M25 - 84 miles of queues

M25 - 84 miles of queues

Author
Discussion

kambites

67,460 posts

220 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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It took me six hours to drive from Southampton to Luton and back this afternoon. Bloody M25.

Still I did get to see the Red Arrows fly over on the way back. Any idea where they were going?

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Apparently a lot of the guys involved in the technical planning of the M25 wanted 4 lanes to start with, with expansion space as part of the design. Overruled by snr civil servants and politicians.

This is from one of my old man's mates who was involved, this might be just him covering his arse so we don't moan at him directly of course;)

drivin_me_nuts

17,949 posts

210 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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I drive it most days and I've found that Monday mornings are dire, but Friday mornings can take one hour to do a journey that on Monday took over twice as long. In August you really notice the difference and November is always bloody grim.

M25 in the rain seems to bring out the worst in people.

TimLambert7

642 posts

124 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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kambites said:
It took me six hours to drive from Southampton to Luton and back this afternoon. Bloody M25.

Still I did get to see the Red Arrows fly over on the way back. Any idea where they were going?
They were doing a show over RAF Benson on Thursday for the Families Day, I was watching it out of my office window.

Not sure about today...

DJRC

23,563 posts

235 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Qwert1e said:
You've summed up DJRC nicely there!

I've not been around for long but it's pretty clear there are some who, even if they can't walk on water, certainly believe that they can! biggrin
Would Sir care for the thumbnail or full size whoosh parrot?

ewenm

28,506 posts

244 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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TimLambert7 said:
They were doing a show over RAF Benson on Thursday for the Families Day, I was watching it out of my office window.

Not sure about today...
There was a family day at Filton today but I don't think the Red Arrows came over.

Reading this thread reminds me how glad I am to have left SE England behind.

sonarbell

226 posts

166 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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eldar said:
Let me outsmug you. Here in Cumbria it is 28c, and severe traffic congestion is a tractor, a lost tourist dragging a shed and 4 bicycles on a variety of racks an a pensioner looking for sheep. Took 6 minutes to get home, but I wasted 22 secs putting the roof downsmile
You need a MK3 MX5. It only takes 2 seconds to drop the roof. Thats a gain of 20 seconds whistle

9mm

3,128 posts

209 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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eldar said:
DJRC said:
Ciao Home Counties people!

This message was brought to you by an insufferably smug bd sat next to the pool in Italy after driving 5mins back from work smile

Its about 25degrees currently smile
Let me outsmug you. Here in Cumbria it is 28c, and severe traffic congestion is a tractor, a lost tourist dragging a shed and 4 bicycles on a variety of racks an a pensioner looking for sheep. Took 6 minutes to get home, but I wasted 22 secs putting the roof downsmile
How do you find the cold, snow and rain for the other ten months of the year? wink

MacD1

150 posts

122 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Usually ok after 8pm but the speed cameras have put paid to any fast motoring now. What's annoying is that on many parts of the completed road works they haven't even replaced that awful concrete surface that's sounds terrible through your tyres, and is useless in the wet. Should just make 8 lanes each way and be done with it!

Martin4x4

6,506 posts

131 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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retrorider said:
Or build some more roads perhaps ? Just a thought...
You can't do that think about the austerity.



m3jappa

6,391 posts

217 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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wolves_wanderer said:
OwenK said:
DJRC said:
Ciao Home Counties people!
This message was brought to you by an insufferably smug bd sat next to the pool in Italy after driving 5mins back from work smile
Its about 25degrees currently smile
DJRC said:
Because he can. End of.
Im by the pool in Italy so I dont give a monkeys either way smile
DJRC, I've heard rumour that you're by a pool in Italy. Can you confirm or deny these allegations?
He's a lifeguard.
Funnily enough the last 'proper' traffic I encountered was last year in Italy, I think it was the A1 road and was in tuscany, or at least trying to leave tuscany.
We were stuck on this st (well nicely surfaced) dual carriageway for around 4-5 hours while their totally useless services tried to sort out whatever it was they were trying to sort out in 40 degree heat, in a tvr with useless aircon so had to have the roof off.
It was so bad that I actually had to pull into a layby and get some cover under some trees as I started getting paranoid.

That said m25 is ridiculous, totally ridiculous on a regular basis. A few years back we were stuck for so long we came off at the next exit and went back to where we started and got a train home, leaving the van in some st north london estate. The whole thing took about seven hours, being stuck for nearly 5. Other road users were literally going mad, beeping, people driving down the hard shoulder causing solid traffic there too worst traffic of my life that day.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

260 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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wsurfa said:
Apparently a lot of the guys involved in the technical planning of the M25 wanted 4 lanes to start with, with expansion space as part of the design. Overruled by snr civil servants and politicians.

