Coventry's ring road is pure chaos

Have you ever driven the Coventry Ring Road? There's nothing else like it in the world. A tight circular racetrack surrounds the city centre with junctions so close together there's only a few seconds for traffic to get on and off.

Travel back in time to 16 October 2004, and take two laps of the whole circuit - once clockwise and then again anticlockwise. The road has changed since this was filmed, with junction 6 rebuilt and lots of new electronic signs everywhere.

You might also like our long read on the Coventry Ring Road, and some photos we shared more recently of its new electronic signs.

With thanks to Steven Jukes for driving!

Date of recording
Routes

What's new

The monster seen from below

What might it have been like to stand in one spot and witness the arrival, and the uncertainty, of plans for an urban motorway in West London?

The road that made no sense

It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.

The forever bottleneck, part 2

The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.

Share this page

Have you seen...

Mixed Signals

During the 1960s the UK developed some of the most sophisticated - and strange - electronic variable message signs anywhere in the world. How? And, just as importantly... why?