I don't know why I watch his content. But in the other hand. Very informative of the 'then' & 'now' of the motorways. Tbh, I haven't driven on the motorway for a long while now though
Excellent video on my local Motorway. (For future videos it's the Lodd-on option not load-on) Very accurate account of all the local goings on. Only one other interesting thing along the motorway you could have spoken about is the small but excellent museum of Berkshire aviation, just off the motorway next to the park.
I worked in Reading for a few months in the late 90s. My abiding memory of the time was seeing a Lotus Elan, on fire and melting, on the southbound sliproad at the Coppid Beech junction on the way home one Friday evening. It didn't matter how shitty the job made me feel, I knew that at least one person had just had a worse week than me.
Hi Jon. I am biased to say it’s your best episode to date. Why? Because I could see my house in your satellite view of the A329(M) near Dinton Pastures. Brilliant episode. As for the bus lane, and the abandoned park and ride which constantly flooded, resulting in the disused “on ramp” all worthy of its own video in due course.👏👏👍😀
The M31 would have been fwicked sweet awesome. I often had to travel between Croydon and South Wales, and the Heathrow area was dire. I learned to use the M3, A323 and A329(M) route, but even then the bits that would have been bypassed by the M31 were usually the most congested part of the journey.
I think you mean the A322? But 100% agreed, I've been recently travelling to and from South Wales to Eastbourne, the majority of the time I use the M4 > A329(M) then along A322 (Bagshot road) to M3 > M25 > A22 route. The M31 would reduce mine, and others reliance of the M25 somewhat, and in turn reduce congestion on the M25. In my head, its the equivalent of the A417 not existing, and expecting all the traffic to go and use the M4/M5 interchange. Madness the M31 wasn't built.
@@hardwarexpert You're right -- the A323 through the far side of Aldershot would have been well out of my way, and on worse roads. Thanks for the correction. I'll be careful not to try out that route!
I was under the impression that there was an intention for the A329(M) to have actually continued straight, crossing what is now the Caversham rowing lakes and the Thames, dropping onto (or probably passing over) the A4155 and continuing North towards the M40? Great video of my closest motorway anyway Jon 👍
There was indeed. It's been resurrected a few times over the years, but Oxfordshire County Council who are the authority on the north side of the Thames want nothing to do with it. The plan was to bypass the endless congestion through Reading and over the two bridges. The building of the large Tesco by the side of the river took up a lot of the land for the original site, and the rowing lakes are in the way of an alternative route. I don't think it will ever happen as nobody wants a major road ploughing through rare open spaces these days.
another notable aspect for road nerds like me is that this motorway has the last remaining 1959-style advance direction sign in England that only shows the number, I.e. no destinations; it's on the northbound approach to M4 (several of them survive in Scotland, and they're still the norm in NI)
Ive walked this whole 6 mile stretch A329(m) and A3290 litter picking for the council 100's of times for 17 ½ years and never knew a fair chunk of this information. Thanks john 😊.
My local motorway. The park and ride has never been in use in the 10 or so years I've lived in the area - at least not as a park and ride. That and the Showcase cinema car park next to it are basically the flood plain for the river Loddon, which likes to live in the car park at least once a year. It's also just along the road where you'll find the infamous Tesla Supercharger station - the one that if you google "flooded tesla supercharger" it's the one that pops up as the image, because it too is built on a flood plain.
Praise be, the weekend WOULD NOT BE THE WEEKEND without your videos. Listening to you relay a series of numbers & letters is very enjoyable as is all the other information you bring us, many thanks.
Another spiffing episode John 👍🏼 All very well explained about a bloody confusing situation with councils, bus lanes, A roads, and road number changes. I was hoping for “gravel pit” by Wutang clan as the outro tune, but was it the theme to Fun House ? This week I’m in my final week of working a months notice to go on to pastures new…. And never have to go to London EVER AGAIN 😁😁
Art Attack, apparently. I was wondering if mention of the A321 would have been an excuse to have the music from 3-2-1 but I suspect our host is slightly too young for that :D
It's very odd/surprising to me to be recommended a video of such a familiar piece of road. I was born in Reading and live in Wokingham so I've driven up and down the A329(M) for as long as I've been driving, but I didn't know the history or the plans for an M31 that I would surely have used quite a few times by now had it existed. I've also walked that wiggly footpath visible at 7:07 which I'm sure was designed by a frustrated would-be racetrack designer!
