I’m in Leeds today. Last night we drove up from Leicester, through about 30 miles of 50mph roadworks and drove around the city, trying to find a route to our venue, eventually arriving after accidentally (honest) driving up a Buses and Taxi only lane. The thing I have found about Leeds is that I can often see where I need to be but because of the severely restricted roads, can’t find a way to it.
Over the years, I’ve driven in Rome, Paris, Madrid, LA and apart from Athens, some of the world’s worst cities for vehicles and Leeds is right up there with the most difficult to navigate. Your stories of driving hell please.
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Jim Cain says
I’d go with Leeds too. Drove to Leeds festival a few years ago and got completely lost.
SixDog says
Istanbul or Moscow.
Both absolutely insane.
They make Mumbai look like a quiet Sunday country drive through the New Forest.
hubert rawlinson says
Sheffield last night, new layout found the city hall by default. Last year got a fine for a short and accidental drive in a bus lane in Sheffield. My ex partner managed to drive up a tram lane there.
Where were you heading for in Leeds @davebigpicture ?
davebigpicture says
Park Plaza Hotel. If you stand with your back to The Queens Hotel by the station you can see it. Driving there is another matter.
Native says
Yes, I live in Leeds and the Park Plaza is a killer to get to by car. I have a few ‘bus lane’ fines to my name after having to drive there a few years ago for a work event.
Black Celebration says
Portsmouth. One false move and you’re in John O’Groats.
GCU Grey Area says
Or in the sea.
I love the way the A3 stops/starts at the water’s edge, at a slipway. Excellent fish and chips in the Still and West pub there.
Portsmouth is one of those places where you really have to be in the right lane.
http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums/t449/GCU_Grey_Area/portsmouth-1_zpsxb2cdtdh.jpg
Rigid Digit says
Don’t I know it – what I thought to be a simple exit from the City Centre (“it’s just one road” I said confidently after consulting the map), turned into a 50 minute round trip, revisiitng several roundabouts and landmarks.
And then when I did find the road out, the signposting was so bad I ended up on the M27 to Southampton, rather than the A3(M).
WI don’t think I’ve ever approached Fratton Park from the same direction. Likewise Hayling Island or Southsea. Maybe I’m just missing something, but I am convinced I’ve travelled a different route every time.
Black Celebration says
Yes, I had fish and chips in that very pub with my brother and my daughter in 2012. It was a horrible day – but they had a roaring fire on the go and lovely ale.
policybloke says
The Still and West is the better of the two pubs there, as we found to our cost. I should have asked the ex-member of the AW, who’s local the Still and West is, before I went. If you are still keeping an eye on us, Lenny, Hi.
Twang says
Nottingham. Utter nightmare.
seanioio says
Lancaster.
I drove up for a gig & didn’t get out of the one way system til 3 weeks later*
*slight exaggeration
Gary says
Naples. Mad city, mad driving.
Malc says
Agreed. I’ve only been in taxis in Naples but it was never less than terrifying.
Steerpike says
Delhi takes some beating. Navigating round cattle being herded up the wrong side of main roads or guys atop elephants, also on the wrong side makes for interesting journeys. Roadworks too are undertaken in cavalier fashion. It’s not uncommon to to be surprised by a JCB digging a hole in a dual carriageway with not a warning sign or traffic cone in evidence.
policybloke says
All urban areas are nightmares, if you are a stranger, and only roughly know your destination. In these situations, satnav is your friend. When you are used to the route, you can be as blasé as the locals. That said, I don’t enjoy driving in major conurbations, especially that London, but don’t have lot of recent experience in other cities. I drove through Auckland once, and was amazed at the traffic congestion, which was as bad as anything the North Circular can offer on a Friday night.
JustB says
I’ve got lost in Sunderland about three times. You think you’re about right, and suddenly you’re in a howling wasteland and have become a character in The Gulag Archipelago, so you turn left and you’re back in town. Then one wrong turn and you’re a bearded, desperate dissident with a waist length beard driving across the tundra once more.
It’s confusing.
