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Having just been in the UK for a long weekend I travelled through the tunnel onto the M20 and then to the M25 where we came to an abrupt halt ,the reason the toll booths at the Dartford tunnel .These must cause traffic chaos in a 20 mile radius of the M25 you cannot get on and you cannot get off total chaos.One more reason why traffic flows better in mainland europe is that trucks are restricted in certain areas and at certain times from useing anything other than the inside lane. And of course people wanting to travel at 50mph in the middle lane and of course no Pc plod to enforce driiving laws other than speeding.
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The Sunday Times ran a big story on this yesterday, reckoning that Britain has the worst transport system in Europe and that the inefficiency and cost of publis transport has driven people back to the roads. The rail infrastructure in the UK is in such a bad state that Virgin trains has had to delay introducing 125mph trains. The trouble is, one man makes all the decisions in this country now and, of course, doesn't have time to make all of them. Yet everyone around him is afraid of making decisions in case they don't meet with his approval. It's like a pseudo politically correct version of Thatchism. Unlike Thatchism, it doesn't work because the direction keeps changing.
HJ
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Andy
I spent a year living in France and never experienced the same problems when queuing for the autoroute tolls that seem to be constant around the Dartford Tunnel. Having said that, I did not live in Paris, which, I hear, is totally different to the rest of France.
I also think that two lane motorways are far better than three lane ones. In France, if you sit in the outside lane for a few seconds too long, you can expect to see a dark grey or black 605, Safrane or Xantia, with a 6.5 litre diesel engine come up close behind you, flashing its lights and indicating seemingly towards the central reservation. The result is that there are very few outside lane hoggers.
I would also be fairly sure that, if a study were ever done, the flow of cars on a "typical" English three lane motorway would not be much higher than on a two lane French autoroute. It would certainly not be one third more as it logically should be, given the fact that so few people use the inside two lanes in England.
I would be all in favour of creating more two lane motorways rather than less four of five lane motorways, even if it resulted in an overall fewer number of lanes.
Any opinions?
Andy
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> Any opinions?
Only that I am flying to the UK tomorrow and now I'm all depressed about the amount of driving I have to do !!
M.
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See previous thread on Dartford tunnel tolls.
These should have been abolished within the next 12 months, now that the scheme has been paid for, but will be retained "to manage traffic flow" i.e. create jams.
PLEASE write to your MP.
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Mark
You are right to be depressed, Friday evening I got stuck in a mother on the M25, one and a half hours to cover fifteen miles. Nice traffic lady on Radio 2 reckoned it was the worst she'd seen and that at one point the tail-back had nearly joined up apart from two breaks each of about two junctions. At the same time M42 had been shut since lunchtimeish causing total chaos on M6, M42, M40, M5 and just about any alternative route in the West Mids. Serious advice was given that if you live in the West Midlands please try to avoid travelling!!
Hope everything is quiet while you're here!!!
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I spent 2+ hours in the M40/M42 gridlock on Friday. Tempers were not helped by the selfish ********s who sped up the hard shoulder and cut back in to the inside lane.
I think the flaw in Andy's reasoning, about 2 lanes being as good as 3, would be the conduct of HGVs. The reason they were banned from the outside lane was their 3 abreast overtaking with a 0.5mph differential in their speed; the speed limiters now fitted to them now would exacerbate this problem. On a 2 lane motorway they would be a mobile roadblock.
Traffic flow will only be improved when we learn to move to the left lane after overtaking, but I fear we never will. A post in a thread a few weeks ago summed it up for me. A lady justified staying in the middle lane because she would be overtaking a truck in 2 or 3 minutes. eg 2 or 3 miles!
Bob H
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Cockle
As an Essex lad you will recognise this location.
I had to go from Romford up to Battersea on Friday and there was an accident at Redbridge at the bottom of the M11 which meant it took an hour to do the seven miles from Romford to Redbridge, about forty five minutes of that being the last two miles from Newbury Park to Redbridge.
No sign of any accident by the time I got to Redbridge and once through Redbridge it was completely deserted on the East Cross Route.
The main problem seemed to be the traffic lights on the Redbridge roundabout (are these part-time?) which simply weren't letting enough traffic from the A12 onto the roundabout.
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Yes, Brian, know it well.
I was beginning to wonder whether I'd got the right date on Friday, felt more like it should have been Friday the Thirteenth, it seems just about everywhere was bad.
Knowing Essex you will know that the new A130 dual carriageway is nearing completion, the northern bit anyway, and on the new A12/A130 junction there are now nice shiny new traffic lights waiting for the opening. Can't wait to drive down the new road to find a lovely red light at the end, they could have let us enjoy the new road for a couple of weeks, heaven knows we've waited long enough!
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