Mini rant!

[dewi]

Some will probably laugh as I know its worse in other parts of the country, but today I had a job in Wales, so off I trundled down the M6, onto the M56, M53 and into the hills.

Job ran over a little, only an hour, but I set off at 4:30 for what should have been a little over an hours journey. All the way back (other than the Welsh bit) its been bumper to bumper, roads at a standstill and when I got to a local toll bridge, people were turning round as they'd been sat there for an hour! I decide to follow suit, drive 10 miles to get around it... bumper to bumper all the way. Finally got home 20 minutes ago, so it's taken about 3 hours to do an hour journey.

Being self-employed I tend to avoid all the major traffic and try not to travel during rush hour, but surely something needs doing. I appreciate there will be many who will be traveling through that every single day... it really is no way to spend a large portion of your life... staring at the bumper of the car in front for hours, trapped in an essentially posh tin can?!?

 

[Toddy]

I was working in Edinburgh a fortnight ago. Coming home the traffic suddenly ground to a halt at Harthill…..from there to the Newhouse junction, a distance of six miles on the main motorway through Scotland….1hour and 40minutes. I was ready to cry.
I was tired out, aching, hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 6.30am and it was nearly five by the time I got home.

Beyond not funny.

M

 

[John Fenna]

Around Manchester on the M6 - Dante knew it well it seems!
My wife and I got stuck in a long lasting jam near Chester once - no hedges, open vistas in all directions, full bladders... luckily we were in my Transit with an empty icecream tub in the back
It had no lid though, so the verge had a watering ... it was obvious what we were doing but the looks from the car behind us were not of contempt or disgust but ... envy - pure envy

 

[British Red]

Too many people on too small an island. Many of our problems come back to this.

 

[bigbear]

Oh how I loathe the M6. When I worked in finance and spent my life on the road, or so it seemed, the bours of it that I wasted in jams. I know one should regret nothing and move on but it still saddens me to think how long I kept on up and down the land, M1 or M6 or A1 ? All horrid.
As usual BR nails the point, too many folk in too little land area with public transport an inefficient option for too many of us. When I get annoyed tthat my drive home has taken too long now, It helps to remember that it used to be so very much worse.

 

[dewi]

Its a miserable situation to be in, that is for certain.

Not entirely sure what the solution is because its unlikely the population will reduce and equally unlikely that public transport will improve... so barring someone inventing a Star Trek style transporter, the misery will continue.

 

[wingstoo]

Did M6 a few years back and we travelled 2 miles in two hours... Does help having a packed lunch and thermos flasks as well as "comfort" bottles... Some people just fail to be ready for most outcomes... Winters coming, My INCH bag will be packed and put in the van when it is required.

 

[dewi]

I used to have to travel every morning across the M62 to north east Yorkshire and in winter it was dangerous traveling at 4am... van was packed with food, a thermos, a shovel, emergency clothing and a raft of other gear (including a tent) just in case.

Now I travel less and I openly admit I don't pack like I used to... but after today I will be putting more than a parachute and some rope in the car (neither would have been that much use admittedly)... I just can't get over what people are going through just to earn a living now... how much family time is lost due to traffic jams? Maybe that should be in the next 'Happiness' study.

 

[Robbi]

We were at a campsite five miles outside Poole for a couple of weeks end of June early July, the campsite was a couple of hundred yards from the motorway, the noise of traffic started every morning at around 04:30 and carried on all day.

Any journey that we took was a traffic nightmare, a journey that over here would take 20 minutes would take at least an hour and a half, pure weight of traffic.

The final straw was Poole to Holyhead, 350 or so miles........ 9 solid hours of bumper to bumper hell, absolutely horrendous shear volume of traffic !

Never again !

I really really don't know how anyone in the south / south east of England put up with it.

 

[John Fenna]

We were at a campsite five miles outside Poole for a couple of weeks end of June early July, the campsite was a couple of hundred yards from the motorway, the noise of traffic started every morning at around 04:30 and carried on all day.

