alcazar

iTrader: (2)

One of my worst ever journeys home last night, not started well by hitting the queue for passport control almost TWO KILOMETRES outside the port of Calais...and this at 7pm!

Took 52 minutes to get on the port...with FOUR out of a possible nine kiosks open.
Luckily the P&O ferry was 40 minutes delayed so still made it OK.

So.........you'd think I'd have used up my quota of bad luck? Not so.

1. Dartford crossing: one tunnel closed, one small sign telling trucks over 15' 9" high there was no access. What do we find? Johnny Foreigner in his huge truck, having to do a nice three point turn in front of the tunnel entrance under the watchful eyes of Kent Constabulary, 20 minutes while nothing but the trucker moved.

So we get going again.

then,
2. M25 shut from j27 to j25!!!! Overhead signs used to filter traffic into one lane, of course, there being no cones until the last 300 yds, and seeing a queue, UK Motorist esq. took zero notice and we ended up with a ONE HOUR queue to get into the one lane and off at j27......where there were NO detour signs!!!!!!! Luckily I was going up the M11 anyway, so on I went......

You'd think that would be it, wouldn't you? Nope, not in modern Britain.

3. A1 closed from the A52 turn off, (Nottingham, Grantham) to Newark. Everyone filtered onto the A52, forced to drive to the A46, then back to Newark.....a nice total of 30 miles to cover 12. Unbelievable Jeff.

So a journey which is 3h45 to 4h at that time of night took close on 5h 45.........

It just doesn't seem to matter any more how many motorists you inconvenience......after all, we are all criminals and eco-terrorists, despite carrying our huge tax burden. Cheers Lying Labour.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Thank **** I don't have to do much driving.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Considered getting a motorbike?

dpb

That section the M25 seems be a favorite for heavy traffic / detours


Don't know whether other way round the ring road might be quicker,

Clearly a lot further

^Qwerty^

If there are signs saying lanes closed in 3,2,1 miles and then ,x number of yards on a motorway, that's exactly what it means. Why would you stop using a perfectly serviceable lane until the point that it is actually closed? IMO, the problem arises with people not doing a merge in turn at the point the lane does close, which would make the whole thing flow better, rather than reverting to some caveman mentality of nobody, and I mean nobody is going to get in front of me.

However if a lane is marked as closed with the red cross, that's a different matter.

Do feel for you though, that's an epic drive where nothing seemed to go right by the sound of it

Turbohot

I like this thread.

Alcazar, I feel for you.

Now, I'd like to moan about my road travel misery.

Basically, you get stuck on M56 for 2 hours. I mean from one junction to the next one it takes 2 hours. That's when you need to reach a work commitment with time boundaries. Whole day planned out and work divided into x no. of hours slots.

16th of January it is. Someone's birthday for sure. Can't remember whose, though. Anyway, you wake up quite early to hit the road to Wilmslow that morning. Work commitment with strict time boundaries.

You decide to check in there for 9am in order to set up for 9:30 start. You leave home at 7am in hope to do 1hr 10mins journey in at the most 2 hours. That's considering traffic jams etc. But, you get jammed for 2 fcvking hours between two pathetic junctions, and eventually get there all dishevelled (internally) 2:15 hrs late at 11:15am; like a class A d7ck! To make the matters more exciting, what happens is that your fcvking satnav stops working at the same time as you jam for 2 hours! That's because the fcvking lighter fuse in the car has blown, and there's no one on that stretch of road to fix it for you. You didn't think that would happen to you, so you never charged your satnav in the house. You never do. Why should you. So, now, you have no other mean but to follow the direction to Wilmslow, end of. As the venue is bang in the middle of somewhere in Wilmslow, you stop at some Holiday Inn to ask for the directions. Luckily you always take a picture of the destination address on your iPhone. The kind receptionist takes the address of you and prints out the map, but it's so sh7t that you can't work out the point of his kindness. At least you could use their loo there.

