I'd really, really like them to upgrade the Black Cat statue to something on the scale of the Angel of the North; an enormous cat bestriding the junction. It'd certainly be eye catching!

I’m a regular on this stretch of the A1 and see the Black Cat as somewhat iconic. Whatever the layout come 2027 the 🐈‍⬛ must live on!!

When we moved into the village in 1986 plans were muted to bypass Biggleswade, Beeston Sandy, Tempsford and Wyboston by building a bypass from Astwick to North of St Neots. That fell by the wayside. At the first mention of a new roundabout we suggested a cloverleaf style junction but this was discounted. On every occasion we have engaged with Highways they have ignored suggestions and continued with their inept planning. On this occasion we pointed out that they should move the new junction slightly to the East and straighten out the A1 from Chawston through past Tempsford. This would remove the dangerous double bends at Roxton/Tempsford that are the original Great North Road Waggon Bridges. It would also move the road away from Roxton and also remove the need to demolish the new bridge over the A421 built when the bypass went in. Anyone looking at an aerial view can plainly see the A1 bending West to reach the Black Cat and straight after bending East to get back to the A1 past Tempsford. The people they employ to design road junctions in the UK do not seem to have an ounce of commonsense. Much like the new A1/ A14 junction at Huntingdon. Lots of bridges but no direct access to go East or West travelling North on the A1. When questioned they said there was no space for a slip road. Space enough for 100,000 trees 80% of which have died due to Highways incompetence.

Bagpuss approves of this video, even if he and his friends are all asleep. Also, are those a couple of motor-racing tracks of some sort in the before and after pictures?

Used this roundabout countless times, always wondered what the black cat was about. I can also confirm traffic is very bad around here during peak times so let’s hope this works.

I used to commute up and down this stretch of A1 back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Aside from the traffic, my main memory is joining the northbound carriageway next to a livestock truck which was spilling sewage out of the side. Felt appropriate. That and driving numerous work cars with sat nav that didn’t know the A421 existed and thought I was charging at full pelt across open fields to get to Luton Airport.

Aaah I love the Bagpuss theme music at the end. Watched that TV program religiously as a lil lad back in the late 70's early 80's.

This is local to me and I can’t wait for the upgrade. The traffic lights are a ball ache at busy times and coming from Bedford it’s a nightmare.

Brilliant. St Neots is a bloody traffic jam nightmare. A dual carriageway cannot come soon enough!

Love the Bagpuss outro music 👍

I wonder if the cat silhouette has as many lives as the roundabout?

When visiting my parents' in Huntingdon... the number of times I've had to come off the A1 at Tempsford, only to rejoin it at St Neots to avoid traffic at this roundabout 🙄 I can't wait for the new junction to be completed

OMG, I was waiting for this to come up. You have to psych yourself up for this about a mile before you get to it. ...and forget about it coming from the A428 and you wanna go towards the A421. I usually stop at Maccies to collect myself 🤣🤣🤣

I live about 5 miles from the black cat 🐈‍⬛ so have witnessed all the rebuilding and lengthily queues In all directions at rush hour. As you say, they are finally building what they should have. There are further roundabouts North and South of the cat so hope they bring forward plans to address those or else some of the queues will just be displaced elsewhere. But you forgot to mention that the black cat was joined with 2 black kittens a few years ago. They’re all in Highways England storage now

I face this monstrosity daily. Painful is an understatement.

The problem with adding free flowing slip road to the correct standard is having to acquire additional land. This means years of delay for environmental surveys and studies before the land is acquired (bound to be a great crested newt somewhere!). James

I think the biggest problem with the roundabout isn't the congestion, it's the ridiculous shape. Driving round it the changes of direction are so tight and abrupt it's no wonder it causes collisions. Every time I use it I think who the duck designed this it's terrible. Plus if this bit of the A1 is "improved" I'm fairly certain we'll see some of the other nearby junctions getting much worse.

Work has already started at the Caxton-Gibet roundabout. So far it's just a big pile of dirt that the diggers proudly sit atop. As for the Black Cat on the Black Cat Roundabout: I never see it as I'm always too busy looking at all of the cars in an attempt to get round safely.

