So, the A12 has been named the worst road in Britain this week, by Cornhill Direct, in a survey of 4,000 drivers.
Apparently suffering from huge potholes and being often closed for roadworks, the 135-mile trunk road from London to Great Yarmouth pipped the M8, A30, A361, M6, M5, A338, A525, and the M74 to the title. A section from the A120 slip-road to Colchester was also singled out for a high accident rate.
I’m not sure about the worst, but it’s certainly one of the slowest. I used to traverse it frequently, first coming up from Kent, and then south-east London every weekend. I find the southern most parts fine, although there are too many noise-inducing and unpleasant concrete sections. The most offending part of the road though, is the 45-mile section north from my home town of Ipswich.
Travelling from the county town of Suffolk to Lowestoft, where my family is based, can, on very bad days take ninety minutes. I’ve sat behind many a tractor, lorry, and caravan going to picture postcard Southwold. The opportunities to overtake are very few and far between.
A single carriageway layout is to blame. Numerous dualling campaigns have failed. Although small parts of the road are two lanes, surely the marriage of the twenty-first century and the main trunk route from the capital to Suffolk should result in the happy union of more dualled stretches?
Very scenic though the road is, it is the main route not only for freight and local traffic, but also for tourists, who quite rightly, are given the impression that the most easterly towns in Britain are the hardest to get to.
Tentative bypasses at Wrentham and Yoxford have been bypassed in recent years. But, the road is due to get a multi-lane injection between Chelmsford and the M25, with plans to widen most stretches to six lanes. With all sorts of green issues being raised, and traffic increasing to use these new lanes, this solution is far from ideal.
Apart from making the trains even more overcrowded, and resistance from the public to give up the freedom the car still affords them, what is the correct long-term plan?
It pains me to say it - especially as I was recently one of the 1.7 million travel tax e-petition signatories - but does the Government really have something in road-pricing after all?