When you get to the venue, you see the bookers that had been moidering you on phone all along. They know via radio traffic bulletins that you're not making anything up. You did get out of bed in time to hit the road. But they still ask for the discount for lost hours. You provide them your understanding and give them the asked discount without giving away that you're actually gutted, it wasn't your fault. Although you're gutted inside, you keep your composure, deep breathe, count 1 to 10 and backwards..... You're still supposed to run your workshops for exactly the same large number of participants, and you'll have just far more of them in each slot than you would have had; had you been there in time. So, basically, you work like a donkey with no break whatsoever. You keep your composure, deep breathe, count 1 to 10 and backwards..... and nail it. By the time you're loading your car to drive back home, a moiderer rings from elsewhere. All you want to do it tell them to p7ss off. But you don't. You keep your composure, deep breathe, count 1 to 10 and backwards..... and deal with it calmly. By the time you're back home, you feel so sh7t about the traffic and your satnav letting you down that you just want to scream and cry together in one go- "ARRRRRRGH! " But you keep your composure, deep breathe, count 1 to 10 and backwards..... be nice to people in the house, cook tea, kiss cats and go to bed. But you can't fcvking sleep now.

Fcvking hell. I don't wish that sort of double-triple tragedy on anyone.

I can't do anything about the traffic jams. I understand me losing money for being late, but working like a donkey to cover the same amount of work under enormous pressure wasn't the best experience. Composures are all very good, but this sort of tragedy can hit you so hard later that you could lose your sleep for a night, at least. Anyway, something what I can do is that I always charge my satnav before I leave my house for such destinations.

The biggest culprit remains the unpredictable traffic jam in my story. Had it not happened, I still would have got to the place fumbling along the way; with no help of my satnav.

Turbohot

I feel better now.

dpb

I reckon negotiating the peripherique that time would result in some thing!

c_maguire

What the hell have Labour got to do with you getting home late?

dpb

UK is the place to be , i suspect

dpb

Still, if UK won't so popular we'd have no reason to complain now would we

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Welcome home, Jeff


I'm just sorting shït my end and setting off for a week in Great Yarmouth today (to the middle classes in NSR, that's in the UK).

I look forward to the endless stream of tractors, foreign wagons, caravans and OAP's that I'll encounter on a mainly single carriageway 150 mile route.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I've just driven from Glasgow to Edinburgh to Norfolk to Essex to Hook to the Peaks to the Lakes and back up to Glasgow and the only queue in 7 days of driving was the M25.

Today, I'm driving from Glasgow to Liverpool and back and then tomorrow from Glasgow back to Liverpool.

I've put some miles away this week and the UK roads have done me well.

SJ_Skyline

I was driving from Gatwick to Watford a couple of weeks back and the overhead notice boards were advising me of congestion on the M4 near Bristol. I mean, for Christ's sake what possible relevance is that to the majority of motorists on the western stretch of the M25?

Still doesn't beat i405 in rush hour though! 8 lanes of stationary traffic in both directions if you hit it at the wrong time!

hodgy0_2

Toll roads, pay for what you use - even if you are a foreigner

Stops people using mways for local journeys too

dpb

Swati , you could used iPhone for navigation


Or don't iPhones do that sort of thing ???#!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Driving anywhere in England is like that alcazar. If it's not roadworks or road closures or accidents it's just density of traffic. There is very little pleasure to be gained by travelling within this country any longer. The transport infrastructure is way below par and not getting any better.

