Why are there so many accidents between J18 & J19 of the M6

[MCFCTrick]

Its part of a restricted average speed limit stretch though isnt it, as opposed to a national speed limit?

Nope ... that is in the opposite direction ...

 

[1961_vintage]

J15 is always an accident flashpoint. It's haunted I'm sure.

The M6 carries a huge volume of traffic, including a considerable amount of heavy goods vehicles. The flow isn't helped by those HGV's who think they are not quite so heavy overtaking those that they think are genuinely heavy, taking 5 miles to do so and therefore reducing the motorway to a single lane for everyone else.

 

[DenisLawBackHeel74]

It's a great topic OP and totally baffles me. I live a couple of miles from J20 and can confirm there are a ridiculous amounts of accidents along this stretch of perfectly straight motorway

 

[Patientman63]

I spend most of my life on the M6. There are many reasons for the state of this road imo, not least:

The motorway is 3 lanes wide, with the inside two permanently filled with lorries, hence all the cars (and white van man) are trying to make headway in the outside lane, which in effect makes it a single lane road for anything but lorries.

Due to the number of vehicles on the motorway, they are too close together at too high a speed. One person not paying attention and having to hit their brakes late will surely lead to a multi car shunt.

The motorway is busy Sunday afternoons/Monday morning as all those who work down south make their journey down, and the reverse on Friday afternoons as they all come home. Add to that the daily rush hour shenanigans, bank holidays and summer holidays, and throw into the pot almost permanent roadworks...

Solutions? Well, its futile to think the number of cars on the road will reduce, so:

• Widen the road to four lanes, and make the lorries only use the inside two, or even better, widen to 5 lanes.

• Stagger work start times and do away with traditional "weekends" ie: some people work Wednesday to Sunday as a working week, having Monday and Tuesday off.

• Improve the railways and stick the goods that the lorries carry onto the tracks, a get a good portion of the lorries off the roads.

• Lorries cause 80% of the damage to the road surface. Fewer lorries means less damage to the road surface means less roadworks.

 

[mcfcphil]

The northbound entry slip road at Stoke is very short and after you have to slow down to about 30mph due to the very sharp bend on the approach. You simply have to put your foot down and get up to speed quickly but some drivers dither. So you've got slow drivers in the inside lane and lorries already on the motorway having to quickly move to the middle lane to overtake them. It's a recipe for disaster.

 

[NPBlue]

The Bredbury junction was a temporary measure that was never put right
There was a thread on here a while ago and someone posted a link to a site that showed Britain's unfinished motorway junctions
The three in the Manchester area were, Bredbury and the top and bottom of the M67

Back to the M6
The stretch from Junct 16 Stoke to Junc 19 is deemed as the most dangerous piece motorway in Britain. Experts were flummoxed why a straight few miles of motorway could incur so many accidents. But there are issues
You have all the Cheshire towns that border the M6, so from coming up from Staffs and countryside, the motorway from 16 becomes much busier.
Sandbach and Knutsford services are only a few hundred yards away from junctions. Knutsford being ridiculously dangerous as every **** in a car wants to travel at 70mph to get to the sliproad at 19 and try to pull in at the last minute
Hopefully when the by pass is completed it will alleviate a number of the problems

All it will do is move the problem elsewhere, probably making things much worse on the M56 in Sharston.

I remember when they expanded the M60 a decade ago from 2 lanes to 3 around Sale, and all it resulted in was increased tailbacks around the Trafford Centre and slower speeds for everyone.

It's all piecemeal, just shunting a problem from one area to another, without any real thought behind it.

It's costing us £191m to pay for that link road from the M6 to the M56, and all it will do is make journey times slower at peak times on the M56 into Manchester because the powers that be haven't addressed the real problem of the 2 lane link between the M56 and the M60 through Sharston causing such a bottleneck.

And if they expand that stretch of road to 3 lanes, it will just make things worse elsewhere.

What we ought to return to is local work a couple of miles away from where we live.

I was listening to a programme on the radio a few months ago about traffic, and someone from the Department of Transport, or whatever it is called these days, said the number of vehicles on the road hasn't expanded that much since 2005, the increase in traffic is due to people travelling further to get to work.

 

[dickie davies]

All it will do is move the problem elsewhere, probably making things much worse on the M56 in Sharston.

I remember when they expanded the M60 a decade ago from 2 lanes to 3 around Sale, and all it resulted in was increased tailbacks around the Trafford Centre and slower speeds for everyone.

It's all piecemeal, just shunting a problem from one area to another, without any real thought behind it.

It's costing us £191m to pay for that link road from the M6 to the M56, and all it will do is make journey times slower at peak times on the M56 into Manchester because the powers that be haven't addressed the real problem of the 2 lane link between the M56 and the M60 through Sharston causing such a bottleneck.

And if they expand that stretch of road to 3 lanes, it will just make things worse elsewhere.

What we ought to return to is local work a couple of miles away from where we live.

I was listening to a programme on the radio a few months ago about traffic, and someone from the Department of Transport, or whatever it is called these days, said the number of vehicles on the road hasn't expanded that much since 2005, the increase in traffic is due to people travelling further to get to work.

and the government cancelled lots of road projects but this link road, which just happens to be in George Osbourne's constituency, still went ahead

 

[birdbrain]

2.5 hrs from Cannock to Winsford yesterday afternoon , got off at 14, normally 18, cross country to Nantwich then Winsford, Nantwich was gridlocked as everybody else getting off at 16.
I always try and get off the M6 as soon as possible, to be honest fro. Brum to Blackpool its a mess!

 

[oakiecokie]

2.5 hrs from Cannock to Winsford yesterday afternoon , got off at 14, normally 18, cross country to Nantwich then Winsford, Nantwich was gridlocked as everybody else getting off at 16.
I always try and get off the M6 as soon as possible, to be honest fro. Brum to Blackpool its a mess!

What time was that mate.We got on at J15 at 2.50 pm and were quite fortunate getting off at J16 Crewe with the slip road fairy heavy,due to the traffic lights at the roundabout.Got into Winsford at 4.10 pm,so I`m assuming you hit it pretty late on then.

 

[Bluemanc100]

J15 is always an accident flashpoint. It's haunted I'm sure.

The M6 carries a huge volume of traffic, including a considerable amount of heavy goods vehicles. The flow isn't helped by those HGV's who think they are not quite so heavy overtaking those that they think are genuinely heavy, taking 5 miles to do so and therefore reducing the motorway to a single lane for everyone else.

Its not haunted but on both carriageways the exits were designed by idiots.. the Northbound in particular where the run off is short and the bend fucking ridiculous... its a deterrent to stop people visiting Stoke... fucking shit-tip