M25 - 84 miles of queues

[Dr Jekyll]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

[FiF]

Who remembers the piece in Car magazine where for some completely barking reason they decided to put as many miles as they could during a week. The car of choice for another seemingly inexplicable reason was iirc a Mk 3 Ford Escort Ghia. Yes, quite.

Anyway after a few days of battering the poor thing around the more pleasant parts for some reason one day they decided that they would only put miles on by doing laps of the M25.

Firstly, does anyone remember how many laps they actually did. It was quite a fair number in both clock and anticlockwise directions.

Secondly if the aim was to put lots of miles on they sure as hell wouldn't make the decision to do that today.

I had a nice meander through the Peak District yesterday. The only brief holdups were in Baslow, huge lorry making a horlicks of a right turn, and in Ashbourne past the entrance to the Co-op.

Everywhere else was steady progress albeit very little of it at NSL. But that's quite another problem.

[Phatboy317]

DonkeyApple said:

The only logical solution is to steadily increase tax on fuel to price enough people off the road!!!

We've had steadily increasing tax on fuel for two decades, and the traffic's still increasing.
How much longer do we have to wait until it starts working?

[GetCarter]

Phatboy317 said:

DonkeyApple said:

The only logical solution is to steadily increase tax on fuel to price enough people off the road!!!

We've had steadily increasing tax on fuel for two decades, and the traffic's still increasing.
How much longer do we have to wait until it starts working?

...and what about here, where there is almost no traffic... do we have to pay too?

[Phatboy317]

GetCarter said:

...and what about here, where there is almost no traffic... do we have to pay too?

Of course, it's all your fault, didn'cha know?

[GetCarter]

Phatboy317 said:

GetCarter said:

...and what about here, where there is almost no traffic... do we have to pay too?

Of course, it's all your fault, didn'cha know?

My point being that increasing fuel prices is indiscriminate, and unfair. We already pay +/-10p per litre more here than in M25 land. if fuel duty was increased to force people off the roads, it would mostly affect the empty roads in the poorer parts of the country.

[Phatboy317]

GetCarter said:

My point being that increasing fuel prices is indiscriminate, and unfair. We already pay +/-10p per litre more here than in M25 land. if fuel duty was increased to force people off the roads, it would mostly affect the empty roads in the poorer parts of the country.

I know. I also live in a relatively quiet part of the country, and it costs me nearly 15% of my gross income just to commute to work. And I have no way of getting to work except by car.

[jet_noise]

Dear Fif,

FiF said:

Who remembers the piece in Car magazine where for some completely barking reason they decided to put as many miles as they could during a week. The car of choice for another seemingly inexplicable reason was iirc a Mk 3 Ford Escort Ghia. Yes, quite.

Anyway after a few days of battering the poor thing around the more pleasant parts for some reason one day they decided that they would only put miles on by doing laps of the M25.

Firstly, does anyone remember how many laps they actually did. It was quite a fair number in both clock and anticlockwise directions.

Secondly if the aim was to put lots of miles on they sure as hell wouldn't make the decision to do that today.

I had a nice meander through the Peak District yesterday. The only brief holdups were in Baslow, huge lorry making a horlicks of a right turn, and in Ashbourne past the entrance to the Co-op.

Everywhere else was steady progress albeit very little of it at NSL. But that's quite another problem.

Remember the article but not to that level of detail.
I'm trying to remember more. Was it a press car? Did they have it for 5 days? They put 5000 miles on it?
One line stuck, something like "It didn't start once so I turned the key a second time".

C582 KWC was - still is? - a silver Mk IV Escort 1.4GL - it featured in CAR magazine's "5000 miles in a week" item in the June 1986 edition.. from: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=3&a...

regards,
Jet

ETA link

Edited by jet_noise on Saturday 26th July 12:23

[Sir Bagalot]

Rawwr said:

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.

^^This

[k-ink]

Ever get the feeling our cramped island is a tad over populated? Doubling petrol prices is one solution unfortunately. Or a mass cull.

[FiF]

jet_noise said:

Dear Fif,

FiF said:

Who remembers the piece in Car magazine where for some completely barking reason they decided to put as many miles as they could during a week. The car of choice for another seemingly inexplicable reason was iirc a Mk 3 Ford Escort Ghia. Yes, quite.

Anyway after a few days of battering the poor thing around the more pleasant parts for some reason one day they decided that they would only put miles on by doing laps of the M25.

Firstly, does anyone remember how many laps they actually did. It was quite a fair number in both clock and anticlockwise directions.

Secondly if the aim was to put lots of miles on they sure as hell wouldn't make the decision to do that today.

I had a nice meander through the Peak District yesterday. The only brief holdups were in Baslow, huge lorry making a horlicks of a right turn, and in Ashbourne past the entrance to the Co-op.

Everywhere else was steady progress albeit very little of it at NSL. But that's quite another problem.

