M11 - A14 - A428
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Ordnance Survey map - Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
Junction 14 of the M11, its northern terminus. It's the point where it meets the A14, a vital east-west route between the M1, M6, East Anglia and Felixstowe. The main road north out of Cambridge, the A1307, joins in here, as well as the A428 heading west to the A1 and Bedford.
What's wrong with it?
The two main routes here are the M11 and A14. The M11 ends nicely, merging into the A14 as it should, but for the main through route the A14 gets pretty lost. It borrows a bit of A1307 to get to the east-west alignment and westbound traffic leaves the main carriageway and uses a one-lane 270 degree sliproad to eventually arrive on the main carriageway again half a mile later on. If the A14 is to be seriously taken as one of the most important east-west routes in the country, junctions like this one - and other similar masterpieces along the way - simply will not do. There is also the terrifying section between the two loops where northbound to eastbound traffic has to cross westbound to northbound traffic on the same level in a very short weaving section - and it's only a lane wide.
Why is it wrong?
When the junction was built, the A14 simply didn't exist. Going from east to west was the A45, which was the point where the M11 merged into the A604 (which was then the A14 and A1307's north-south alignment). A few connecting sliproads were included to join up all the roads, and all went well, considering the next junction back down the M11 finished off the missing movements. In the late 1980's, there was a new plan to build the A14 - an east-west arterial route from Felixstowe in the east to the M1/M6 junction in the west - mostly out of bits and pieces of other routes. Part of this plan involved consuming part of the A45 Cambridge northern bypass, and the A604 from the M11 to the A1. The road numbers changed, the main flow of traffic changed with them, but this junction designed when most traffic went straight through stayed exactly as it was.
What would be better?
The very simplest thing to do would be to widen the southbound to eastbound sliproad to two lanes and give it priority at the merge and diverge points. Next up needs to be a much improved link from westbound to to northbound, perhaps taking the entire westbound carriageway over to merge with the M11, leaving A428 or M11 traffic to exit. Then how about upgrading the A14 to the north with a lane or two more?
Right to Reply
Email me with your comments.
Martin writes:
No one has defended this junction, you say. And I'm not surprised, it's a navigational shambles - at one point there were two signs which simply said "A14" while pointing in completely opposite directions...
However, it rarely seems to get completely logjammed, and it has one redeeming feature - for motorcyclists at least.
Head westbound down the A14, round the uphill spiral to join the northbound A14, then immediately join the downhill spiral to join the A14 again, this time eastbound. 540 degrees of challenging cornering, and great fun...
Perhaps someone in the planning department rides a bike?
Thomas Dennison writes:
While this junction isnt the greatest, it is not so bad.
The weaving section (the worst part of the junction by far) and the southbound - eastbound sliproad have two lanes, not one. The only place this junction has one lane is between the northbound - eastbound loop and the A1307 merge.
Also, there is one good thing about this junction - the acceleration and deceleration lanes. These are extremely effective at slowing and accelerating traffic at loops and merges.
All that needs doing to this junction is a loop from the westbound - southbound slip and the A1307. As Martin says, this junction rarely gets completly logjammed. Instead of adding lanes to the A14 to the north the Cambridge - St Ives rail line should be extended up to Huntingdon instead of the stupid guided bus.
Paul Brearley adds:
This junction is just a mess in my opinion, if you want to get to the small village of madingley when comeing north you have to follow the a14 going east then loop round to the main road out of cambridge entering in the outside lane cross to the inside lane, the a14 from the east then joins and you have to cross that before having to break before the very tight spur off to madingley. I mean i know it's not normal to want to go there from the north but it is completly lethal way in which hey have made it possible.
They should buldoze the thing and start again it seems the only way to get rid of the mess.
Patrick Gosling finds a whole new problem:
The most spectacularly broken aspect of this junction is the Girton-to-Madingley bridleway that goes straight through the middle of it.
I've run that route, and would really not like to try to take a horse through it.
It's (necessarily, given motorway restrictions) in underpasses under the M11 and the northwestern looping slip road, but on the other side you get to run across (from recollection) a total of five lanes on three carriageways of very fast road, with an entirely un-signposted (and quite counter-intuitive) direction change from one carriageway to the next to catch you out part way through.
This is probably not the place to rant about the cost-cutting use of on-carriageway footpath and bridleway crossings on the A14...
Tiffer Robinson has trouble getting home:
I actually live in Madingley and I agree with the above commenter - rarely have I ever joined a fast moving A-road from a junction on the right, and then having to go across several lanes in order to come off to go to Madingley (down one of the bumpiest roads in Britain). On a motorbike it can be quite scary as you have very little time to change lanes and the cars on the left come right into your blind spot.
With thanks to Chris McKenna for information on this page.
