Lawrence Road in Liverpool. It may look innocent on the map, but in reality it must be the silliest road in the entire city. There's a school midway along, so school-run time is terrifying - cars lurching everywhere, kids and parents stepping out without looking. During non-school hours it's full of bored chavvy kids. I've had sticks, stones, and bottles chucked at me, and once a half-brick to the temple that left me groggy for the whole evening. Stop to debate the issue and you're in for a kicking.
The drivers are confronted with a puzzling series of traffic calming measures, including one-way chicanes. This seems to come as a shock to them every time, and they will abruptly swing left or right, or sometimes just roar through the no-entry sign. Use of turn signals seems to be thought a sign of weakness, and drivers avoid it at all costs, and burst acceleration is the order of the day, with extreme braking at each speed bump, which are roughly fourty yards apart.
They park on both sides (often swinging in from the other side of the road to land a parking space, regardless of oncoming bicycles), and have a nasty habit of opening doors without looking at all. I must get 'nearly doored' at least twice a week on that road, with only wide road positioning saving me. The poor visibility means that anybody leaving a side road gives up on actually checking that the road is clear, and just swings out at random.
There's usually a big dog wandering about the place without a lead, and always a few big men with pitbulls in chest-harnesses outside dirty-looking pubs. And don't even get me started on the road surface - the speed bumps are illegally steep, and one has an enormous pothole between it and the rest of the road, which is dangerous if taken at speed.
I've heard it described by another cyclist as 'Indian Territory'.