Any journey that we took was a traffic nightmare, a journey that over here would take 20 minutes would take at least an hour and a half, pure weight of traffic.

The final straw was Poole to Holyhead, 350 or so miles........ 9 solid hours of bumper to bumper hell, absolutely horrendous shear volume of traffic !

Never again !

I really really don't know how anyone in the south / south east of England put up with it.

Judging by accents - most of them have emigrated to West Wales!
More "Saff East" accents than Brummie now ... and that is saying something!

 

[Harvestman]

The trouble with roads is that everyone wants to be the only driver using them. Too many people, too many cars. More roads are not the answer either.

If you drive a car (and I do) then traffic jams are a hazard to be expected, just like rain is to a bushcrafter.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Years ago I used to travel on the M25 between the M40 and the A3 daily (apparently the worst part of the M25) it would add 4 hours to my already long day of 10 hours at work monday to friday. It ruined my life, contributed to failure of my relationship at the time and the demise of my health till I quit.

I now live in the sticks in Suffolk, self employed, my furthest customer is 7 miles away and I will be lucky if I see 20 cars on my way there. I have been here 4 months and I cant remember the last time I sat in a traffic jam.... oh yes I can, in the removal van on the way to Suffolk

 

[swotty]

Too many people on too small an island. Many of our problems come back to this.

You've hit the nail on then head there Red!

 

[uncleboob]

Too many people on too small an island. Many of our problems come back to this.

...add to this a propensity for people to use cars for even the most local of journeys and traffic jams and congestion are inevitable. I no longer own a car, I cycle everywhere, I cycle to work, I cycle to home visits, I cycle to the supermarket- every morning I cycle past hundreds of cars with one person in, generally heading in the same direction...

Not everyone wants to cycle, But I I find it hard to understand why, in an age when cars are expensive to run and maintain that people don't share the 4 seats they have spare if they are heading in the same direction!...imagine how much clearer the roads would be with 75% less cars on them in the morning!


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[humdrum_hostage]

Not everyone wants to cycle, But I I find it hard to understand why, in an age when cars are expensive to run and maintain that people don't share the 4 seats they have spare if they are heading in the same direction!...imagine how much clearer the roads would be with 75% less cars on them in the morning!

The idea is great and always gets bought up but the theory is a lot harder. How would you divide the running costs? What if the designated driver for that day isnt able to commute that day?

One idea I had would be a car transporter/bus that maybe runs the lengths of motorways and you drive onto the car transporter and stay in your car while it drives to its destination then you all get off and carry on with your commute. It will save fuel and costs, be better for the environment and cut down traffic. Also they could be larger than normal, carrying 20 odd cars, maybe more like a road train as they will just go up and down the motorways only.

 

[uncleboob]

The idea is great and always gets bought up but the theory is a lot harder. How would you divide the running costs? What if the designated driver for that day isnt able to commute that day? .

I live in large-ish village on the outskirts of a city- every day I see the same people, neighbours mostly, getting in their cars and driving in the same direction to the same city. The city is compact so wherever other people are parking you'd still only have a 20 minute max walk to work from the drop off...it would take a bit of talking but conversation builds communities...


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[Stevie777]

I used to leave for Wales and Dorset at 21:00 hours when i went on holiday...Shooty in as they would say. 8 hours to west coast Wales, 9 hours to Dorset with a couple of stops from North Lanarkshire aint to shabby.


Trouble is not that there are too many cars and not enough roads, everyone wants to travel those roads at the same time is the problem.

 

[ged]

Too many people on too small an island...

Too many people on too small a planet.

 

[British Red]

Too many people on too small a planet.

Agreed. But people are frightened to address what amounts to the greatest problem that we face (including global warming). Daft really.

 

[Tengu]

Let us not talk abot the Manx prospensity to shut off the roads so they can have a race...