Please keep making these. Highways England need to be embarrassed into sorting themselves.if you get to the M62 might be worth seeing what a b@lls up they are making if the Ouse bridge in East Yorkshire. It was faulty from the start and caused a delay in ppening the last section. Its been under repair for years and bloody dangerous. If it was in the South, it would have been replaced but its being patched up yet again and has been bodged and had work going on for the last 2 years. Apparently another 9 months to go. Restrictions are still in place
Ah, my old home turf - I was born in Reading and lived there for 22 years. I'm pretty sure there were junction numbers in the past and it's pronounced "Lod-un". I was only 2 at the time but I didn't know about the bridge collapse with resulting deaths and inuries - that's horrifying! When Reading had no Cinema multiplex we used to use the A329(M) to whizz over to The Point at Bracknell to the cinema there, along with bowling and TGI Fridays. Oh, and of course the artifical Ski Slope at the John Nike Leisure sports complex and Coral Reef leisure pool. I would like to say that we didn't see how fast we could go around that left-hander after the Coppid Beech roundabout in various cars on the way there without sliding off, but that would be a lie. 🤣 It used to be quite a good motorway but since they decided to start messing with it, every new incarnation has been 💩. Shame the M31 never happened, would have been awesome! Thanks for another fab episode Jon!
At the end of the 70s I lived in Wokingham and the motorway just ended at Coppid beech. No Bridge over, no connection anywhere else. The A329 was the road it dropped onto and it turned left towards Bracknell. New towns being what they are it wasn't long before the Bagshot road (A322) needed an dual upgrade but that would just have dumped more traffic into the centre of Bracknell so it made sense to purloin the end of the A329(M) and bring it in to join up. Last time I was through that way it was even more of a dogs dinner because Bracknell (and surrounding areas) has continued to expand and the roads seem more overloaded than ever. The northern end always seemed quirky. Why did you need a motorway into the Sutton Seeds facility (now noved somewhere else - Toquay I think) ? Its somewhat ironic that as that traffic increases, the local council want to degrade the road and make traffic movements worse. The M31 might have been the right answer...but these days you need to take a bus so that you get a good view of the traffic you are sitting in. Given a free choice and the aid of sat-nav, avoiding the area is best.
My understanding was that there was an intention to link it up to the fabled third Thames crossing when it would be eventually built, but this was never built. I don’t know whether this was the original intention behind the flyover, or whether it was part of later plans to bridge the Thames.
I can't remember if I've mentioned my mates mum before. She had a friend who's job is to paint over the bridge graffiti there to give the artists a nice blank canvas every Friday night. My mates mum and my mates mums mate have worked there for decades. They met while shovelling gravel out of the quarry. That's why it was so small, it was hand dug by the two women.
Here in Stockholm they built a new bus lane exit from the E4 to a garage only to close it after a few months because so many cars would take it and get stuck. Now its closed off and Swedens most modern ruin motorway
Loddon, not loadon. You missed the excellent opportunity when mentioning said river that rises in and travels through Basingstoke, to point out that this is the river that carries the result of the Basingstoke Sewage Works at Wildmoor all the way to the Thames, and then onto London! (Send us your slum clearance overspill will you? We'll teach you!) An excellent view of the most abused motorway in the south, a strip of road that I wasted months on waiting in queues in the 80s and 90s.
Need to get yourself to Newcastle; A167 central motorway! Only part of it built, rest was scrapped, slip roads that are the thing of nightmares, and a few random abandoned parts. It’s time …..
The M31 would have saved me so much time over the last 20 years. Even going through Bracknell it is still ten minutes quicker than carrying on the M4 when coming into London.
I like the free art gallery concept too. There are so many boring grey concrete constructions that they need brightening up with some original artwork. I'm guessing that is why you had the theme tune to "Art Attack" playing at the end?!
@josyms7849 Yes. It is a 7 lane motorway with no central reservation. It has a bi-directional middle lane during rush hour , meaning it is 4 lanes into the city and 2 out in the morning and vice-versa in the evening. During normal times it is 3 lanes each way. There is always a closed lane to separate traffic but no solid central reservation, meaning it is singalong carriageway.
I remember that bridge collapse in the 1970's. It happened, as you say, during construction and was virtually at the end of our road at the time. Used to travel the A329M motorway weekly back in the day. Also remember fishing in the river Loddon as a kid. Didn't catch much though. 😏
Jon, your films have no right to be entertaining but they somehow are; maybe I have spent too much time on Britain's fabulous motorways. Keep up the good work!
