A45 - A46
You are here: Home » Bad Junctions » A45-A46
Ordnance Survey map Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
The original beginning of Coventry's 1930s southern bypass, and now also the point the 1990s eastern bypass ends too. The A45 enters from the M45.
It was nominated by Phil Deer.
What's wrong with it?
It's a roundabout. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that; roundabouts are fine, generally speaking. It's just that this one is not quite up to the job. The roads meeting there are too busy for it. It's now festooned with a merry-looking garland of traffic lights, and it has broad three or four lane approaches from all directions. But it's not big enough to be signalised really, so all the stop lines are too close together and when waiting to join there's more road signing than you can read before the lights go green and you have to take a chance. It's not pretty.
Why is it wrong?
To the north lies a recently built bypass of Coventry, leading directly to the M6 and M69 and carrying an awful lot of traffic. To the west lies the southern bypass, with some grade separation and an awful lot of traffic. To the east lies the A45, the main road towards London, which becomes the M45 after a while, and carries an awful lot of traffic. All three work perfectly well until they collide at this little thing, with a couple of local roads thrown in for fun. It's just not enough for the amount of traffic that needs to pass through.
What would be better?
The Highways Agency plan to grade separate this in a few years time, so there is clearly a god of some sort. The trouble is they will only build a roundabout interchange - not ideal for this location - and can't decide whether west-north or west-east will get the underpass. Perhaps a better solution would be a small free-flowing junction, and the local roads can be rerouted elsewhere.
Right to reply
Hate this junction? Or do you think it hasn't had a fair trial? Make yourself heard! Post a comment.
These are the most recent comments on this junction. You can see all comments if you prefer.
MackH has big plans:
This junction has always been bad, once again the planners think that by slowing the traffic, using lights or roundabouts, that there will be a safe solution to problem junctions. Light free, roundabout free, multi level juctions are required to all of the A45 from the M45 to Birmingham.
An ex-Coventrian allows bad memories to resurface:
I can remember when it had no lights: aaagh! I was making weekly visits to Walsgrave so had to use it. Last weekend I was just entering the A45, heading for the Warwick bypass, when the three lanes suddenly became two and I was in the middle, with a car alongside. Not nice. I thought I'd got it right for once.
Dmitriy wants rid of it:
This was, indeed, a suicide island before they introduced traffic lights. It is somewhat better now.
The main problem is that A46 is an important connection between M40 and M6/M69. In particular, a lot of HGVs negotiate it in this direction. This roundabout is only one in a sequence of five that have to be negotiated. The optimal solution would really be to extend M69 and get rid of all five roundabouts.
Derek Grange is a changed man:
I worked on the roundabout a couple of years ago (part of the pre-works for the improvements) - it was horrific! One day we noticed that the lights had failed, and barely had the words "this is an accident waiting to happen" left my mouth, before it had happened! I used to take the back roads out of there each night rather than risk my neck on suicide island. Over the course of a week there were four crashes (including a BMW totalling one of the many sets of traffic lights), numerous near misses and a car fire. (OK, probably not the roundabout's fault.)
Jane makes special plans to save herself from the full horror:
Getting onto Rowley Road from the A46 in the mornings, even as early as 07.20, can be a bit of a nightmare. You have to get in the right lane! Getting from Rowley Rd to the A46 in the evening is an absolute nightmare, traffic from Siskin Drive blocks traffic from Rowley Road. Lorries block exit and entrance. They just sit there, blocking the way from the mini to the main roundabout. It took me nearly 25 minutes one Friday evening just to get from Rowley Road to the A46! I plan my departure from work very carefully now, either 15 minutes to or 15 minutes after the hour, be that 16.00, 17.00 or 18.00.
See all 12 comments about this junction »
With thanks to Phil Deer and Nic Storr for information on this page.