I use this roundabout a lot as i live in Nottingham and my daughter lives in Bedford. I have queued in both directions many times and for many hours. That flyover section has been rumoured for many years but if they are still going to not do it properly what's the bloody point. It is just so typical of the planners in this country, half arsed!

We’re starting the campaign now……. “Save the Big Cat”.. We’ve got Bono, Midge & the band back together. Do you think the entire cast of ‘Cats’ would be overkill? Brilliant as always mate. Mr & Mrs 6thDayBlue as well as Magical Mr Mistoffelees

Never let a Black Cat cross your path. Who would have thought, not Highways. I blame the Romans. A few years ago I had a van catch fire and cause a major tail back on the A421 just before the Black Cat. no one was impressed, I had to get out of the burning van and ask people to let me pull onto the verge then get back into the burning van and drive it across traffic, managed to get everything out apart from my favorite STIHL peak cap..your latest headgear is very nice. The area between A421 and the A1 is well worth a visit Cardington, Old Warden and the big tree nursery are great. Do something on road over water bridges as they are vital and diverse, Go on, I dare you. Cheers

I happened to be driving through the junction one day during one of the periods of alterations and they were at that moment craning out the black cat.

I. Love. Roundabouts. I love roundabouts, when they are properly designed, no place is safer than a roundabout.

That’s an idea for a new series, junctions that have been “ improved “ but are now worse or no better. There’s one near me in Leigh, Greater Manchester where they replaced a Roundabout with a extravagant traffic light controlled mess. Search kamakaze island leigh.

The amount of times I've been on this roundabout hundreds of times and I've never seen the black cat

Oh Bagpuss 😂

One thing I have learned from watching your channel is that Britain always makes the best choices when it comes to infrastructure. /s

I think the only people who benefited from the last 'improvement' to the roundabout were people like me staying on the A1 heading south as you tend not to caught up with the majority who are turning on to the A421 and will often find yourself passing a long queue waiting to turn right.

I lived in the area until 1993, and used the roundabout all too often. I saw it recently during my father's funeral (the cortege to the crematorium used it) and I didn't really think too much about it. There again, I didn't worry too much about the roundabout very often because I was usually on a motorbike. I'd also point out that UK traffic in the SE is ALWAYS sh1t at rush hour, no matter where you are. I no longer live in the UK and continue to be astonished (on my periodic returns) by how Britons accept such sh1t traffic, sh1t and expensive rail and even sh1ttier bus services.

Built something similar at the silverlink roundabout on the A19 solved quite a lot of traffic issues

Even if this junction is improved there are still a couple of basic roundabouts until you reach Huntingdon. The A1 is practically motorway standard all over he way from London to Newcastle apart from this section

Hey Jon, I’ve not long retired and used the Black Moggy DoNut far to many times to remember. Anyway will not miss it and hopefully might take a gander after the latest idea is finished. As usual great channel (that’s nicely increasing) with fab content, here’s to your future young man 🍻

It's incredible that this is not grade separated, even more so than e.g. the Sheriffhall roundabout on the Edinburgh City Bypass. I assumed they would have sorted this in the past few years since I believe the A1/A1(M) is now fully grade separated continuously to just north of Morpeth.

It could only be the Bagpuss theme tune. Top work.😊

yup, the "improvements" to the roundabout where a "great" success haha. Much fun going up and down the A1 to my parents ;) Didn't know why it was called Black Cat so you do actually learn something everyday

never knew the black cat has kittens! Im ushally stressing about which lane to be in

It's amazing how many times local or national transportation departments choose the cheapest or least effiencent option only to have re-redo their previous mistakes

The most recent rebuild incorprated a filter lane on the A1 south-bound side of the roundabout, which would allow you to skip the roundabout entirely if heading south. I say "would have" because they placed the traffic lights before the filter lane 🤦🏻‍♂. Most people don't realize that you can use both lanes on the roundabout approch if you're merging from the A421 east to the A1 north. This results in long queues that you can easily skip.

