alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Came back from France via Dover Friday.

I had come up France, 480 miles in seven hours including three stops for fueling and coffee/sandwiches.

The journey from Dover was horrendous. First speed restriction for so-called roadworks on the A2 within 26 miles.

Queued an hour to get under the Dartford tunnel at circa 11.30, including TWENTY minutes with all four lanes at a dead stand, people out of cars etc.
I thought the removal of the toll booths was supposed to have stopped this lunacy? The queue began on the A2........

Then the M25 was appalling and the M11 northbound frequently either crawling or at a dead stand. I finally came off at Birchanger Services, having been told "25 miles to Cambridge, 58 minutes", couldn't even park it was so crowded, went cross country to Huntingdon, and found myself in nose to tail traffic again on the A14, then the A1.

The only place it flowed anything like freely was the A1(M) Alconbury to Peterborough..........and for some reason the wnakers had "40 mph posted with "queue caution" lit, but no queues and everyone ignored it.

Took me SIX HOURS, TWENTY minutes to do the 240 miles!!!!!!!!

Now bear in mind that a) I once did this in the Scoob in three hours one minute, and have frequently done it at other times in under four hours.

I know it's bank holiday weekend, but fek me...........

c_maguire

You've done that trip often enough to know driving here as opposed to mainland Europe is for the most part an endurance test, especially in the South East.

Your 480 miles in 7 hours has some poetic licence though. I do a similar trip as you from Rochechouart to Calais, leaving around 10am, and wherever possible with 100mph on the clock (I take the occasional 90 Euro fine on the chin and would be going faster bar the hassle it can cause). The 450 miles takes around 7 hours doing this.

The bridge is definitely much better without the booths, but the tunnel almost seems worse to me for some inexplicable reason (I use it maybe 2/3 times a month).

If Birchanger Green really was only 5 miles from Cambridge I'd be eating more pizza at home and less KFC there.

dpb

South east England bank holiday road jam shocker. ....

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

****ing road works on every main road now .. *******

kevo10

And, unfortunately, were all part of the problem

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Sorry, the post should have said "25 miles", I kept the capslock key down too long.

Which way do you do Rochechouart to Calais?

I do St Mathieu, Rochechouart, St Junien, Bellac, then to Bessines sur Gartempe on the D1, join the A20, A71, a10, A104 Francilienne, A1 and A26 to Calais.

Or leave the A1 at the Artenay turn off, cross country via Voves to Chartres, then N154 Dreux, Evreux, Rouen, A28 to Abbeville and A16 to Calais.

Seven hours is optimum, eight if I take long stops. I pick up fuel at a supermarket in Calais, it's enough for the whole journey, so the only stops needed are food/drink and toilets, and I have food/drink with me, so a meal stop is fifteen minutes tops.

I think the tunnel IS going to prove slower.......they have to have very low speed limits since large lorries MUST use the East tunnel, which means they have to cross all the other traffic.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Its a nightmare - we're full, we have too many people, we're building more houses situated too far from places of work and shopping and have done NOTHING major to our road infrastructure for 30years...is it any wonder?

Everytime I drive back from Spain its the same old story....(ignoring Rouen and Leon, although I've worked out way to bypass the traffic so can now ignore the satnav). Everything is fine, plain sailing until I reach the end of the M20 and hit the M25 any later than 8:00am and before 10am or 3:00pm to 7:00pm on a weekday. Thats on a normal day without operation stack.

Hitting the M25 at these times then result being stuck in a stop-go caterpillar until I get leave and intermix on the M40 with the "London to Oxford commuter numpties", who basically have no idea of braking/stopping distances or any other common road sense at that matter, like lane discipline or indicators or plain and simple life preservation. It was never like this when I used to do this jaunt 15years ago.

The next trip is via Portsmouth...too much crap going down at Calais with the militant workers and migrants so I booked the overnight ferry from Bilboa before the prices hiked up, the added benefit is that I can now bypass London and the entire south east of the UK

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Traffic is probably one of my biggest bug bares EVER! I outright refuse to go to town on Saturdays as the cities and completely packed and the roads getting in or out are jammed. Thank god I don't have to drive long distances regularly or to commute to work as I'd literally be pulling my hair out in rush hour sat on the motorway. I try to avoid the worst times of when I think traffic will be bad at all costs as it just isn't enjoyable to get anywhere.