This is from one of my old man's mates who was involved, this might be just him covering his arse so we don't moan at him directly of course;)
To take the stretch between the M4 and M40, the original plans were as follows.

An outer motorway (the M16) on the route of the current M25 on this stretch.

An inner motorway (the M15) also orbital but closer to London linking the M40 near Northolt to the M4 near Heston. This stretch was never built, though the section from South Mimms to Essex is now part of the M25.

An expansion of the North circular to motorway standard, the A40 to M4 bit is still a single carriageway through a housing estate.

A motorway south from the Westway to the M4, it was half built but stopped at Shepherds Bush.

So the one link that got built is taking London suburban traffic as well as the traffic it was supposed to take.

BoRED S2upid

19,641 posts

239 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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That damn road have made me miss a few ferries on European road trips I couldn't cope with it frequently do glad I live up north.

okgo

37,855 posts

197 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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I only use it at weekends and it's almost intolerable then. It's often jammed for a few mins for no real reason!

On another note I've really started to notice what an issue middle lane cruisers are. There are hundreds of people that I see doing it. They cause a lot of build up of traffic for no reason. When did it become so common for people to sit there being undertake and overtaken because they're going slower than the slow lane and slower than the fast lane?!

Cookie220

856 posts

210 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/dar...

Hopefully this will do away with most of the queues

XTR2Turbo

1,533 posts

230 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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The powers that be really need to look at what can be done to improve the M25. It certainly seems worse now than a few years ago. They need to get creative and radical.

what springs to mind:

1) improve the exits at the many junctions where traffic queues onto the motorway at peak times (e.g. Reigate, A3 etc. This could include manually operating the lights at these exits, longer and wider slip lanes etc
2) invest in equipment / people to rapidly remove broken down / crashed vehicles. If need be have areas they can be shunted into between exits and collected later
3) properly manage the variable speed zones rather than the random changing limits we seem to have now
4) restrict lorries to inside lanes at peak times - many accidents seem to involve foreign lorries changing lanes and hitting cars
5) improve the gantry signs especially over the new 4 lane sections. In places it looks like the inside lane is to exit only when in fact it carries on. This ends up in areas where virtually no-one bothers with the inside lane.
6) if there are red crosses in place on the gantry activate the cameras to catch people that completely ignore
7) get rid of any barriers at the Dartford crossing - the new system must operate at motorway speeds
8) increase street lighting of busy sections - apparently this reduces accidents at night

Rawwr

22,722 posts

233 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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The biggest problem with the M25, and most other roads, is twots. People undertaking up off slip roads, violently changing lanes when traffic is moving at 5mph in all lanes, diving from slip road to lane four as early as possible, diving from lane four to slip road as late as possible, olympic level tailgating, forcing gaps in heavy traffic and jut generally being aggressive, inconsiderate, impatient bummers.

AND ITS ALL fkING POINTLESS BECAUSE NOBODY IS GOING ANYWHERE.

If people just left a safe gap, used the lanes properly, changed to the correct lane in good time and, you know, drove with some courtesy and common decency, the motorways would flow perfectly, I'm sure.

tjlazer

875 posts

173 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Well I drive it every day and it's fine. Yes I leave early but if you have to take it n why wouldn't you? Junction 12 to 18 so counter commuting but really it's alot better than being on the tube... Way back is slower but an hour or so is manageable for me smile

eldar

21,614 posts

195 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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9mm said:
eldar said:
DJRC said:
Ciao Home Counties people!

This message was brought to you by an insufferably smug bd sat next to the pool in Italy after driving 5mins back from work smile

Its about 25degrees currently smile
Let me outsmug you. Here in Cumbria it is 28c, and severe traffic congestion is a tractor, a lost tourist dragging a shed and 4 bicycles on a variety of racks an a pensioner looking for sheep. Took 6 minutes to get home, but I wasted 22 secs putting the roof downsmile
How do you find the cold, snow and rain for the other ten months of the year? wink
In general, ste. However those ingenious Germans invented airscarf, so at least your ears don't freeze off top down in winter. And there are some delightful driving roads untroubled by dawdlers, tourists and tts. Wrynose/Hardknott in the snow is entertainingsmile

Rawwr

22,722 posts

233 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
tjlazer said:
Well I drive it every day and it's fine. Yes I leave early but if you have to take it n why wouldn't you? Junction 12 to 18 so counter commuting but really it's alot better than being on the tube... Way back is slower but an hour or so is manageable for me smile
I do 21 to 13 in the morning and 13 to 21 in the evening. It makes me want to cry.