Captain Haddock says
I think you may have got confused. The howling wasteland you found yourself in is in fact Sunderland itself.
JustB says
Aha! Pro tip. Thanks, Cap’n.
Jim Cain says
I had a gig in Sunderland once, and got lost on the way. To be fair it was my own fault. Ever the optimist, I just had the name of the venue and assumed I’d spot it if I drove round.
fortuneight says
In the UK it’s mostly congestion and one way systems that make life miserable. My experience of Leeds and Nottingham accords with what has been said above, and I’ve had similar experiences in Birmingham trying to find the Carling Academy and being able to see, but not not find a road leading to the Crowne Plaza.
In LA and Chicago I’ve abandoned trips to visit places either because the traffic was so bad, or I couldn’t find anywhere to park. I’ve never driven in Bangalore or Manilla, but have had many “I’m about to die” moments despite being driven by drivers chosen for their ability to drive in a manner suitable to sissy westerners. I had to visit a plant that’s a 5 hour drive from Manilla, of which 3 hours is going up the side of a mountain – I still have nightmares and flashbacks of passing tuk-tuks on blind bends, finding children and workmen in the middle of the road as we roared up at over 80kph.
fortuneight says
No-idea why I gave Manila and extra “l”.
duco01 says
Toulouse. Driving there was no fun.
davebigpicture says
A couple of colleagues got lost in Toulouse and had to be rescued by the police. They found themselves in a huge housing estate with the locals sizing up the van. The police insisted they sleep in the van outside the cop shop.
Kaisfatdad says
I heard a tale about a Swedish couple who had hired a car in Brazil and had to return it at Sao Paolo airport. The road system was so impenetrable that in the end they hailed a taxi and got him to drive to the airport with them following in the car.
Ingenious.
Raymond says
We made a big mistake on a family holiday a few years ago when we somehow managed to time our drive into Valencia with the middle of the rush hour.
Only six road rules applied:
1. Drive fast
2. Use your horn
3. Traffic lanes are for pussies
4. Don’t flinch
5. Speed up a bit
6. Use your horn again
Rigid Digit says
Reading is pretty bad.
In the 70s, Town Planners had the smart idea of building a Ring Road/By Pass right through the centre of the Town (it’s not yet a city, despite what the buses say).
To drive from Earley (in the south) to Caversham (in the north), a distance of about 5 miles, often takes about 20 minutes (an average speed of 4mph).
It can be done quicker – but probably only between 10pm and 6am
count jim moriarty says
Leeds is bad, but I don’t drive there myself so it’s bot something I ever experience.
However, I have driven round in circles in Newcastle – impenetrable road system. Drove up for a gig at the City Hall, and took an age to find somewhere to park. It took even longer to find the car again afterwards!
Rigid Digit says
Thing that struck me about Newcastle (or the bit I was in anyway) was despite my confusion of Reading having it’s Ring Road through the centre, Newcastle appeared to have a Motorway.
JQW says
That’s the utterly bonkers Central Motorway, which has exits and entrances on the wrong side, some obviously unfinished junctions, and a section where the southbound carriageway runs underneath the northbound one.
It also has gone under three different numbers over the years to confuse things further.
There’s more on it here:
http://pathetic.org.uk/current/a167m/
Rigid Digit says
Brilliantly mad (yet also relatively sensible?) Road Planning.
I haven’t clicked the link yet, because Pathetic Motorways is a site where I get lost for about 3 days.
Also end up spending too much time here:
http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/
and here:
http://www.ukmotorwayarchive.org/
and here:
http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/
ratbiter says
Miami is bad. There’s no rule against under-taking on the freeway, and speed limits are more like guidelines, so you have people hurtling past you on both sides. When you signal to change to lanes, drivers will speed up to block you in. A red light doesn’t mean “stop”, it means “two more cars”.
I’ve never met a driver from Turiff who was sane. Small town, crazy drivers.