John there was some vague thought in the 1960s that there should be a bridge over the Thames to the North and that the A329M would extend that way - Reading was unsure where new building would be and declared that the M4 would be the urban boundary to the South. As usual others may know more, that was what I was told when I studied the university many, many years ago.
Both ends of the A329 where referred to as the Ski Jumps as the fly-overs where not completed for years. The derelict barn you were standing in was the scene of an accident when a vehicle attempted to exit the road through the hedge and landed upside down in the barn damaging a Bedford Horsebox, ha!
That was an amazing amount of detail and interest in just 4 miles of motorway. Can you go back and do the same for the other motorways, you can start a new “extended edition” series of motorway secrets? I’ve taken that road many times and its annoying how it dumps you into completely inappropriate road into Reading, or if you go the other way to avoid parking on the M25 for a while you have to crawl through the roundabouts of Bracknell. Wish the M31 had been built
I think it would of been interesting if we got the m31 along with all of the ringways plans from the 1940s, which meant getting ringway 3 and ringway 4 rather than the m25
You could easily do a tour of the M31 and all the other motorways that weren't. In the case of the m31 i heard that there was a plan to bridge the Thames at reading to improve north / south flow
The footbridge at the start I cross every day. Unfortunately it is falling down - you can see in the video where they encapsulated the piers in further concrete a while back where it crosses the A3290. Where it crosses the railway at Earley station they have had to put netting under it to stop the rust falling on the trains!
It only takes about 5 minutes more to get to the A3 in London from Reading taking the approximate route of the M31 than using the M4 or M3, plus you can stop and play in the sandpit at Horsell Common on the way.
The A329 m was supposed to continue over the Thames to the Caversham to Henley road to relieve the bottle neck that is Sonning! It can take over 30 mins to drive through Sonning in the rush hour, it's a beautiful village if it was bypassed it would be so much more enjoyable...
You didnt mention the dead straight measured mile that is marked out with yellow/red discs coming from reading to the Winnersh junction on the now A3290. Tested a few cars on that bit of road over the years…….
As always an awesome video, but particularly do this week as I am travelling on the A329(m) later this week. I intend to play this video to my passengers as we travel along it.
The Reading end proposed extension is part of the reason Tescos acquired land and built the Kings Meadow store which would have been in the busy route in and out of town.
Hey, you missed the secret turn around spots at the massively overengineered M4 junction! Or did you cover those off in the M4 video. I forget. I didn't actually realise that part of the A329 is classed as an accident blackspot though. I mean, it's a place I regularly see things like that happen, but at the same point... it's sign posted, and written on the road for at 2/3 of a mile before the junctions show up.
I am old enough to remember the original bit of the A329(M) opening as part of the M4 extension from Maidenhead to Bristol. There was, for some time, a T-junction (yes, a T-junction) with Stop/Give Way signs where the motorway joined (met) the A321 Twyford Road. It was "interesting" to say the least, as it was only about half a mile from the J10 slip road and drivers were approaching at motorway speeds. Eventually, it was extended through to Coppid Beech.
If there isn’t, there should be a drinking game for these videos, take a shot every time Jon says the name of the road that is the subject of the video 😁
I went up and down this motorway every weekday for about 8 years. There was never a moment where there weren't roadworks going on, and all of them seemed to make things worse. That lane change was ridiculous.
That graffiti area under the motorway used to be the useful Loddon Bridge Park and Ride car park and bus link into and around the town of Reading. It did partially flood from time to time but can't see that it was progress for Wokingham Borough Council to shut it.
Am I alone in thinking that one day, given the locations and dress code of our dear content provider gets involved with, eventually while he's describing the history of a particular section of motorway, he's going to get approached by a shady character with trembling hands asking if he's got any heroin to sell? I mean, all black, wearing a black beanie no matter the weather, hanging out in the middle of nowhere in places where pedestrians or cameras aren't around... eventually someone's going to get the wrong idea. Respect to the content provider, though. He's clearly doing what he loves to do, and I hope he has a ton of fun making it.
@@AutoShenanigans Hey, at least you can rest assured that if this TH-cam thing doesn't work out, you literally know all of the out-of-the-way spots to carry out your black market deals.
The Reading extension would have joined the proposed but cancelled Reading rjngway. The old Prudential offices in what is now Forbury Square we’re on the route and we’re built with a gap underneath big enough for 4 lanes of traffic.