My pet annoyance right now is the managed motorway nonsense that is being installed everywhere. It takes literally years (with the longest 50/40 mph sections I have ever seen on motorways while it's being done) to install a few gantries, signs and cameras and for what? And then they have that sign at the side of the road at the start of the motorway with some ugly little kid and the text 'My dad works on this site so please drive carefully'.... makes me want to run the ****'s dad down J/k before the holier than thou brigade turn up!

dpb

Ah ok, you didn't fancy ending up in Wimbledon, rather than Wilmslow.

dnc

Too bloody true. It's not like you can even plan journeys to avoid heavy traffic (save an overnight run) as something will always happen. A few observations/pet hates/thoughts
1. Ban HGVs etc from overtaking during peak periods. C***s!
2. The general standard of driving by impatient p****s is abysmal, causing mainly minor accidents that end up causing bedlam
3. Lane discipline. That old chestnut!
4. The 'services' need to get their act together in terms of adding to the bedlam of minor accidents by being overly cautious in traffic management as a result
5. The Govt need to invest properly in the road network using motoring related taxes. This will never happen.
6. Managed motorways - what a joke!

A work colleague recently attended a speed awareness course and says that the instructor told the group that lots of speed cameras are being installed in the M1 barriers as it is being upgraded. Anyone else heard this?
[/LIST]

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Agree with pretty much all you've written there especially about how the services manage minor incidents these days. A little while back I saw a 4 lane motorway temporarily coned off by the traffic wombles to 2 lanes for a Discovery to change a wheel due to a puncture

As for the speed cameras in the barriers I don't know, but could believe it.

I do know for a fact that the managed motorway just installed on the M62 near Bradford/Leeds has its gantry speed cameras fully operational and set to 78mph when the variable speed limits AREN'T in force. I guess they have to pay for the 3 years of f**king the motorway about somehow. So be careful out there.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

They spent their time in government making the rest of the population believe that motorists are eco-terrorists and speeding criminals.

So now...where is our voice and who bothers to listen?

Turbohot

You don't say that, man. I did try, but there was no 3G signal on that stretch or anything to command my iPhone to guide me. The map wouldn't load.

No, I wouldn't skive. I was hellbent to get there by a hook or a crook. What comes out of it is that travel to Wilmslow can be terribly slow sometimes.

dpb

Windows phone would work

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Yes, but you'd be in Guatemala by the end of it.

Turbohot

Chip

Try living and getting around here in Cardiff at the moment, it's like Fort Knox with all this NATO crap going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ence-week.html

dpb

Is that in Cheshire?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

No........but I bet lots of Guatamalans are.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Being a lorry driver my biggest pet hates are.

1. cars doing 45-50mph in the slow/left hand lane of the motorway, as soon as I go to overtake and they see a lorry in there mirror they speed up, I can only go 55mph so bloody stay above 55mph in the slow lane and I wouldn't have to overtake!!!

2, When leaving a 4 second gap from the car in front and maintaining the 55mph limit on the motorway why do cars have the need to pull into my stopping gap and then need to keep braking forcing me to then lower my speed limit!!

3, When on a 2 lane carrigeway that then filters into 1 lane, why do cars have the need to keep coming even though the left hand lane has already filtered into the right lane either forcing me to brake or make the distance between me and the car very close!!

4, When reversing into a service yard with hazards on, why do cars still have the need to drive behind/around and not stop and wait as im half way through a manoeuvre.


^^This annoys me on a daily basis, sitting on the M25 in heavy traffic and driving in Central London where no one has manners and in a rush is part of my job that I can put up with!!

Rick2014

iTrader: (3)

Im also a Hgv driver.And I will say with out trucks you get nothing .
What I like about being so high up in a cab is looking down onto the road at the cars who carnt negotiate lanes,who run from the back of the lanes and try and push there way into the front pushing the traffic further back .Or when 55 ft artics are driving down the road or motorway and slow down for traffic leaving a gap in front and some imbecile jumps right in front making you slam your brakes on.My best one is the motorway coming to a total stand still and you get the plonkers that decide to drive down the hard shoulder to jump in front of another car or to leave at the next junction.Ive seen it first hand and the rozzers are following the cars down the hard shoulder with out the motorist even knowing .But everyone likes it when the truck comes down there street to drop off there brand new table or washing machine or brand new car which comes by transporter.Hgv drivers are just seen as things that get in the way and no one likes us especialy cyclists.