Great closing theme. "When Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up"

There isn't enough warning going south for the correct lanes for either the A1 or the A421 so you can always expect panicked lane swapping attempts while you cross!

I remember thinking 'WHY DON'T THEY BUILD A FLYOVER' 20 YEARS AGO!!!!!

I'm so glad for this video because I genuinely thought I must be missing something after the most recent 'improvements'. I just couldn't understatement why the A1 southbound couldn't have straight filtered past it as there was so much room to do so. Now it's confirmed to be a simple case of stupidity!

Brilliant video.

Excellent 👍

I like the bit where he says The Black Cat Roundabout.

I'm just here awaiting Jay Foreman's approval of the exit music...

Nice touch with the Bagpuss tune. 👍

I don't know why I'm here, but I'm here for it! 😻

Worth watching just for the outro music at the end. Made my day.

Spot on John

I used to cruise up & down the A1 every day for work. The Black Cat roundabout & the Buckden roundabout were the only places I had to turn the steering wheel.

The Blackcat roundabout has improved a bit. But I just don't understand why they didn't get this thing right in the first place! The whole part of the A1 in this area is overdue for major modernisation.

The most frustrating thing about road planning is how often "the cheapest option" often actually ends up to be the most expensive option, since it's so bad that it only lasts a few years before having to be "improved" again, resulting in even more expense and disruption. It doesn't help that any project in the UK seems to take that long to get from the planning stage to being finished that often it's totally obsolete by that time. Even when projects are futureproofed, we seem to manage to mess that up.

Take a short trip north on the A1 and you get the new A14 junction, great junction with one stupid mistake, there is no slip road from A1 north to A14 West, instead, you’re expected to pop into the services, fill up, have a coffee and then join the A14! To this day, i’ve no idea why you can’t simply drive north on the A1 and take a slip road to join the A14 West bound, as this is a BIG junction! Always tried to avoid the black cat by the way (I lived locally), but they made that harder too!

what you do not mention is the mooring for the river just 400 metres from the roundabout, all the houseboats, the Marina needs relocating and the current owners are holding out for a large sum of money. Compulsory Purchase Orders will be nightmare, also the water table at the roundabout is high so you cannot dig too far down. It's a really bad piece of road planning as it bisects a natural floodplain.

4:25 a Travelodge getting closed and demolished? Sounds like a win to me.

awesome video

Dry, scathing, sarcastic - keep it up!

1:08One of the great joys of Britain is that in virtually any excerpt from a map taken more or less at random you can find some place names to conjure with: Gamlingay, Cockayne Hatley, Potton, Salph End (not to be confused with Sarfend), Moggerhanger, and of course Biggleswade itself

Cracking choice of music for the outro John.

It's difficult to say to Americans that 'roundabouts make traffic flow so much better' when they can just come back with 'Black Cat'.

I live in the Scottish Highlands and watching this.... Makes me feel I will stay here.

This is the best video I've ever seen about

... and Bagpus was just a scruffy old cloth cat, but Emily loved him.

Another great video, love the bagpuss theme music at the end

Awesome as ever, and I love the Bagpuss tune at the end 🙂

Love how the roadbuilders put a distraction in the form of a black cat in the middle of a dangerous roundabout. That will reduce accidents not so much.

Love the outro music. 🤣

Simple solution, build a flyover (or underpass) for A1 Nth /Sth bound traffic and make A421 Nth bound traffic a 'filter lane'

I sort of like the Black Cat Roundabout, but only as a conversation piece to break up the boredom when we (my wife and I) head for North London. Don't use that part of the A1 much these days, the M11 with the addition of the new bit of the A14 is that much easier to traverse for our usual trip to East London.

Thanks

The most magical saggy old black cat in the whole wide world ...

Remember it well from the days when the sizeable town of Bedford was linked by single carriageway roads in all directions until the mid 2000s.

Do a video on the oother end of the A421 too. The j13 work done a few years back seems to have been designed with a brief to make it all as deliberately ineffective as possible, while still requiring maximum time, effort and money.

Just popped in say thanks for the Bagpuss reference....