Nairobi is the worst though. No lane discipline, no patience, no concept of “right of way”, cattle on the main road, crazy matatu drivers, traffic lights that are ignored and police waiting for the slightest infraction so they can pull you over and extract “kitu kidogu” (a little something). Add in the sheer volume of traffic, and it’s a nightmare. It took us two hours to drive 30km from the airport to our house on Monday; the flight from Mombasa had only taken us 45 minutes.
duco01 says
I’d never heard of Turiff.
I had to look it up on Wikipedia to find out where it is.
Thankfully I won’t need to drive there – probably not ever.
Milkybarnick says
Brighton can be frustrating. I live in Redhill which is 35 miles or so north of the city of Brighton and Hove. It takes an hour or so to get to the outskirts (basically where the A27 cuts across the A23 near Patcham. It can then take the same time again (quite easily on a bad day) to get through Preston Park and into Brighton itself. Never sure if it’s the roundabout by the pier that does it, but it can be a nightmare. Have tried other ways in too (Dyke road etc).
One I remember from being a kid is Rouen. We passed through Rouen on the way to the west coast of France on a stinking hot day driving from Calais. I was the only person in the car who could speak French. It took two hours to get out of the city. Think we missed it out on the way back.
Milkybarnick says
Incidentally I couldn’t speak much French either. And it didn’t help.
Fifer says
Agree totally about the frustrations of driving in Brighton – especially if you have to go anywhere near the Front. There always seem to be roadworks and/or traffic light failures there, not to mention the tourists. We have to go to the east side of town every week for my appointment with the Torturer-in-Chief (my dancing instructor). Coming in from the Devils Dyke, I have developed a complicated route which involves doubling back, side roads and residential streets as well as an interminable stretch of a 20 mph zone. The final leg involves driving past the University with all its wonderful students who clearly haven’t done Highway Code 101. It is about twice as long as the direct route, but takes half the time.
ip33 says
I work in Hove and Brighton is not brilliant, I don’t think you are a proper driver unless you have been around Seven Dials or the Vogue Gyratory system on a Friday evening!
Here’s the only the only Gyratory System I like
Native says
Bucharest is just madness. 85% of the cars on the road are bashed in wrecks any way, so they see the odd bump as normal.
fentonsteve says
Cambridge. I live on the outskirts. I bought a bicycle within a week of starting a new job in town.
ianess says
I took a taxi from my Rome hotel to the airport. When the friendly driver found out I’d been to see Neil Young the night before, he turned completely around to chat about music with me while still driving headlong into what appeared to be a mass of traffic converging from six different directions. I was rigid with fear, but managed to scream. He looked on me pityingly and continued to drive facing backwards for most of the journey.
johnw says
Boston, MA. All those tunnels mean the sat nav doesn’t know where you are and you exit the tunnel needing to be in the correct lane. You take a wrong turn and by the time the recalculation is done, you’re down another tunnel! In Boston’s defence, we were trying to get to the airport after taking an intentional scenic detour because we had “plenty of time” so we weren’t using our planned route… also it was rush hour and there was a Red Sox game on that evening so some roads were closed.
Mike_H says
There’s a spot right in the centre of Luton where my SatNav always used to completely lose the plot, requiring a reset.
I’ve had a few nightmare journeys in the London area in the past. It once took me 3 hours to drive out of town from Victoria to Watford in a surprise snowstorm.
Worst of the lot was getting caught in a blizzard on the A1 out past Stevenage travelling home from work at a health spa in Henlow.
We knew we were in serious trouble when, after crawling at less than walking pace for over an hour we saw a snowplough on it’s side in a ditch. An uphill stretch just before Welwyn Garden City was so icy that vehicles had to be pushed up one by one by the drivers who were stuck behind.
We were starting to get a bit low on petrol and didn’t fancy being stuck on the A1 when it ran out, so we came off at WGC to try to find an alternative route. All the road signs were so caked in snow my passenger had to get out and thump them to clear the snow before we knew which turning to take.