Remember the article but not to that level of detail.
I'm trying to remember more. Was it a press car? Did they have it for 5 days? They put 5000 miles on it?
One line stuck, something like "It didn't start once so I turned the key a second time".

C582 KWC was - still is? - a silver Mk IV Escort 1.4GL - it featured in CAR magazine's "5000 miles in a week" item in the June 1986 edition.. from: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=3&a...

regards,
Jet

ETA link

Edited by jet_noise on Saturday 26th July 12:23

Dear jet_noise,

Thanks for that. Yes the 5000 miles in a week definitely rings a bell.

My memory failed on the spec and the mark number though in my defence not much changed from Mk3 to 4, both bloody awful after my series of Mk 1 and Mk 2 examples.

Press car yes. Don't think it was one of their long termers.

Scraping barrel now but reckon the M25 marathon was on the Saturday. Possibly needed to get the 5000 mile target after falling short mon-fri.

Googled for it. Found nothing but did discover Autocar did a 5000 mile road trip in a Nissan Qashqai but took 13 days, what a set of Jessies.

Rgds

[Baz Tench]

I think part of the reason people tend to stay out of L1, hence overcrowding the other lanes is that they are worried about being 'trapped' into leaving at the next exit (if you get what I mean).

ETA: As we know, some lanes become feeder lanes for the next exit, and some don't. It seems that far too many people don't know the difference and get mis-lead by the signs (not the fault of the signs).

Edited by Baz Tench on Saturday 26th July 16:07

[rallycross]

Tried to on the m25 today the plan was to go from J10 up tp J21 but was stop start going clockwise from J12 and anti clock wise was solid not moving all the way from M3 to Heathrow, had to give up and turn back using non motorway roads.

[DJRC]

k-ink said:

Ever get the feeling our cramped island is a tad over populated? Doubling petrol prices is one solution unfortunately. Or a mass cull.

No not really...because it isn't. Its a common misconception by ignorant people who haven't looked up from their navel. The island isn't cramped at all. Certain parts of the island are but of you chose to live in said cramped parts then that's your decision. This thread has already had several contributors pointing they have it relatively empty and traffic free.

[XJ Flyer]

DJRC said:

k-ink said:

Ever get the feeling our cramped island is a tad over populated? Doubling petrol prices is one solution unfortunately. Or a mass cull.

No not really...because it isn't. Its a common misconception by ignorant people who haven't looked up from their navel. The island isn't cramped at all. Certain parts of the island are but of you chose to live in said cramped parts then that's your decision. This thread has already had several contributors pointing they have it relatively empty and traffic free.

It's not a case of choice.It is a case of an unbalanced national development policy.In which certain parts of the country want to see others turned into over developed over populated dumps to keep their own as a relative barren wilderness.

None of which is going to make much difference in the case of the type of congestion resulting from someone driving in lane 3 or 4 of the M25 at 50 mph for example assuming no one wants to get nicked for undertaking.

Edited by XJ Flyer on Saturday 26th July 17:34

[DJRC]

XJ Flyer said:

DJRC said:

k-ink said:

Ever get the feeling our cramped island is a tad over populated? Doubling petrol prices is one solution unfortunately. Or a mass cull.

No not really...because it isn't. Its a common misconception by ignorant people who haven't looked up from their navel. The island isn't cramped at all. Certain parts of the island are but of you chose to live in said cramped parts then that's your decision. This thread has already had several contributors pointing they have it relatively empty and traffic free.

It's not a case of choice.It is a case of an unbalanced national development policy.In which certain parts of the country want to see others turned into over developed over populated dumps to keep their own as a relative barren wilderness.

None of which is going to make much difference in the case of the type of congestion resulting from someone driving in lane 3 or 4 of the M25 at 50 mph for example assuming no one wants to get nicked for undertaking.

Edited by XJ Flyer on Saturday 26th July 17:34

Wrong. Its ALWAYS a matter of choice. Most ppl just don't like the choices.

[iva cosworth]

DJRC....just looked up your location,easy to get to a poolside in Italy.

You have an 800 mile head start on me.

Only a little envious.

[DJRC]

My first post/s were tongue in cheek. The serious side Im happy to leave to others *because* most of us have experienced this pain. There is a reason a fair few posters have stated quite brutally they will never tolerate the crap of that commute again...because they found it hell on earth. It is easier, often quicker and a lot less stressful for me to commute back to Warcs from central Europe than down south.
Anyway smug mode off...it pissed it down today.

[ocrx8]

Hateful piece of road. I barely manage a trip on it without coming to a standstill for no apparent reason. Has it always been like this?

[iva cosworth]

ocrx8 said:

Hateful piece of road. I barely manage a trip on it without coming to a standstill for no apparent reason. Has it always been like this?

Yes....iirc,on the day it was officially opened there was an accident within hours which caused

instant hold ups.

It's just too busy.