Anyone else find driving into Leeds is awful

jonnyburgo · October 2023

Went to visit son at Uni on Saturday, this is our second time going, what an awful city, the road layouts are like someone threw cooked spaghetti into the air and just left it as it landed, every junction has like 3 options all next to each other, but maybe 1 or two will be no entry, in fact no entry signs everywhere, totally over stimulating, busy busy, cars beeping, people getting angry, mad overtakers. I hate driving into Leeds. Awful.

Reverend · October 2023

Surely not as bad as arriving in Leeds?

DefaultM · October 2023

Yeah it’s so shit even the sat navs get confused. You’ll be driving down a straight road and it will tell you to take a left at a non existent roundabout. When you don’t it just says recalculating at you over and over cos it’s no idea where you are.

I wanted to take my daughter to the museum a few months ago but there was a closed lane and diversion near the train station. It took me completely out of the city for 15 minutes before bringing me back in about a metre from where I’d just been.

thecolourbox · October 2023

If it's anything like Birmingham, then it's almost certainly by design in order to reduce the amount of traffic coming in (or in the case of Birmingham they just want to charge you for coming through, so they make all alternative routes a nightmare to use with roadworks, diversions, new one way systems and "bus gates" whatever the hell that is), therefore they can charge people with older cars for using the shortest routes through the city

Funkfingers · October 2023

Bus gates are stretches of road that only buses, taxis and any other authorised vehicles are supposed to use. In theory, these ease the effects of congestion for them.

vasselmeyer · October 2023

Why not use the Leeds Park & Ride service?

https://www.wymetro.com/park-and-ride/

EricTheWeary · October 2023

My son was at uni there and the city is a complete mess in terms of it’s road system. Seemed to be endless roadworks as well.

Although it does seem to have a good share of quite nice looking buildings you can glance at and the indoor market is quite cool as well.

His graduation was in the big arena place and the parking is in that multi storey which is in a flyover and possibly the nastiest car park I’ve ever had to use.

sev112 · October 2023

jonnyburgo said:

Went to visit son at Uni on Saturday, this is our second time going, what an awful city, the road layouts are like someone threw cooked spaghetti into the air and just left it as it landed, every junction has like 3 options all next to each other, but maybe 1 or two will be no entry, in fact no entry signs everywhere, totally over stimulating, busy busy, cars beeping, people getting angry, mad overtakers. I hate driving into Leeds. Awful.

Not as bad as trying to get into a taxi …

DefaultM · October 2023

I used to park on a bit of wasteland outside the city centre at 6:30 and have a 20 minute walk rather than drive in and pay to park. Saved a fortune and I once saw a donkey having a wander around Crown Point.

thecolourbox · October 2023

Funkfingers said:

Bus gates are stretches of road that only buses, taxis and any other authorised vehicles are supposed to use. In theory, these ease the effects of congestion for them.

In Brum, they seem to be this but also they seem to be traps which stop you getting to where you need to go, either causing you to get a fine if you don't see the sign, or a 15 minute diversion to get to the point you wish to be at which was only 100 yards away before

blobb · October 2023

Yup. My No1 bad road city. The only other place that comes close is Coventry ring road - but that's so bad it's funny.

jonnyburgo · October 2023

vasselmeyer said:

Why not use the Leeds Park & Ride service?

https://www.wymetro.com/park-and-ride/

Good call!

Sporky · October 2023

If you ever want an entertaining walk through Leeds, carry a briefcase with an explosives warning sticker on it.

Snags · October 2023

I used to like driving through Leeds, it made you glad to be alive by the time you got out the other side. Not done it for a few years though.

Are the taxi drivers all still homicidal maniacs and/or rapists?

John_P · October 2023

Yes - hate it, the roads used to be fine but everytime I go to watch or play a gig I have to allow extra time for the chaos of roadworks and random routes. I'm gigging in the centre next weekend and know it's going to be a pain getting to the hotel in the centre on Sat afternoon.

horse · October 2023

I think I accidentally drive through the bus station or something like that once - Definitely a "not for cars" area, but didn't get any fine

slacker · October 2023

My son went to Leeds metro, I did 3 laps on the loop road and decided not to go again. He moved to hedingly after a year. Much better.

guitars4you · October 2023

I go to Leeds quite a bit but easy to get to Elland Road coming of the M1 and M621

likewise from the same direction then easy to get to the town centre

but 2 months ago went to Headingley and agree a total pain - plus a pain again to get back from Headingley to M1

PeteC · October 2023

I lived there for 58 years and then saw sense and moved to North Yorkshire - much better.
Leeds does have its good points - but I agree, driving in it is definitely not one of them.

Used to be some really good music shops there too in the 70s and 80s - but all since decimated by the big box stores, eBay and Reverb ( yes, I'm just getting old...)

sev112 · October 2023

Gsev112 said:

jonnyburgo said:

Went to visit son at Uni on Saturday, this is our second time going, what an awful city, the road layouts are like someone threw cooked spaghetti into the air and just left it as it landed, every junction has like 3 options all next to each other, but maybe 1 or two will be no entry, in fact no entry signs everywhere, totally over stimulating, busy busy, cars beeping, people getting angry, mad overtakers. I hate driving into Leeds. Awful.