The "solution" to the horrors created by making it one lane only straight ahead at the M4 junction has been to put up a forest of road signs showing the lane destinations, and marking the left lane as a slip lane for the M4(E) for what feels like miles before the junction. Bit of a mess, but it does seem to have cut down on the last minute lane changes and accidents.
Amazing, in my neck of the woods, literally… I live just on the edge of Bracknell and walk up to Caesars Camp in Swinley Forest where you ended the episode on a regular basis. :)
I recall the fatalities when the crossing was built over the Loddon (pronounced like Lodd not Load)... and I recall the motorway ending at the A321.... nicely made.
The river is Loddon, pronounced Lod-don rather than lo-don, the reason for this is basic english, the doubble "d" means that you have a short vowel, if it only have one "d" then it would be a long vowel and pronounced "Ohh", as the next letter is a vowel as well. kinda simple when you put the basic rules of how the language is constructed into play. 😀 if the locals don't know how to use the English language, that's fortunately, not my fault! We have a load of interesting names around here which defy language and pronunciation, so I'm not laying blame! 😛 The M31 would have been a lot more useful than widening the M4 or M25...
John is a legend for making this stuff so interesting to watch.
I’m in America and I can’t
get enough
Amazing what you can do with a personality. Wish I had one
I live in the area covered by this video, never thought of the A329(M) as interesting before 😊
@@stubbsz
You've most likely got you're own unique personality of your own!
Jst don't compare to others, thinking your unworthy. 😉👍
I don't know why I watch his content. But in the other hand. Very informative of the 'then' & 'now' of the motorways.
Tbh, I haven't driven on the motorway for a long while now though
I have to admire John's commitment to not checking the pronunciation of place names and just saying it both ways every time.
The cynic in me says that it's so that people comment to correct the pronunciation, which improves "engagement" for the algorithm.
And its Loddon not Lowdon! I used to to work near Sherfield on Loddon
Typical northern behavior 🤡
@@andykilvington1651 Yep. Lived in Reading all my life; never heard it pronounced Lowdon outside this video!
Excellent video on my local Motorway. (For future videos it's the Lodd-on option not load-on) Very accurate account of all the local goings on. Only one other interesting thing along the motorway you could have spoken about is the small but excellent museum of Berkshire aviation, just off the motorway next to the park.
WOD NDB
I worked in Reading for a few months in the late 90s. My abiding memory of the time was seeing a Lotus Elan, on fire and melting, on the southbound sliproad at the Coppid Beech junction on the way home one Friday evening.
It didn't matter how shitty the job made me feel, I knew that at least one person had just had a worse week than me.
Hi Jon. I am biased to say it’s your best episode to date. Why? Because I could see my house in your satellite view of the A329(M) near Dinton Pastures. Brilliant episode.
As for the bus lane, and the abandoned park and ride which constantly flooded, resulting in the disused “on ramp” all worthy of its own video in due course.👏👏👍😀
could almost make out my house in North Wokingham just below the A239(M)
The Sandford Lake Road is a bit bloody treacherous after heavy rain!
@@stephenhookings1985 Isn’t it just. Only fools ignore the “signs”. 🫣🥴
The M31 would have been fwicked sweet awesome. I often had to travel between Croydon and South Wales, and the Heathrow area was dire. I learned to use the M3, A323 and A329(M) route, but even then the bits that would have been bypassed by the M31 were usually the most congested part of the journey.
I think you mean the A322? But 100% agreed, I've been recently travelling to and from South Wales to Eastbourne, the majority of the time I use the M4 > A329(M) then along A322 (Bagshot road) to M3 > M25 > A22 route. The M31 would reduce mine, and others reliance of the M25 somewhat, and in turn reduce congestion on the M25.
In my head, its the equivalent of the A417 not existing, and expecting all the traffic to go and use the M4/M5 interchange. Madness the M31 wasn't built.
@@hardwarexpert You're right -- the A323 through the far side of Aldershot would have been well out of my way, and on worse roads. Thanks for the correction. I'll be careful not to try out that route!
And it would have bypassed what is by far the busiest part of the M25.
I was under the impression that there was an intention for the A329(M) to have actually continued straight, crossing what is now the Caversham rowing lakes and the Thames, dropping onto (or probably passing over) the A4155 and continuing North towards the M40? Great video of my closest motorway anyway Jon 👍
i was just about to write the same
There was indeed. It's been resurrected a few times over the years, but Oxfordshire County Council who are the authority on the north side of the Thames want nothing to do with it.
