On Thursday, September 26, Andover Road was closed. Drivers diverted via Wootton in both directions.

And it would have been all right if many drivers had not formed close-following queues.

These lanes are too narrow for vehicles to pass, and have passing places at intervals.

Most passing places can accommodate two cars, or a lorry, but not many can accommodate three or more vehicles.

Cars were approaching passing places from both directions in queues of three or more.

Consequently, the last car(s) in the queues were unable to pull into passing places, so were trying to pass each other out of the passing places, causing considerable delays.

I pulled into a passing place whenever I could see that the next one ahead was occupied, to try to alleviate this problem.

A following driver seemed to see this as a good idea and started to do the same. But we could not prevent long queues jamming the passing places ahead.

At one point a car driver ahead seemed to refuse to reverse to a better spot to allow an oncoming lorry to pass, and nobody was moving at all for 10 minutes.

Maybe single-track roads are not the best choice for diversions, but I would suggest it is not good practice to close-follow on these roads in any circumstances.

Denis McMahon,

Basingstoke

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