If I lived in Aldershot I'd want to leave as much as possible...
Sorry Guildfordian joke.
We do not have a capacity problem we have a scheduling problem.
We all generally need to get to the same place as the same time.
If we could stagger work hours, have more working from home as LFTD (and I) do and de-centralise offices from the centre of towns then all would be well.
However I have to say that when I was employed this proved impossible due to older people in higher management (or dickheads as we called them).
Example I had a job where there was flexitime and I needed to speak to Americans daily so I could have arrived at my desk at 11am and stayed until 7pm travelling both ways in non-rush hour conditions and held teleconferences at times convienient to the Yanks. However if I was not at my desk at 9am my boss would wander around saying loudly Where's Thommo? and when I got there ask why I was late? Even to suggest working from home would be to him ridiculous because work took place in the office full stop.
The long winded point I am trying to make is that we can change and ease congestion massively but it requires imagination on the part of business management and that always seems to be in short supply.
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We already have gridlock every day on may roads, just with normal commuter traffic. Instead of trying to ease the problem, the councils and government try to make it worse by narrowing the roads, using traffic signals malliciously etc...
Even a good GCSE student could make a better traffic light system than the crap ones we have in this country.
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Couldn't agree more Guildford boy!
Competition will eventually sort it out....probably when we all have Flux capacitors powering our cars.......
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>>probably when we all have Flux capacitors powering our cars
sad response of the day, the flux capacitor does not power the vehicle it only operates the time circuits
Anyone know where the coat is?
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The train from Bournemouth to Waterloo was only 70% full this morning (as opposed to 100% full with 20 people sat or stood in each vestibule). I got on the Jubilee line at 07:50 and got a seat ::gasp!::
When I got to Canary Wharf the reduction in commuters was noticable. I'm looking around the office and again, at least 30% of my fellow lemmings are absent.
Despite this I have every confidence that when I get in my car at Bournemouth station at 16:40 this afternoon it will take me over 90 minutes to drive the 20 mile trip from the station to my ex-wife's place then back home with little miss No Dosh. My journey will take me over the A338 into Bournemouth which will, without doubt, be at a standstill.
I too am a JC type person but I reserve my enthusiasm for off-peak hours on off-peak roads. At any other time of day it's just transport and I will always use my bike or the train if practical.
We need to make some very tough choices in this country on how we work and commute, yet I meet resistance at every turn. I completed the required hours and allocated tasks to keep the project on track for this week by yesterday evening yet I was still required to turn up today. This happens every week without fail.
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"the flux capacitor does not power the vehicle it only operates the time circuits"
I don?t think that?s strictly correct. The flux capacitor channels the 1.21 giggawatts from the plutonium into the time circuits doesn?t it?
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Quite correct where shall I send the anorak?
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>If I lived in Aldershot I'd want to leave as much as >possible...
>Sorry Guildfordian joke.
Thomo, the point is people in Aldershot dare not leave their homes.....
whereus us Surreyites........
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There are just too many people in this green and pleasant land.
From that simple basic fact, many of our socio-economic problems stem.
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There are just too many people in this green and pleasant land.
The gridlock is because too many people want to be in the same part of this green and pleasant land at the same time, there will be lots of roads packed with vehicles tonight but there will be lots of others which are not, just that very few people want to go where these roads are.
As has been said earlier the time can also make a difference. I am currently working on a project in Guildford where I and many of my colleagues have come to the conclusion thay early travel makes the journey better, leaving earlier also means pre gridlock roads on the way home. If at least most of the people in the work environment do this the work still gets done and everybody has a more pleasant travel and work experience.
I do realise that not every work environment allows this or can work this way.
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Surely the car ownership in this country has nearly reached saturation point?
I guess most people have a car, the average household having 2. Therefore unless the population explodes then the level of cars on the road is going to hover about what it is now?
I understand that 20 years ago multi-car ownership was rare, but as it is now the norm we have reached the maximum number of cars we will ever own (give or take a few hundred thousand)
Gridlock is already here, mainly due to ridiculous schemes implemented by local authorities (rephased traffic lights, 'bus' lanes etc)
While I'm on the subject - why can taxis use bus lanes? Surely a taxi is the most selfish/capitalist way to travel! Not like a nice 'eco-friendly' socialist bus!
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"While I'm on the subject - why can taxis use bus lanes? "
Simple - because Ken, and other politicos use them.
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"I am currently working on a project in Guildford"
Not the Gassy place?
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There are just too many people in this green and pleasant land.
Have you ever been to Singapore or Hong Kong? They both have about 20 times the population density as the UK. (They both have excellent public transport systems and rather restrictive policies on private car ownership).