We got stuck at one point behind a big artic, blocking a mini roundabout on an uphill stretch. There was a big old recovery truck trying to tow it, but the recovery truck burnt out it’s tyres in the process as it’s wheels spun. We finally got past and eventually arrived at a Tesco superstore near Hatfield, where we thought we might get some fuel, but it’s filling station was closed for refurbishment and the slope back up to the road was too steep to get back up anyway.
We ended up sleeping in the car until morning, when a chap with a Land Rover towed us up the hill to the road. I finally got home at 10am and retired to bed, having left work at 4pm. A 16-hour trip.
badartdog says
‘we knew we were in serious trouble … ‘ – loved that bit. A tale, well-told.
davidks says
@johnw
Yes, Boston.
We were travelling back to the airport after a great family holiday in July. After many wrong turns, missed exits, sat nav lost in tunnels, my kids learnt some new words and phrases, mainly “For fuck’s sake, where the fucking fuck are we?”
badartdog says
Much much smaller scale, but St Ives, Cornwall on a busy summer week-end afternoon is quite scary, narrow streets, tight corners, up and down, streets with two or three names (it seemed) and millions of people strolling along. Love the place – when I’m walking.
andielou says
Yes, & it’s a total bastard for parking.
badartdog says
True. I recommend leaving it in the rugby club – £5 for 24 hrs, then get their bus down to the Tate/Porthmeor for a quid.
Jackthebiscuit says
Manchester – I hate driving in fucking Manchester.
SteveT says
Funnily enough considering where you started from for me Leicester takes some beating. That Narborough road approaching the City Centre is a nightmare of stop-start and if you are in the wrong lane totally unforgiving.
Generally find US cities with their grid systems to be a lot easier as if you make a wrong turn you can generally recover at the next intersection – New Orleans however is totally different to most other US cities sand more difficult as a result.
paulwright says
Bradford is not confusing, but the standard of driving is up with Istanbul and Cairo – red lights appear to be merely advisory. As is which side of the road to drive.
Birmingham is the place I cannot get my head round (though I also can’t think of how to actually drive to the Park Plaza in Leeds – it is a train destination). In Brum I always seem to be on a dual carriageway with no exits when I see my destination whizzing by. 30 minutes later it is the same from another point of view.
To avoid this I took the train for my last trip. Coming out of the “new” New Street Station (which is stylishly decorated with plain white hordings unencumbered by such distracting things as signs) I typed “holiday inn” into google maps and set off on a 20 minute hike. To be told that my real destination was the other Holiday Inn (not the Express) – which you can’t miss because it is next to New Street Station. Different transportation – same effect.
el toro says
Birmingham’s road system is currently even more fucked up due to some long term roadworks which have closed a number of roads around the city centre while they reconfigure part of the ring road.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
Moscow. Particularly in ice and snow.
Atlantis is also a bit tricky.
ianess says
Atlantis? Astral travel, I presume.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
No, it’s the the shortest direct route to El Dorado.
Roads in Machu Picchu are rubbish, so I am told. Haven’t been myself.
SteveT says
There is only one road in Machu Picchu as I recall – it goes from the station to the main entrance to the ruins. Of course most people arrive on foot and leave by train dso not that much call for cars.
chiz says
The main street in Aguas Calientes is the train line. You sit at a pavement cafe with 12 coaches rattling by six feet from your beer.
dai says
Worst place ever Catania in Sicily. 5 cars abreast trying to get down 2 lane loads, cars with their fronts hangong off, red lights and speed limits ignored. Roads falling apart.
About 100 times worse than Leeds where the correct thing to do is get the train and walk everywhere from the very central station.
davebigpicture says
I’d love to take the train but I always have at least half a Sprinter sized van load of equipment. When I retire, I’m severely restricting the amount of driving I need to do. When we go away on holiday my wife says she’s having a holiday from housework so I’ve started insisting on me not driving.
chiz says
I was in Delhi on Thursday and made a little film from the back of a tuk-tuk during an exciting ride across the city. There are no apparent rules of the road but lots of conventions which local people understand, most of them to do with blowing your horn and then doing whatever the hell you like. Seemed like chaos to me but it was strangely invigorating.