Get Your Kicks on the A38(M)
You are here: Home - Media - Video - Get Your Kicks on the A38(M)
Probably the most unique urban motorway in the whole country, the A38(M) Aston Expressway is our only tidal flow motorway, connecting the centre of Birmingham to the M6. One broad seven-lane carriageway carries six lanes of moving traffic. When it's quiet, it has three lanes each way with the centre lane used as a buffer between opposing directions.
In the morning and evening peak periods, electronic lane signals make four lanes available to the busiest direction, with a buffer lane and two lanes for the other direction. It had been open for almost two decades before the tidal flow was used for the first time, but it now operates twice a day.
This video takes you from the M6 eastbound, over the top of the famous Spaghetti Junction, south along the A38(M), and then doubles back to do the whole thing again northbound. It ends with a trip through the middle of Spaghetti Junction to rejoin the M6 eastbound.
With thanks to Steven Jukes, who was driving.
- Video captured
- 11 October 2003
- Running time
- 6'11"