The plan was to bypass the endless congestion through Reading and over the two bridges. The building of the large Tesco by the side of the river took up a lot of the land for the original site, and the rowing lakes are in the way of an alternative route.
I don't think it will ever happen as nobody wants a major road ploughing through rare open spaces these days.
LODD-ON. Basically, rhymes with 'modern'. As with all your vids, excellent, informative, well-edited and just.... great.
Think he might have been taking the pee as he couldn't pronounce Earley properly either.
But "LODD-ON" would in no way at all rhyme with modern? Do you mean modeM and not modeRN? Though even modem wouldn't rhyme. How do you say modern?
@@jimmydesouza4375 th-cam.com/video/Q-1TxNHgRQg/w-d-xo.html
another notable aspect for road nerds like me is that this motorway has the last remaining 1959-style advance direction sign in England that only shows the number, I.e. no destinations; it's on the northbound approach to M4
(several of them survive in Scotland, and they're still the norm in NI)
Excellent as always, Jon. I quite like the Highways Agency reply: "Learn to drive" 🤣🤣🤣
Ive walked this whole 6 mile stretch A329(m) and A3290 litter picking for the council 100's of times for 17 ½ years and never knew a fair chunk of this information. Thanks john 😊.
Was it that or jail time? :D Thanks for watching mate
My local motorway. The park and ride has never been in use in the 10 or so years I've lived in the area - at least not as a park and ride. That and the Showcase cinema car park next to it are basically the flood plain for the river Loddon, which likes to live in the car park at least once a year. It's also just along the road where you'll find the infamous Tesla Supercharger station - the one that if you google "flooded tesla supercharger" it's the one that pops up as the image, because it too is built on a flood plain.
My local funny. There were also plans to extend the a329(m) over the river to Henley
Oxfordshire council said not on your nelly
Praise be, the weekend WOULD NOT BE THE WEEKEND without your videos. Listening to you relay a series of numbers & letters is very enjoyable as is all the other information you bring us, many thanks.
Nice to see you back south again John, though I note you couldn't leave that heather behind
It never ceases to amaze me how watchable this content has proven!
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Another spiffing episode John 👍🏼 All very well explained about a bloody confusing situation with councils, bus lanes, A roads, and road number changes. I was hoping for “gravel pit” by Wutang clan as the outro tune, but was it the theme to Fun House ?
This week I’m in my final week of working a months notice to go on to pastures new…. And never have to go to London EVER AGAIN 😁😁
Art Attack, apparently. I was wondering if mention of the A321 would have been an excuse to have the music from 3-2-1 but I suspect our host is slightly too young for that :D
@@dickoon I think I’m similar age, I’m 44. I remember Art Attack, Neil Buchanan with the lisp 😂
It's very odd/surprising to me to be recommended a video of such a familiar piece of road. I was born in Reading and live in Wokingham so I've driven up and down the A329(M) for as long as I've been driving, but I didn't know the history or the plans for an M31 that I would surely have used quite a few times by now had it existed. I've also walked that wiggly footpath visible at 7:07 which I'm sure was designed by a frustrated would-be racetrack designer!
Please keep making these. Highways England need to be embarrassed into sorting themselves.if you get to the M62 might be worth seeing what a b@lls up they are making if the Ouse bridge in East Yorkshire. It was faulty from the start and caused a delay in ppening the last section. Its been under repair for years and bloody dangerous. If it was in the South, it would have been replaced but its being patched up yet again and has been bodged and had work going on for the last 2 years. Apparently another 9 months to go. Restrictions are still in place
Ah, my old home turf - I was born in Reading and lived there for 22 years. I'm pretty sure there were junction numbers in the past and it's pronounced "Lod-un". I was only 2 at the time but I didn't know about the bridge collapse with resulting deaths and inuries - that's horrifying! When Reading had no Cinema multiplex we used to use the A329(M) to whizz over to The Point at Bracknell to the cinema there, along with bowling and TGI Fridays. Oh, and of course the artifical Ski Slope at the John Nike Leisure sports complex and Coral Reef leisure pool. I would like to say that we didn't see how fast we could go around that left-hander after the Coppid Beech roundabout in various cars on the way there without sliding off, but that would be a lie. 🤣 It used to be quite a good motorway but since they decided to start messing with it, every new incarnation has been 💩. Shame the M31 never happened, would have been awesome! Thanks for another fab episode Jon!
