Inner Ring Road

The 'no grill' versions must have been exceptionally rare..

When I said no grill, maybe I should have said, a grill that blended in with the body work and painted the same colour. Nothing fancy, the "no grill" was produced on the Anglia standard as well as the Anglia van throughout most of the sixties. Have a look at www.simoncars.co.uk and look at Ford thames 307E so that you can follow the drift.

In a case of ironic timing - this interesting little film has just been posted in two parts on the True Coventrian Facebook page. I'll post the first part link here, though not sure if you need to be a member of the page to view it. Can someone confirm please. There's even an amazing few seconds shot in colour of almost an identical view of the photo I posted not long ago including Stoneleigh Terrace @02:45 - you can see what a busy interchange it was even back then there. The film includes interviews with some of the men who built the Ring Road though I cringed a little when they stated 'we were digging everything up including bits of the City Wall' Interesting nonetheless. I'll put part two up shortly if this one works.

yep! Works for me and I don't have a facebook account.

Same here....

OK.. I used this site.. LINK

The standard model had the small painted grille with a chrome surround, the Deluxe had the full width all chrome grille plus chrome side stripes, and the van had the all painted grille (no chrome anywhere), presumably unless the buyer opted for a Ford factory colour, in which case it would be the small painted grille with the chrome surround. Ford love their options..

Great stuff - heres Part 2 One thing I did not know - apparently the ramps at the Radford Road intersection had 'World First' experimental heating elements within them to prevent frost/ice/snow but were never really used due to cost (but are still in there now!)

There were a few interesting points in those videos, not least the fact that the RR was the first of its kind anywhere. At the end of the second, the guy said that the latest development within the confines of the RR would not be of any value without the RR and the vehicle access afforded by it being in place. The points regarding pedestrian and cyclist access were valid enough, but my guess is that they thought most if not all would come into the centre via car or bus.

No, it's definitely not one of those It does look like an Anglia in the photo on first viewing!

First... and last. For something that some people think is a huge success, it's not been replicated anywhere else (In fact, similar plans in many cities were cancelled and in Birmingham they're actively removing elevated roads from the city centre - a far bigger and busier city, as well. People quickly realised these things were damaging and changed the way people flow around cities too much) To suggest that developments are only of value because of the ring road is one of the most nonsensical statements I've ever heard. Most of the city centre developments have stalled and they stalled long before the recession. Funnily enough, one of the only developments currently in progress is OUTSIDE the ringroad and has also see a chunk of the ring road demolished in order to prioritise arterial routes into the city centre and create surface level pedestrian routes! The ring road is so small you can easily get access by putting car parks along arterial routes. The Bishopgate development - a supermarket just off the ring road - also was unable to find a tenant. I think strong arterial routes are more important for city centres than 'ring roads' - the ring road has become a city centre bypass and not really a 'distributor', and the arterial routes on which businesses flourish do not exist. Which all makes the place a somewhat soulless, and bleak looking city centre dominated by grey, decaying flyovers and large gyrator-y road systems.

Coventry has got arterial roads already, but if you feed eight or nine arterial roads into the centre of any city, there has to be some way of filtering them to wherever the traffic needs to go, and the only way to do that is an elevated or partially elevated ring road. A flat system full of islands and traffic lights at every junction would not work. The arguments about pedestrian access wouldn't stand up to scrutiny because I doubt in this day and age that many would want to walk the distance..

There are a few places which have ring roads, not just Coventry, and in each place, some like them and some hate them. See here.. LINK.. Such is life..

I have just been back to Coventry for the first time in about 15 years. Driving on the Inner Ring Road is a challenge, but I cannot agree with Mike H that it is great fun. Accessing the ring road in the same short space where vehicles are trying to exit is not my idea of fun, especially when driving a LHD car! I agree with AD --- It is better to be 10 minutes too late in this world than 50 years too early in the next!

LHD cars are good for leaving the ring road, RHD when accessing

Hey, dual controls then?