M11 - A14 - A428 Comments

Coming along from the East, if you blink it is so easy to end up on the A428 instead of the northbound A14.

I have made that mistake, been in other cars that have done it and heard tales of others doing it.

Once alert to that possibility, it seems ages until you can be sure you're heading along the correct road.

You should be able to purchase special T Shirts, certificates and trophies!

There are some other aspects to this junction that are particularly special.

The obvious one not already mentioned is that all the long distance A14 traffic westbound heading for either the M11 or A14 W are funnelled down one slip, while the A14 turns into two lanes of A428 which sit obliviously empty. Given the A14 W gets heavily overloaded at Cambridge commuter time, this isn't the best of designs.

Also the junction with The Avenue in Madingley is 'fun'... it's an almost square-on T-junction of a rural road with what's effectively 4 lanes of motorway (though the motorway lanes don't merge until a few hundred yards further on). You get to merge, from a standing start, with heavy traffic doing 70 continuing down the A14.

Though the A14 is particularly fond of rightangled junctions with a tiny sliproad, so perhaps we should be used to it.

Gosh, you think this design is bad. You should see what they're preparing to build. The A14 northbound is going to become TWO duals; one "stopping" line which goes to the junctions north, the other "express" one doesn't allow interchanges.

Along with commensurate extra sliproads, lane changes and people arriving at the junction unsure of which of the two A14s to use.

And currently we're promised a camera enforced speed limit for 3 years while it's all done...

I actually live in Madingley and I agree with the previous comment - rarely have I ever joined a fast moving A-road from a junction on the right, and then having to go across several lanes in order to come off to go to Madingley (down one of the bumpiest roads in Britain). On a motorbike it can be quite scary as you have very little time to change lanes and the cars on the left come right into your blind spot.

The most spectacularly broken aspect of this junction is the Girton-to-Madingley bridleway that goes straight through the middle of it.

I've run that route, and would really not like to try to take a horse through it.

It's (necessarily, given motorway restrictions) in underpasses under the M11 and the northwestern looping slip road, but on the other side you get to run across (from recollection) a total of five lanes on three carriageways of very fast road, with an entirely un-signposted (and quite counter-intuitive) direction change from one carriageway to the next to catch you out part way through.

This is probably not the place to rant about the cost-cutting use of on-carriageway footpath and bridleway crossings on the A14...

This junction is just a mess in my opinion, if you want to get to the small village of madingley when comeing north you have to follow the a14 going east then loop round to the main road out of cambridge entering in the outside lane cross to the inside lane, the a14 from the east then joins and you have to cross that before having to break before the very tight spur off to madingley. I mean i know it's not normal to want to go there from the north but it is completly lethal way in which hey have made it possible.

They should buldoze the thing and start again it seems the only way to get rid of the mess.

While this junction isnt the greatest, it is not so bad.

The weaving section (the worst part of the junction by far) and the southbound - eastbound sliproad have two lanes, not one. The only place this junction has one lane is between the northbound - eastbound loop and the A1307 merge.

Also, there is one good thing about this junction - the acceleration and deceleration lanes. These are extremely effective at slowing and accelerating traffic at loops and merges.

All that needs doing to this junction is a loop from the westbound - southbound slip and the A1307. As Martin says, this junction rarely gets completly logjammed. Instead of adding lanes to the A14 to the north the Cambridge - St Ives rail line should be extended up to Huntingdon instead of the stupid guided bus.

No one has defended this junction, you say. And I'm not surprised, it's a navigational shambles - at one point there were two signs which simply said "A14" while pointing in completely opposite directions...

However, it rarely seems to get completely logjammed, and it has one redeeming feature - for motorcyclists at least.

Head westbound down the A14, round the uphill spiral to join the northbound A14, then immediately join the downhill spiral to join the A14 again, this time eastbound. 540 degrees of challenging cornering, and great fun...

Perhaps someone in the planning department rides a bike?