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Superb theme at the end linked in to the art of this video.
I've drove drove on these roads for 40 years Thanks for your history of this area , your knowledge is quite interesting & informative..
At the end of the 70s I lived in Wokingham and the motorway just ended at Coppid beech. No Bridge over, no connection anywhere else. The A329 was the road it dropped onto and it turned left towards Bracknell. New towns being what they are it wasn't long before the Bagshot road (A322) needed an dual upgrade but that would just have dumped more traffic into the centre of Bracknell so it made sense to purloin the end of the A329(M) and bring it in to join up.
Last time I was through that way it was even more of a dogs dinner because Bracknell (and surrounding areas) has continued to expand and the roads seem more overloaded than ever. The northern end always seemed quirky. Why did you need a motorway into the Sutton Seeds facility (now noved somewhere else - Toquay I think) ? Its somewhat ironic that as that traffic increases, the local council want to degrade the road and make traffic movements worse. The M31 might have been the right answer...but these days you need to take a bus so that you get a good view of the traffic you are sitting in.
Given a free choice and the aid of sat-nav, avoiding the area is best.
It wasn't a motorway into Suttons seeds which did indeed close, it was into the business park which was built there.
My understanding was that there was an intention to link it up to the fabled third Thames crossing when it would be eventually built, but this was never built.
I don’t know whether this was the original intention behind the flyover, or whether it was part of later plans to bridge the Thames.
I can't remember if I've mentioned my mates mum before. She had a friend who's job is to paint over the bridge graffiti there to give the artists a nice blank canvas every Friday night. My mates mum and my mates mums mate have worked there for decades. They met while shovelling gravel out of the quarry. That's why it was so small, it was hand dug by the two women.
Here in Stockholm they built a new bus lane exit from the E4 to a garage only to close it after a few months because so many cars would take it and get stuck.
Now its closed off and Swedens most modern ruin motorway
Hitting us with Art Attack at the end! You legend!!
Loddon, not loadon. You missed the excellent opportunity when mentioning said river that rises in and travels through Basingstoke, to point out that this is the river that carries the result of the Basingstoke Sewage Works at Wildmoor all the way to the Thames, and then onto London! (Send us your slum clearance overspill will you? We'll teach you!) An excellent view of the most abused motorway in the south, a strip of road that I wasted months on waiting in queues in the 80s and 90s.
That sonic music at the end really got me 😂 love it my dude.
Nice one, thanks for watching!
I love your humour it's infectious 😂😂
Watching this is so intense. A complete firehose of information, most of entirely unmemorable. Why am I so compelled to watch this?
I can't wait for the 30-second video on the a167(m) & a194(m) both of which were part of bigger plans and just got left 😢
Need to get yourself to
Newcastle; A167 central motorway! Only part of it built, rest was scrapped, slip roads that are the thing of nightmares, and a few random abandoned parts.
It’s time …..
Always makes me happy that TH-cam's automatic captions detect your emphasis on 'wicked sweet awesome' and spell it with a capital W.
The M31 would have saved me so much time over the last 20 years. Even going through Bracknell it is still ten minutes quicker than carrying on the M4 when coming into London.
I like the free art gallery concept too. There are so many boring grey concrete constructions that they need brightening up with some original artwork. I'm guessing that is why you had the theme tune to "Art Attack" playing at the end?!
Mega, thanks for doing my 'local' motorway. Glad you discovered the graffiti, a hidden gem!
Nice one, thanks for watching!
The A38(M) is intersting with it being a single carriageway motorway!
Single carriageway?
@josyms7849 Yes.
It is a 7 lane motorway with no central reservation. It has a bi-directional middle lane during rush hour , meaning it is 4 lanes into the city and 2 out in the morning and vice-versa in the evening.
During normal times it is 3 lanes each way. There is always a closed lane to separate traffic but no solid central reservation, meaning it is singalong carriageway.
Another really interesting video from John and having the Art Attack music at the end wasn't lost either.
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Have I had a good week..? Dunno yet I’m viewing this on a Monday…
I remember that bridge collapse in the 1970's. It happened, as you say, during construction and was virtually at the end of our road at the time. Used to travel the A329M motorway weekly back in the day. Also remember fishing in the river Loddon as a kid. Didn't catch much though. 😏
Jon, your films have no right to be entertaining but they somehow are; maybe I have spent too much time on Britain's fabulous motorways. Keep up the good work!