Not as bad as trying to get into a taxi …

A girl in a tracksuit attacked me !

Kittyfrisk · October 2023

^ Did she say, 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want...

DefaultM · October 2023

No she said gimme ur fukin phone nob ed or al cut ya!

BigMonka · October 2023

Yes, driving anywhere near Leeds is indeed awful! Lots of the junctions are really close together so the sat nav gives really unhelp guidance, then you find yourself in the wrong lane and then stuck in a one way system!
Definitely prefer getting the train there whenever I can.

thecolourbox · October 2023

sev112 said:

Gsev112 said:

jonnyburgo said:

Went to visit son at Uni on Saturday, this is our second time going, what an awful city, the road layouts are like someone threw cooked spaghetti into the air and just left it as it landed, every junction has like 3 options all next to each other, but maybe 1 or two will be no entry, in fact no entry signs everywhere, totally over stimulating, busy busy, cars beeping, people getting angry, mad overtakers. I hate driving into Leeds. Awful.

Not as bad as trying to get into a taxi …

A girl in a tracksuit attacked me !

Ha I must admit that was my initial reaction as well, especially being Leeds.

kaypeejay · October 2023

Leeds has had a few failed attempts since 1991 to build a tram system that would alleviate some of the traffic through town, all not carried out because of cost. The park and ride system is very good though and I would use that rather than drive into town and park where the driving is less than errrmmm.. considerate!

DefaultM · October 2023

Its something about the people around here. I've done quite a few UK holidays and weekend breaks this year driving to and around Scotland and Wales and had no issues. It's soon as you get around here. Very selfish people.

A great example. My son went to Flamingo Land and they were returning to school at 16:15.
Outside the school it cuts down to 1 lane with a give way to oncoming traffic sign. It's very busy.
One woman who believes she's the main character parks up on double yellows, blocks the lane so absolutely no cars can move and sends her passenger out to go get her kid.
She just sits there staring straight forward knowing full well what she's doing but trying not to acknowledge anyone.
She continues to sit there until a teacher has to come out and say there are 8 coaches and only 1 has arrived so far. Your child is not on it. Your child is on a coach probably a mile away, wondering why they're suddenly at a stand still not realising it's their own mother's fault.

northern_guit · October 2023

Like any town or city, if you live there, you learn to negotiate it. If you’re a stranger to any town, the roads can be intimidating.
Before you slag off my home town, let me tell you, I was on the road for years. Try Manchester and Stoke, both an absolute mare and no doubt there are dozens more examples.

FX_Munkee · October 2023

I grew up in Leeds, and it is a nightmare to drive around now.Personally I think they just made it that way to try and keep up with the "bigger boys" like Manchester or Birmingham, which are also a nightmare to drive around. Bonus side effect of learning to drive there is I'm completely un-phased by pretty any other driving scenario. Passing your test one day and then the next, hurling yourself onto a semi underground "urban motorway" at 60mp in the middle of rush hour to get to work certainly helps with this sort of thing..

slacker · October 2023

My daughter learnt to drive in Ealing and then went to live in the country near Taunton. They never knew what hit them.

Philly_Q · October 2023

DefaultM said:

Yeah it’s so shit even the sat navs get confused. You’ll be driving down a straight road and it will tell you to take a left at a non existent roundabout. When you don’t it just says recalculating at you over and over cos it’s no idea where you are.

I wanted to take my daughter to the museum a few months ago but there was a closed lane and diversion near the train station. It took me completely out of the city for 15 minutes before bringing me back in about a metre from where I’d just been.

Nothing to do with Leeds, but a couple of years ago we had a family visit to Bath, where I went to university in the 1980s and my nephew's currently in his final year.

I wasn't a driver when I lived there (I'm still not) and the city centre has changed a lot - I was completely lost until I managed to place things with reference to a few unchanged landmarks. But anyway, they've got an incredibly confusing one-way system which my brother's sat-nav wasn't able to cope with at all. We seemed to spend ages going round in circles and ending up back where we started.

I wanted to have a quick look at the university itself, which is at the top of a hill outside town. We managed to get up the hill, but could not work out how to get into the campus, and then got lost on the way back down. I guess if you live there you get used to it, but what a nightmare.

randella · October 2023

northern_guit said:

Like any town or city, if you live there, you learn to negotiate it. If you’re a stranger to any town, the roads can be intimidating.
Before you slag off my home town, let me tell you, I was on the road for years. Try Manchester and Stoke, both an absolute mare and no doubt there are dozens more examples.

This about sums it up. I deal with the Mancunian Way on the regular without really thinking. It's what you get used to.

On the other hand, my friends in Leeds think nothing of the Loop which I bloody hate and puts me in mind of an ill-tempered Large Hadron Collider.

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Anyone else find driving into Leeds is awful

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