BS: Bad M25 traffic today

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 09:34 AM

I'm amazed how I used to tackle it quite frequently, to get to the M3 for the ferry to the Isle of Wight (and Parkhurst Prison) Both M25 AND ferries are nowadays no-noes for me, I can't handle the stress and I get seasick too easily. I suppose as one gets to be old, things that were no prob. in the past become major issues!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 04:50 PM

"Putting confused old men and ladies in cars on the M25 is a bad idea. "

Yeah. But they're not confused (or old) when they join it!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 01:02 PM

LOL you lot! Another article, ages ago, said an old lady was stopped by the Police, going the WRONG way round the thing! Not surprised, but it honestly wasn't me. (Or else, I've completely forgotten the event!) Putting confused old men and ladies in cars on the M25 is a bad idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 03:31 PM

Phew ~~ I thought it might have been me!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 03:12 PM

I cannot tell a lie: it was Richard.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 03:06 PM

It was not me

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 01:04 PM

Hang on a minute, wasn't an elderly and confused old man found on the M25 in his car, he'd been on it for several DAYS, trying to navigate back to his home? I'm sure I heard it on the news. If so, I can fully understand the poor thing's disorientation.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 01:03 PM

By and large it's a lot better than the A 25 (particularly since the limit on most of the A 25 came down to 30 or 40 and cameras went on it - I once came round it before the M25 existed with a twin-cam FIAT with only the second choke on the twin-choke weber working - which was most entertaining) or going from say Shorne Kent to Aldenham Herts before there was an M25, rat-running through Dagenham - although I did get that down to 55 minutes one dark night...

Once upon a time at 2 am the fastest way from the M1 to the A2 was down the Edgware Road, Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square (because it's a pfaff getting from Embankment to Southwark Bridge), Southwark Bridge, Elephant, Old Kent Road. My late father once much impressed me by getting a Vauxhall Cresta Estate over 90 down Park Lane... Don't even ask the speed we cleared Blackheath...

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 10:26 AM

Went on it yesterday OK (though there was tailback on opposite carriage way of M4 on the way with a car on its roof being dealt with), we should have been on on Boxing day but changed. Back there on Saturday so fingers crossed, it's often just weight of traffic, especially in the junction 20s and in the roadworks. We'd avoid it but friends & relatives live along it.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 29 Dec 11 - 04:41 AM

Yes, Eliza, there were only two carriages.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 07:36 PM

I travelled home on the 27th the last two years. This year I spent an extra day in London (not entirely due to the traffic), so came on the 28th. I took my normal 5 hours (including break) even though I detoured via Wrexham as Junctions 14-15 of the M6 were heavily congested. My son drove from Bedford to Bromley on the 27th, and took my advice and allowed twice his normal time. As an ex-proffessional driver I can see no reason to drive at the worst possible date and time of the year.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 04:16 PM

Decades ago, in Boston, it took me about an hour and a half to go 6.5 miles from home to class in a car. I found that I could do it in well under an hour on a bicycle, although the traffic conditions frequently caused me to arrive with BPS (brown pants syndrome).

A new freeway opened up with proclamations that it would solve all the local traffic problems. My original explanation to all the braggarts, having seen the effect before, was that with a more convenient route more people would choose to drive until the congestion on the new freeway made the same trip about the same time as for the old routes, and there would be no place to park all the additional cars.

It took about 7 months before the first naysayer came back and asked if I could "explain that again, 'cause it seems to be just like you said."

(Accident rates also were higher on the new road for almost a year, until some of the drivers learned that it requires a little different driving style on freeways, even when you're just sitting still on them.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 02:40 PM

Shimrod, my old friend Pat used to get that blooming Liverpool train (starting from Norwich) There were often only TWO carriages, and it was laughingly called a Sprinter!! Sometimes only ONE toilet was working. She was usually turfed out at Nottingham, no explanation. The evicted passengers had to cart their suitcases up and down stairs across the tracks to get a substitute train. She's elderly and arthritic. Now she gets the flight from Norwich to Manchester.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: DMcG
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 12:10 PM

I didn't learn to drive until I was over 30 and started as a direct result of a train journey from Darlington to King's cross that was so crowded we couldn't even get to the seats we had reserved. More recently my son reserved a seat on a train to discover the seat didn't physically exist: the seat number on his reserved seat was greater than the highest number in the carriage. On the way back, the previous train had been cancelled so all reservations on his train were also cancelled, even though he'd paid extra for it. No, I don't envy those who have to travel by train either this time of year

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 06:47 AM

All of you motorists should thank your lucky stars that you weren't on the 11:28 train 'service' from Peterborough to Liverpool yesterday - packed in like sardines they were! Luckily I'd reserved a seat ...

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 06:06 PM

That M25 terrifies me. Even when it's moving, you have joining traffic every few miles, so everyone has to shift over a lane to let them in. Going at 70 MPH, and they won't move over, I get panicky. Then we all move back to the left again. It's like a dangerous dance. But I've seen it at a standstill too. It's a horror! Luckily, I don't leave Norfolk now, and we don't have any Motorways here!

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:58 PM

Caught that this evening - from the M3 link to Leatherhead took about 45 minutes. The overheads reckoned 50mph - I was lucky to do 30.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:49 PM

it is sometimes called[M25]Europes biggest carpark!an unfunny joke if you catch one of those days.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: bobad
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:46 PM

Jaysus....you're going to wear out your good hip.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Paul Burke
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:39 PM

Daily mail whinger.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,999
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:32 PM

Yeah.

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: DMcG
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:32 PM

It took us 3 1/4 hours to get from Orpington to St Albans this morning
Three and a half hours from Dartford to the A3 turnoff. So a journey that is normally about 2 hours was four and a half ;(

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: bobad
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 05:29 PM

"Took me 13 hours to get from Ormstown to Montreal: distance of about 40 miles."

Did you walk?

Subject: RE: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: GUEST,999
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 04:55 PM

Took me 13 hours to get from Ormstown to Montreal: distance of about 40 miles. Things can be tough!

Subject: BS: Bad M25 traffic today
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 04:46 PM

It took us 3 1/4 hours to get from Orpington to St Albans this morning, then just under 2 hours to drive back through London!