment of junction 7 as I had by then but the car park and those underpasses were rough as nails we'd have to cross to go to a pool bar and it was it aways an experience
Those filled in subways were actually terrifying 😂 Very few people used them
I'd love a series on "useless roads" this is great 😅
3 minutes in - the Junction 7 work took a while but has made a difference, traffic flows a lot easier, even if i do seem to be unlucky at having to stop due to traffic lights being on Red
The ring road is easy and simple though.
Keep right at 40 MPH and only be in the left lane to join and leave.
To be fair if not used to it, yes it can be scary. when learning to drive I asked my instructor for a lesson specifically on it and now I use it multiple times a week to go to and from work.
Feels weird to be watching an auto shenanigans episode on a stretch of road I use frequently.
Junction 7 flows much better than it did as a roundabout. The subways were not nice - I had found two victims of muggings in that location- I’m not sad they’re gone. Junction six works better as a link between the station and the city centre for pedestrians but the question really is ‘why would you?’
Happy Christmas John!
I used JTC7 when I lived and studied in Coventry.
Can't wait for the Northampton ring road video . . . Once they finally finish building it.
Kick it with a tasty groove!
Reminds me of the, now demoslished, Bispelokket (trafikkmaskinen) in Oslo. Oslo still has a closely reminding junction right next to Sinsen T where road 4 (Trondheimsveien) meats Ring 3 (59°56'15.2"N 10°47'05.3"E).
Another very interesting video!
Top channel 👍🙂
01:41 That guy crossing the road: balls of steel or just not paying attention? You decide.
Fun fact, all the slip roads on junction 6 are still active. One of them exits from a private car park and features and immensely tight corner 😂
Coventry is the Centre of England not Birmingham although The Gravelly Hill Interchange and it`s construction destroyed endless quarters of accommodation . Why was Coventry not chosen as the home of Spaghetti Junction ?
I don't know if it's still the case but the ring road was 40mph all round except for the flat bit at the island for the Foleshill Rd. There was one speed camera and it was sneakily installed under either the Warwick Rd bridge or the Butts Road one (I think) it was in semi-darkness and it pointed in the direction of travel so you'd generally only see it as you drew level and if you were speeding, by then it was too late.
Junction 6 was a real nightmare for many as the railway station is just south of it so having the road from the station go over to the city centre without a roundabout clogging it up is a good idea.