The North Circular.... (rant)
Discussion
I try to avoid driving in London (by which I mean anywhere significantly inside the M25!) as much as possible, but last night I was coming back from visiting a friend in Canary Wharf and thought I'd go round to my girlfriend's place in Enfield. After a short trip down the A13 the 'North Circ' seemed perfectly positioned - a nice wide dual carriageway that would take me all the way round to the A10 without once requiring stops or any real navigation. And this was gone 11pm.
The first thing that strikes you is the proliferation of 50, 40 and even 30mph speed limits on a road where (given late night traffic density) you should be able to do 70mph. There are cameras everywhere! Granted there are a few place where you need to slow down (flyovers and so on), but hopefully that's where common sense would kick in - but no, instead they put miles of blanket speed limit in.
The next thing was the tunnel closure, which even at the best part of midnight had caused one of the biggest traffic jams I've ever seen. There also didn't appear to be any warning signs visible until I'd already been in a jam for what seemed like decades.
It's ridiculous - we have this road that in places provides surprisingly efficient transport around a large city - that's an impressive acheivment I think. If the road had been clear I would have got back an awful lot quicker than any tube could carry me. And then we go and stick draconian speed limits, vast numbers of cameras and idiotically managed road works everywhere. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...
The first thing that strikes you is the proliferation of 50, 40 and even 30mph speed limits on a road where (given late night traffic density) you should be able to do 70mph. There are cameras everywhere! Granted there are a few place where you need to slow down (flyovers and so on), but hopefully that's where common sense would kick in - but no, instead they put miles of blanket speed limit in.
The next thing was the tunnel closure, which even at the best part of midnight had caused one of the biggest traffic jams I've ever seen. There also didn't appear to be any warning signs visible until I'd already been in a jam for what seemed like decades.
It's ridiculous - we have this road that in places provides surprisingly efficient transport around a large city - that's an impressive acheivment I think. If the road had been clear I would have got back an awful lot quicker than any tube could carry me. And then we go and stick draconian speed limits, vast numbers of cameras and idiotically managed road works everywhere. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...
Tell me about it... My gf's parents live in North Yorkshire and we go up there quite regularly. I meanwhile grew up in a very quiet part of Devon - even my current house in the 'leafy' outskirts of Chelmsford seems a bit claustrophobic, go knows how I'll cope living in North London. Gone are the days when I needed the occasional tweak of opposite lock on the way to work. 
Gassing Station | London | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff