M25 - 84 miles of queues

[calibrax]

Dartford toll will hopefully improve after October, when it will switch to a model similar to the congestion charge - i.e. no stopping to pay, no toll booths, you either pay in advance or online up to 24 hours afterwards.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dart-charge-dar...

[greygoose]

calibrax said:

Dartford toll will hopefully improve after October, when it will switch to a model similar to the congestion charge - i.e. no stopping to pay, no toll booths, you either pay in advance or online up to 24 hours afterwards.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dart-charge-dar...

They need to build another bridge or tunnel really, they should have the cash from all the years of payments after they were supposed to have stopped, sadly I suspect it will be many years away.

[sjabrown]

I was getting irritated by a 5 minute queue here behind someone towing a caravan earlier today.

I now feel quite smug having read this thread. Traffic jams don't exist up here (west coast of Scotland)

[skeggysteve]

Rawwr said:

The biggest problem with the M25, and most other roads, is twots....

I agree 100%.

I went round from the M1 to Leatherhead at about 11.00 this morning and the other way was already looking bad.

But my lift home at 3pm decided, after a short time on the M25, to get the satnav to re-route.
The south and north circulars were worse I'm sure, looking at Kew gardens wall for about an hour is not fun!

But I did enjoy looking at the Aston Martin dealers stock at Walton on Thames - which reminds me, it's an old building and I'm sure it must have been a garage for years but who or what I can't remember.

[rallycross]

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

Not sure about that I drive over the M25 at J10 every morning on the A3 (weekdays) and it's always like a car park at 730 am can't believe people sit in that traffic jam every day must take them an hour to go 1o-15 miles.

[g3org3y]

okgo said:

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?!

I think the two are linked.

It's especially an issue just after the 50mph ave speed sections. It seems to take some drivers a couple of miles to realise the 50mph section has ended, continuing to trundle along while been passed on both sides. I genuinely believe these people have no idea what the NSL sign means.

[jezhumphrey75]

get a motorbike?

[TLandCruiser]

One day people will relise, that no mater how big and how improved the infrastructure will be, every man and his dog can't all go to work at the same time.

Edited by TLandCruiser on Saturday 26th July 12:05

[XJ Flyer]

TLandCruiser said:

One day people will relise that no mater how big and how improved the infrastructure will be, every man and his dog can't all go to work at the same time.

Or all live/work in London and the South East.Time to start building in the underdeveloped North.

As for the M25 it's a classic example of what happens under a policy of putting in a fast road with lots of overtaking lanes that's meant to be used accordingly.While then slowing down traffic with at best non existent lane discipline that goes unenforced.Or at worse stupid speed limits in order to avoid 'congestion'.

[Denis O]

jagracer said:

Denis O said:

At 3.30 set off on the home leg and decided to use Blackwall. It was a bit worse than usual but not too bad. 2 hours from Loughton and I was arriving home so about 10 minutes more than normal. So glad I decided on Blackwall as every 6 minutes the radio was full of traffic reports from all over the country with tales of woe.

You were very lucky, the Blackwall tunnel was closed for quite a while from around 4.30pm I think, there are still long queues.

They were just closing the Northbound entry as I came through. A couple of "jam sandwiches" were pulling everything off up to Blackheath. The Southbound was a bit cloggy in the tunnel, exacerbated by an ambwilance with blues and twos going, whistling through but the rest seemed fairly normal to me.

[Bonefish Blues]

I was surprised to see M25 traffic actually moving on the run down to the M40 junction when I was driven over it courtesy of Chiltern Trains at 4pm yesterday.

Life would have been good but for some fat woman who parked herself next to me and snuffled and gruffled her way through the journey.

[chriscoates]

I'm fortunate enough to live oop North so rarely use it, but one problem for me with the M25 is that around the western half, for every junction there's a lane drop which means most of the traffic likes to stay in the outer 3 lanes. Do we really need a lane drop at Chertsey, for instance? All the traffic then has to bunch up to go through the junction which is bound to have an effect on congestion. Having said that, the main problem has always been the fact that it's used by commuters and locals junction-hopping as opposed to long distance traffic getting around London. There are also very few alternatives to it - I got caught up in traffic in the usual spots heading from the M1 to the M23 but, like everyone else, had to stick with it because there's no obvious route to take to avoid the jams.

Edited by chriscoates on Saturday 26th July 08:06

[GetCarter]

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

Its about 25degrees currently

29 in Northern Scotland

[9mm]

Too many entry and exit points. There should be no more than six - say M1, M2, M3, M4, , M40 and one north of Dartford (which should be replaced with a bridge/tunnel as it is ridiculous choke point). Only then will the M25 be used as a proper arterial. Far too many vehicles hop on and off for one or two junctions. Oh, and create the equivalent of the Highway Patrol (aka traffic cops) coupled with draconian punishments for tailgating and poor lane discipline.

[DJRC]

GetCarter 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

Its about 25degrees currently

29 in Northern Scotland

If it was 29 degrees in northern Scotland at 7pm then I'll wear a kilt

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

I switched to commuting by bike about 8 years ago. I think people must secretly like traffic because it gives them something to moan about, and I guess they have nothing better to do anyway?
Commuting by bike means guaranteed commute times give or take a few minutes and is completely stress free. I love it...even in winter when it's soggy.

[GetCarter]

Driving back from the supermarket on Thursday: http://stevecarter.com/random/GlenDocherty.mov

[Garvin]

Home is just inside the south western border of Cambridgeshire and I often have to drive to Bristol for work commitments. The quickest route by far when traffic is light is A1 - M25 - M4. The slowest route by far at certain times of the day is, you've guessed it, A1 - M25 - M4!

I just cannot understand those who suffer the M25 day in, day out during the congested periods. I will either travel down the night before arriving at my hotel around 9:30pm or leave home at ~5am when it takes only 2hrs 15mins at a leisurely pace to do the journey (can do it well under 2hrs but no need to arrive before 7am!). For the return journey I will not use the motorway route if it means arriving at the M25 anytime between 3:30pm & 7:30pm and will not use that route at all on a Friday. I take a cross country route of which there are many and takes a 'guaranteed' 3hrs +or- 10mins. Need to avoid the A34 going cross country but at this time of year, with the roof down, it is a real pleasure. Having said that I need to plot a new route around Bicester and Buckingham as they have well and truly screwed things up with their current road works!

[DaveCWK]

I use the m40 / m25 / m3 daily, if you have flexible hours I don't think it's that bad. Takes me on average 45 minutes in the morning, 1hr in the evening, 36 miles each way. The key i find is to be off the m25 by 7.15am, and to keep left in the afternoon. The amount of time you save coming off-on-off-on when on the northbound stretch past Heathrow is crazy.

[jagracer]

Denis O said:

They were just closing the Northbound entry as I came through. A couple of "jam sandwiches" were pulling everything off up to Blackheath. The Southbound was a bit cloggy in the tunnel, exacerbated by an ambwilance with blues and twos going, whistling through but the rest seemed fairly normal to me.

You must have missed the southbound bit.
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11367608.Gas_lea...

When in the 1980s the IRA blew up a pipe leading in or out of the gas holder by the tunnel, they didn't close it at all despite the flames being visible from my house 6 miles away, the biggest precaution they took was moving a ship that was moored on a nearby quay. So wtf do they need to close this road when someone does no more than fart in the wrong direction.

Edited by jagracer on Saturday 26th July 09:56