M42 - A446 - A4097 Comments

What are you all whining about.I think this is a brilliant junctions. I have been travelling to the West Midlands for a few years now and regularly used this junctions to leave the M42 southbound and head to Sutton Coldfield and never had any problems. On approach pick the right lane and keep to it and the markings spit you off at the correct exit. BRILLIANT. No looking over your shoulder hoping the HGV moves over etc.

I am now a driving instructor and regularly take pupils over this from all directions and they can manage it even when they are only told to follow the signs to which ever destination I pick.

My only gripe would be the lights. It doesn't matter how hard you try, you can't get round in one go. You always get stopped somewhere while going round. Stephen Hawking must have worked out the timings...

It's the traffic island of natural selection. It favours the strong and roots out the weak! Great island (if you know where you're going).

I think it's got lots of character.

I have been unfortunate to live to the north of this junction and travel over it, around it, through it, on a daily basis. Yes, the signage is appaling to the uninitiated, and I am really surprised than shunts and bumps are not more frequent. I have only been hit once in six years of using it - not bad eh?

The junction is at its worst of a weekday winter's morning when the junction is always gridlocked and traffic backs up in all directions. Being a morning Radio FiveLive junkie, I am always amused when the airwaves inform me that "the lights are out on J9 of the M42, approach with care!". Without exception though, the failure of the lights means that the traffic will be flowing freely around the junction and there will be no delays at all. Can this be right?

I live in Tamworth and work in Birmingham. Yeh... Dunton Island is appalling - you remember that night in about 2001 - a Thursday night, when we all sat in traffic at Dunton Island for 4 hours? Left work at 5pm, home at 10pm.

Although it's signalised - I'd say it's no worse than others on the network - indeed isn't 5 lanes on the highway a blessing rather than a hindrance? Plus if you stick to the same lane all the way round you can't go wrong. Indeed it should be praised - it's the only place in the UK I've seen dark blue lane markings! Loads of 'em!

Really it should have been made a "magic roundabout" when the Toll was built, but even now I'd say it's an average rather than bad junction.

It's not 4 lanes, it's 5 lanes. And it is truly a nightmare. I have never been able to go round it properly, which is mostly due to the signage showing destinations on the top tier, road numbers on the middle tier, and lanes on the bottom tier: all of which you're meant to be able to take in.

Your chance of picking the wrong lane is 80% but feels like certainty.

The traffic lights, what a joke - I work nights at the Belfry and go home via this island. I quite simply pay them no attention as they keep running even when the traffic is down to 3 vehicles per minute and you can very easily see if something's coming with your own two eyes (despite the constructor's apparent best efforts to block this). One of these days a policeman may collar me but I don't think he'll be too serious about pressing charges.

This has changed again since the report above [September 2004]. From the looks of things, the abbreviated place names are being eradicated (still a couple left), and Lichfield is signed down the A446 again.

I agree Dunton island must be a nightmare for newcomers, but once you get used to the layout it actually seems very easy and logical. My main gripe is the blasted traffic lights! Nine times out of ten, if I'm going through all or most of them, they'll ALL change to red as I approach. God I hate them...

In recent weeks [October 2003] the signs at this crazy junction have changed, some of the old abbreviations: "COV" etc remain but references to Lichfield have gone and been replaced by Wishaw, a tiny village near the Belfry. This seems like an attempt to send people up the toll road for about 4 miles and charge them.

No one has jumped to the defence of this junction because there is no defence for it! It is a disastrous bodge - bad enough before the M6 Toll steamrollered through, indefinitely more terrifying now. And as for those abbreviations - I live reasonably locally and it was only through this website that I discovered that "K'by" stood for Kingsbury.