The issues surrounding transport problems are complex and are not defined in simple terms of "we have too many people in this country". Yes, it will be a contributing factor and probably more so in the South-east and large cities. However the lack of an effective, reliable and reasonably priced** alternative to the car means that we will be heavily dependant on them to get us out and about for years to come.
I've been lucky, for the last few years I've been working from home with an occasional day commuting (about once a fortnight to an office or client site). I really don't know if I could go back to doing a long commute everyday - it would be rather soul destroying.
** not necessarily "cheap"
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"Have you ever been to Singapore or Hong Kong? They both have about 20 times the population density as the UK."
No I haven't. But I think you will find if you exclude Scotland, Wales and NI from those density figures, you will have a very different picture.
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are they not green and pleasant lands then?
seriously England outside of the south east has some quite wide open bits, it's one of the things I enjoyed most when I lived in Tyneside
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"are they not green and pleasant lands then?"
I am sure that they are, although I have never been to any of them. No, the point I was trying to make, maybe badly, was that I was told that if you exclude Wales, Scotland and NI from the UK density figures, then England is the most densely populated country in the world.
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ND makes the point again.
The problem could be solved AND productivity enhanced with some open thinking by management but the 55+ age group which tends to include most managers are just locked in their ways and largely compuer illiterate and that is where it all falls down.
Another exmaple, slightly off topic. For every office that has a no offical dress policy/dress down policy there is some dickhead who insists on wearing a suit and tie and makes sure his staff have to by down grading them if they don't. Unfortunately it always seems to be these inflexible dickheads who get prompoted...
Thank God I am now self employed.
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was that I was told that if youexclude Wales, Scotland and NI from the UK density figures, then England is the most densely populated country in the world.
If you look at England seperately, then yes, it is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The figures are about 2.5 times the UK figures. However, there are still many countries (and some quite large ones) with higher densities than our's.
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Apart from bank holiday weekends, general summer holidays etc, most people just want to get to a car park at or near their destination.
I am lucky, I live in rural Gloucestershire, my commute to work is relativly pain free.
I get the impression that traffic management in urban areas should be looked at with the intention of getting the vehicles parked as efficiently as possible, a sort of well organised, subsidised park and ride system.
From reading various posts I also get the impression that most urban councils seem intent on making driving in their area as difficult as possible by using designated bus lanes, badly programmed traffic lights, multi-occupancy vehicle lanes etc.
It seems to me that local planners need the carrot of easy-reach, cheap park and ride before they use the stick of congestion charging, bus only lanes etc.
I can never understand councils building only single lane by-passes, either. Legislation should insist on dual carriageways.
Of coure new/widened roads/by-passes fill up quickly, we are about 15/20 years behind with our infrastructure in this country, both road and rail.
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Last night it took me an hour to do a jounrey which normally takes 30 minutes and 1 hour 45 for one which normally takes no more than 45.
The first was due to roadworks.
Bradford and Leeds are joined by one direct route, part of it is three lanes between two major roundabouts, last night two lanes of one carriageway were closed because Yorskhire Water had been carrying out roadworks in the middle lane. When I passed they had finished for the day, but both lanes remained closed, despite only the middle lane being affected. The inside and outside lane could have been opened and the middle closed thus doubling the capacity of the road. This one small hole caused tailbacks on ALL major routes out Bradford centre - two main roads and a 'B' road, the centre is about 5 miles from the hole! I was queuing from leaving the car park in the centre of town to the point past the hole. Radio Leeds travel was on all the time and the problem wasn't mentioned once!!
The second was on the M62. The above traffic reports were reporting tailbacks due to an earlier accident at 5pm ish and there were trailbacks - approx 9 miles westbound, but the vehciles had been removed. I was on the road at 7pm and traffic was moving very slowly.
After 5 miles (and 30 minutes) of this slow moving traffic Highways Agency signs indicating outside lane closed in 800 yards, then 600, then 400 then 200. Guess what no lane closure! These incorrect signs were causing 12 miles of tailbacks by then and no sign of any Highways Agency wagons!
If we want to avoid gridlock avoiding self infilicted chaos could make a lot of difference.
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Now I know this is not possible for a lot of people but:
Work flexitime, from home or for yourself = You have a choice on when to drive = choose your own time to treat driving as a pleasure as opposed to a chore = have a good hassle free drive bar mobile cameras!
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"Work flexitime, from home or for yourself"
When I went self employed in ?97, I promised myself I?d start at 7am and finish at 3pm or get in at 11am and leave at 7pm etc etc. Of course it never worked, clients expect you to be there during normal office hours. I had to start using public transport anyway because I was conducting so much business from The Crabtree?s Arms.
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