Really hilarious video, love your style

Bagpuss. Had to be. You might want to look at the M1 junction 15 where the A508 and A45 meet… upgrades aplenty but still a crazy adventure to cross it…

Thank you Jon, always fun to learn more! Greatly appreciate your videos. By now, you could possibly 'make bank' as a consultant as they say by all the execellent, road building knowledge you have gained, what to do and, what not to do. Eager for an end-of-year, Auto Shenanigans compilation: passers-by interrupting, highway highlights, drone footage, that sort of thing. Cheers 😊👍 many thanks again and naturally, a like added 💯💯

You know the Black Cat Roundabout is an issue when I have memories listening to the radio traffic alerts about it 😂

And breath! 😂 nice one mate

I love the way you explained this 😅

Excellent video , but the best bit is the KZfaq silver play button on the shelf , perfect

Next, they should make a couple of minor improvements to Buckden roundabout up the road. Been alsmot taken out a few times by people not realising they’re drifting into my lane

When heading north, sometimes it's easier to leave the a1 at the junction before black cat, and head up to St Neots, go left at the Tesco roundabout, and join the A1 North at St Neots! Can't wait to see the improvements, but agree that the lack of free-flowing slip roads in all directions may cause a problem. The next junction I'd like to see improved is the m1 Junction 5 at Watford/a41, it's a nightmare in any direction. A lot would be solved if they just paint some lanes and install some signs to get people into the right place on the roundabout!

You should look at the traffic levels at Hickleton and Marr where it joins the A1 it is now planned for a bypass.

Oh yes, we are SO looking forward to those roadworks.........

This is being upgraded by Skanska and will be fully completed by 26/27

As a local I couldn’t agree more! Millions spent and time wasted making the thing bigger, instead of sorting it out. It’s a traffic nightmare outside rush hour as well! Let’s hope the latest version actually solves some of the problems.

Excellent video as ever. I always look forward to these...

Fascinating. Thank you as usual.

Thankfully I don't have to use that roundabout anymore 😅 Love the outtro music 🎶

I travel to/from Luton and Peterborough multiple times a week using the A421 and A1 and have never seen an accident nor been stuck in traffic for longer than a couple of minutes.

Big thank you for the Bagpuss outro. My granddaughter loves that show, so grandpa has bought all of the videos! I wonder what Bagpuss would think of the new ideas? Perhaps an A! flyover would have been a better option?

We have a similar sh*t show in Exeter on J29, which could have all been solved with a roudabout, but oh no. they decided a complex arrangement of junctions would be better ;)

I'm looking at it from Australia and I wholeheartedly agree "what a shitshow". My thoughts, it didn't even need a roundabout. The A421 into A1 north - slip road. A1 south stays as is. A1 into A421 south - overpass slip road. A421 into A1 south - dual slip road with A421 north into A1 south as an overpass. No stupid roundabout on a highway and traffic is free flowing. Hope its understandable.

Actually there is a hidden "free flow road" in disguise as a local road from the the A1 going south to the new eastward road. It goes via the garage and a few private dwellings. Anyhow any one on the A1-south, going East will have already left the A1 three miles earlier at Wyboston. Similarly going North then A421 West, you would've left, left, at Sandy. Either way there will be TRAFFIC LIGHTS on the roundabout. (to stop sleepy left hand driver lorries doing cartwheels down onto the carriage way below, I assume). Going A428 West turning to A1(S), Locals will still use the Barford road to avoid the Black Cat like they always have, so who cares.

For freeflow movements, I believe: A421W to A1S->London is expected to use the M11 (So no need for a freeflow) A421W to A1N is expected to use the A14 A421E to A1N is being provided and the reverse of each of those, so only large traffic flow expected is A421E to A1S (and the A1S to A421W movement)

And this was an improvement over the previous !

The UK authorities could not plan a sandwich. Everything in the UK from medical to transport is totally screwed up.

Sounds like the A38 at Derby, been a s******* for many years, but prospects for any improvement seem distant. Three roundabouts to improve will end up in a standstill most days. Happy days. past, present, and future. Want to make a video of this. Wish you well.