The A37 is a major road in southern England. It runs north from the A35 at Dorchester in Dorset into Somerset through Yeovil and Shepton Mallet before terminating at the A4 in central Bristol. The road is entirely single-carriageway, except in the Yeovil and Bristol built-up areas.

The road today

The road is subject to a stream of speed restrictions where it winds through a number of small villages. These parts of the road can be dangerous, especially where wide vehicles pass on sections where buildings are close to the road.

History

One of the worst accident spots on the A37 was the A371 junction just south of Shepton Mallet. The junction was always very busy and suffered long traffic queues due to the nature of the road. The junction was also a point where traffic would converge or pass through from multiple locations, this was further invoked by the A37-A361 Glastonbury junction which backed right onto the first junction. This muddled configuration resulted in numerous Road Traffic Accidents, many of which were fatal.

After a long campaign for the junction to be replaced, a roadabout was installed in 1999 significantly improving road safety and traffic flow. There have been few other construction schemes on the road in recent decades.

In recent years the few overtaking lanes provided where the road was of sufficient width nearing Bristol in the region of Bath and North East Somerset have been blocked out with chevrons, making the road entirely single carriageway apart from in the urban areas of Bristol and Yeovil.