Nice one, thanks for watching!
John there was some vague thought in the 1960s that there should be a bridge over the Thames to the North and that the A329M would extend that way - Reading was unsure where new building would be and declared that the M4 would be the urban boundary to the South. As usual others may know more, that was what I was told when I studied the university many, many years ago.
I can't recall seeing any plans but I did see mention of something along those lines, I couldn't find much on it.
This is my local area and this was fascinating. Thank you.
Wow, a council planning a country park, rather than selling off the land to developers of new housing or warehouses! That’s history right there. 😂
Both ends of the A329 where referred to as the Ski Jumps as the fly-overs where not completed for years. The derelict barn you were standing in was the scene of an accident when a vehicle attempted to exit the road through the hedge and landed upside down in the barn damaging a Bedford Horsebox, ha!
That was an amazing amount of detail and interest in just 4 miles of motorway. Can you go back and do the same for the other motorways, you can start a new “extended edition” series of motorway secrets?
I’ve taken that road many times and its annoying how it dumps you into completely inappropriate road into Reading, or if you go the other way to avoid parking on the M25 for a while you have to crawl through the roundabouts of Bracknell. Wish the M31 had been built
£150 for killing three people? Did the judge have shares in the company?
yes! I haven't been able to watch these for almost 2 months now. Keen to catch up!
Ah, a motorway I’ve been on - usually to avoid the queues around Heathrow!
Brilliant John. Absolutely brilliant 👍
I think it would of been interesting if we got the m31 along with all of the ringways plans from the 1940s, which meant getting ringway 3 and ringway 4 rather than the m25
You could easily do a tour of the M31 and all the other motorways that weren't.
In the case of the m31 i heard that there was a plan to bridge the Thames at reading to improve north / south flow
It’s definitely art. The greatest offence to the eyes is endless expanses and piles of grey concrete.
Lived in Bracknell for near 30 years and never knew any of this stuff!!!! Fascinating!!!!
Nice one, thanks for watching!
1:06 - I'm guessing this was a different Highways Agency to the one that allowed a bus lane on the M4 between Heathrow and London.
Thanks for another interesting vid. Love the Art Attack theme tune. RIP CITV.
With that end music I was half expecting the drone to pan out to reveal a huge piece of art that you'd made on the ground ;)
i was trying to work out what that music was. it's etched into my brain.
And one thing you didn't mention is the blue marker posts still along the former section of motorway
And how the bridges on the northenr section are already designed for 3 lanes both ways so they wouldnt need to be demolished upon upgrading
The footbridge at the start I cross every day. Unfortunately it is falling down - you can see in the video where they encapsulated the piers in further concrete a while back where it crosses the A3290. Where it crosses the railway at Earley station they have had to put netting under it to stop the rust falling on the trains!
Now becoming part of my Sunday night ‘guilty pleasure’…….. Mrs 6thDayBlue x
Thrilled to be part of it. Thanks for watching
All of these episodes do make me wonder what is the record for driving every mile of motorway the quickest
Almost had an Art Attack watching this episode!
Had to scroll about 100 replies to get this answer 👌
It only takes about 5 minutes more to get to the A3 in London from Reading taking the approximate route of the M31 than using the M4 or M3, plus you can stop and play in the sandpit at Horsell Common on the way.
The A329 m was supposed to continue over the Thames to the Caversham to Henley road to relieve the bottle neck that is Sonning! It can take over 30 mins to drive through Sonning in the rush hour, it's a beautiful village if it was bypassed it would be so much more enjoyable...
You didnt mention the dead straight measured mile that is marked out with yellow/red discs coming from reading to the Winnersh junction on the now A3290. Tested a few cars on that bit of road over the years…….
As always an awesome video, but particularly do this week as I am travelling on the A329(m) later this week. I intend to play this video to my passengers as we travel along it.
Cheers matey, made my beer in the sun, far more bearable 😊
Very nearly had me fooled with the intro Jon but its Art Attack from the 1990s. Fess up time I had to ask the daughter as it wouldn't Shazzam!
I lived in Bracknell from 1989-2011, and in Reading from 2018-2020. I don’t ever recall the A329M having junction numbers.
I was wondering about these today while driving down the A3(M)
Great video as always thanks John 👍 and I love the music at the end 👍
You're going to have a LOT of fun with the A1(M)
Absolutely brilliant matey 💯👍🤟
Delightfully concise, entertaining and brief
I always look forward to the outro music :D bangers every time
The Reading end proposed extension is part of the reason Tescos acquired land and built the Kings Meadow store which would have been in the busy route in and out of town.
