Friday night traffic in the Smoke

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Sat 8 Sep 2007 16:35
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - Lud
Was anyone else in the largely gridlocked capital last night?

Something seemed to have happened in the King's Cross area that caused hideous gridlock for a mile or so in every direction. And Westbound, the Marylebone Road has suffered for years from hideous evening delays apparently linked to the traffic lights.

Apart from the road works and other excavations and diversions caused by the still uncompleted Channel Tunnel terminal, the delays were of course exacerbated by the systematic attempts that have been made in recent years to sabotage and hamper traffic flow in London. To be in the middle of one of these modern jams, with people desperately trying to find rat-runs that no longer exist, is a truly depressing experience. Even the sight of a lot of cyclists - it must be tempting to become one if you can be bothered - did nothing to lift the spirits. And the car traffic was behaving in a very depressed way, like a million St John's Wood Mercedes drivers.
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Sat 8 Sep 2007 16:38
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - bell boy
have a jolly mr Lud you will feel much better
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Mon 10 Sep 2007 14:41
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - Mapmaker
>>lots of cyclists

It wasn't critical mass causing the jam, was it? (A crowd of militant cyclists who seem to think that road users will like them better if they block up the roads on a Friday night.)
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Mon 10 Sep 2007 14:47
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - Lud
I'm afraid not Mapmaker. They aren't needed in London. Those responsible for maintaining traffic flow can and do manage quite well on their own.
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Mon 10 Sep 2007 14:52
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - normd2
it's not just in the Smoke - took me two hours to go 1.5 miles last night approaching the Forth Road Bridge. Sunday evening and two million people (plus me) trying to cross to Fife on a bridge with one lane open.
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Mon 10 Sep 2007 15:00
Friday night traffic in the Smoke - Lud
Yes normd2. In the sixties and seventies, when traffic volumes were lower than they are now, local authorities and road contractors made great efforts to keep roads open at busy times, doing the real work at night and on Sunday mornings etc.

These days they don't seem to care at all. Just look at the huge cages surrounding small holes in the road and a wheelbarrow or two, sometimes for weeks at a time, in main London roads, with or without vile temporary traffic lights.

If I were a Conservative politician, even Boris Johnson, I would concentrate on this matter as well as being greeny-weeny about big fat rich people's motors.
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