M6 - A683

Your discussion on the M6 junction at Lancaster doesn't offer any recognition for the alterations which have been made there over the last 18 months. Although I agree that the junction hasn't essentially changed it has been fitted with longer, wider, more flowing sliproads and a dual carriageway on the northbound exit.

As a regular user of this junction I can confirm that what Stuart says is true about the recent improvements made to the Northbound exit. However the Northbound entrance slip road is still horrendously difficult to negotiate. No sooner do you make the bend than the slip is finished and you are forced to take your chances at getting on the M6.

I understand from speaking to people at the Highways Agency that there have been tentative plans made to extend the slip road over the River Lune (also the Southbound exit), but that this could be included as part of the works to create a new junction to the proposed Lancaster Northern bypass.

I'm a very confident driver, but I find this junction quite terrifying. The real problem is that it is located in a valley, with a bridge over the River Lune immediately to the North. This appears to have prevented the construction of proper acceleration/deceleration lanes on the northern side.

When travelling from the North and leaving the M6, it is best to begin to slow some time before the exit lane begins (i.e. while still on the motorway!), as the exit corner is very, very tight. Far worse, however, is the the fact that when joining the M6 to go North, there are just a few metres of space to gain speed before joinging the left hand lane of the motorway. This lies at the bottom of a long hill (for traffic already on the motorway), so that you find yourself immediately deposited into the path of trucks coming down the side of the valley. I've always been lucky and happened to arrive when there's a space, but surely there have been some very near misses on this one!

As a regular user of the M6 north and south for the past 15 years I find that if I am travelling north I always use the Carnforth junction (J35).

It may add 15 minutes to your journey for most but it cuts out the risk of being plunged into the river Lune by a large lorry or slammed into the side by a non attention paying, underskilled driver who hasn't got the forsight to move out into the middle lane.

When traveling south most have to take the gamble, including me, when entering the motorway at J34 but at least there is a field to be rammed into rather than the river.

When travelling back from the south I find that the junction sliproad is too short, proof being in the amount of chevrons that are damaged and replaced, and the recent introduction of flexible ones, which now mean they don't stop you if you are going too fast, but you plough into anyone getting on the motorway going north.

I hope the introduction of the northern bypass, which includes the redevelopment of this junction, will make Lancaster drivers feel safer getting on and off at this junction.

Having lived in Lancaster for some time now I am all too aware of the dangers of the slip road on to the M6 north. The main problems are as others have pointed out; the slower, cautious driver attempting to get on to the motorway at less than 50mph (I've seen some drivers stop at the end of the slip road to wait for a reasonable gap to get onto the first lane!) and the empty head driver travelling north in the first lane who fails to acknowledge the slip road and adjoining traffic at all. Until this junction is structurally rectified it would seem reasonable to consider closing the first lane to traffic immediately after the exit to Lancaster 500 yards earlier. This would require all traffic to enter into the second and third lanes for say 600 or 800 yards and thus allow traffic to enter the motorway from the slip road without fear of being rammed by traffic from the rear.