Hey, you missed the secret turn around spots at the massively overengineered M4 junction! Or did you cover those off in the M4 video. I forget.
I didn't actually realise that part of the A329 is classed as an accident blackspot though. I mean, it's a place I regularly see things like that happen, but at the same point... it's sign posted, and written on the road for at 2/3 of a mile before the junctions show up.
Dude. You made my Sunday. Love your videos! Come back to Wales and I'll show you some fun roads!
Always appreciate the retro TV show outro tunes
Nice one, thanks for watching!
I am old enough to remember the original bit of the A329(M) opening as part of the M4 extension from Maidenhead to Bristol. There was, for some time, a T-junction (yes, a T-junction) with Stop/Give Way signs where the motorway joined (met) the A321 Twyford Road. It was "interesting" to say the least, as it was only about half a mile from the J10 slip road and drivers were approaching at motorway speeds. Eventually, it was extended through to Coppid Beech.
If there isn’t, there should be a drinking game for these videos, take a shot every time Jon says the name of the road that is the subject of the video 😁
I went up and down this motorway every weekday for about 8 years. There was never a moment where there weren't roadworks going on, and all of them seemed to make things worse. That lane change was ridiculous.
That graffiti area under the motorway used to be the useful Loddon Bridge Park and Ride car park and bus link into and around the town of Reading.
It did partially flood from time to time but can't see that it was progress for Wokingham Borough Council to shut it.
Am I alone in thinking that one day, given the locations and dress code of our dear content provider gets involved with, eventually while he's describing the history of a particular section of motorway, he's going to get approached by a shady character with trembling hands asking if he's got any heroin to sell? I mean, all black, wearing a black beanie no matter the weather, hanging out in the middle of nowhere in places where pedestrians or cameras aren't around... eventually someone's going to get the wrong idea.
Respect to the content provider, though. He's clearly doing what he loves to do, and I hope he has a ton of fun making it.
Well, these videos aren't going to pay for themselves...
@@AutoShenanigans Hey, at least you can rest assured that if this TH-cam thing doesn't work out, you literally know all of the out-of-the-way spots to carry out your black market deals.
The Reading extension would have joined the proposed but cancelled Reading rjngway. The old Prudential offices in what is now Forbury Square we’re on the route and we’re built with a gap underneath big enough for 4 lanes of traffic.
The "solution" to the horrors created by making it one lane only straight ahead at the M4 junction has been to put up a forest of road signs showing the lane destinations, and marking the left lane as a slip lane for the M4(E) for what feels like miles before the junction. Bit of a mess, but it does seem to have cut down on the last minute lane changes and accidents.
Amazing, in my neck of the woods, literally… I live just on the edge of Bracknell and walk up to Caesars Camp in Swinley Forest where you ended the episode on a regular basis. :)
Sunday Lunchtime viewing sorted
That art attack theme at the end :,)
I recall the fatalities when the crossing was built over the Loddon (pronounced like Lodd not Load)... and I recall the motorway ending at the A321.... nicely made.
The M1 and M2 approaching Belfast both have bus lanes - hopefully in the fulness of time you'll get a chance to look at NI's motorways.
Legend John .!!👏👏👏👏
The river is Loddon, pronounced Lod-don rather than lo-don, the reason for this is basic english, the doubble "d" means that you have a short vowel, if it only have one "d" then it would be a long vowel and pronounced "Ohh", as the next letter is a vowel as well. kinda simple when you put the basic rules of how the language is constructed into play. 😀 if the locals don't know how to use the English language, that's fortunately, not my fault! We have a load of interesting names around here which defy language and pronunciation, so I'm not laying blame! 😛
The M31 would have been a lot more useful than widening the M4 or M25...
this hits after a few too many pints and poppers ❤️
the best way to watch I think
Can't wait for the weird B roads of Britain, great videos
Love it. So relatable. This for example is where I grew up. Still learnt something.
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Ohhh. Can't wait for the A58(M)
Quite a talent to make parts of the country I'll probably never visit interesting. Keep up the good work 👍
Have just started watching, fantastic presentation style, can't wait for your next video! :)
I frequent these a lot for work and I’ve got to say it’s a decent road. Never any real dramas or road works like the nearby M4. I approve 😂