The design disaster at Deptford

Every now and then we take a break from exploring the state of the road network and investigating its past to have a thoroughly enjoyable whinge about the places roads have been built that don't work. We call them Bad Junctions.

A fair number of nominations come in for new Bad Junctions through CBRD's contact page. Not all of them make it - in fact most of them don't. There are two criteria for inclusion, you see. One is that the junction has to be truly bad. Not just congested, or a bit fiddly, or confusing, or a set of traffic lights where you'd prefer a roundabout: it has to be badly conceived and badly designed. The second is that there has to be something interesting that we can make fun of. It could be the worst junction in the world, you see, but if there's nothing amusing to say about it then it's not going in.

Today we're adding one that richly deserves inclusion on both counts and it's a bit of a mystery why it hasn't been on the list for years. Deptford Interchange - not in south east London but near a lesser-known Deptford in rural Wiltshire - is where the A36 and A303 meet, and is laid out in the most inexplicably obtuse way.

If you'd like to see just what is so very wrong with it, and have your say, CBRD's new Bad Junction is A36-A303 Deptford Interchange and it's awaiting your comments, good and bad, now.