S204Darren

The M6 anywhere between JTN 6 to JTN 12 north and South is a ******* car park. This country is a joke! They build the M6 toll that know one hardly uses as it doesn't hook up
with the M5. We need more motorways now, the ones we do have are all being or in need of repair! But even if they would build more roads the tree huggers would try and stop it. This is also a consequence of immigration as the more in the country the more cars on the road! It's not rocket science that letting another 300,000 people a year into our country is going to put its infrastructure under serious pressure. When will this or any other Government realise this.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Gah! Shopping centres; I visited ours for the first time in 2years (merry hell as it locally known as) on a bank holiday Saturday, bad idea; I was having an anxiety attack before I even parked the car.

As for walking round the centre itself, I've sudden realised I may suffer from ochlophobia, all was needed was some giant collies to herd us all

Never again.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

But government and local planners are almost 100% to blame.

We built the M25. Then THEY built shopping centres at almost every junction, so it now attracts millions of folk per day going a couple of exits to shop or browse.

Here, we had a decent M&S in town, we also had an almost new multi-floor store, empty, but we let M&S dictate that they would leave and not come back unless they were allowed to build out of town.

Further, the land they earmarked was owned by a huge garden centre, so the council and local rag forced them out.

Now we have ANOTHER out of town shopping park, this one is so popular that they had to almost give away one of the units to a quid shop!!!!!!

The town centre is dead, but they have increased traffic again........and the mad woman that runs the council has just been promoted to the Lords.

Lillyart14

I've lived in Kent nearly all my life and currently reside in Gillingham, have my brother in Folkestone, friends in Ashford and work at the Premier Inn in Dartford so I know all about the M25, Dartford Tunnel, A2/M2 and the M20.

I've noticed the last couple of years there's been daily problems with all of these roads. Sadly, it's usually due to crashes. There's always one between the Gillingham and Ashford junctions on the coastbound M2 (stretch of road thats about 12 miles long with no junction) and as it's only a two-lane motorway, you can be stuck for a couple of hours.

As for Dartford Tunnel, the works are almost complete but they close one of the tunnels almost each night for completion works so a four-lane motorway becomes two.

I never knew why they got rid of the booth's, traffic always seemed to flow easier with them in. Plus, donkeys speeding and braking every 100 yards doesn't help.

And queue bargers. They're *****. You know the ones: Your in the inside lane and the two outside lanes are closed half a mile ahead so instead of everyone funneling in at the earliest opportunity you get the ********* in their 4x4's, Audi's and BMW's who speed ahead and push their way in. Many times I've got another car near me to pull out and together we block the other lanes so we all move as one. Get a lot of grief from those donkey drivers but I don't care...

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

The one that gets me is the M3 / M25 junction. Specifically, coming OFF the M3 and onto the M25 going towards Gatwick (anti-clockwise). That merger is constantly clogged up, no matter what time of the day you hit it.

Turbohot

I have to be on *** in our local in next few mins. I bet it's going to be bumper-to-bumper due to the bank holiday traffic. I still don't regret glorifying this side of Wales to the Englanders for their holidays. Keep visiting.

JGlanzaV

iTrader: (3)

Not a problem thats so bad down here in cornwall, until bank holiday weekend, 2.5hrs to do 6 miles yesterday....

c_maguire

I have 8 miles to Rochechouart, then I go to St Junien and from there towards Limoges and skirt that by Bellegarde to get to the A20. From there I follow the same route as you, although if feeling lucky I might chance the A86 at Paris which either gains 45mins or loses the same over the A104, which is more predictable.

The Evreux/Dreux route is one I did use years ago when I was doing the trip in a Transit so ton-up was only a dream.

mickywrx

iTrader: (29)

We've been down South for a few days, apart from the idiot drivers I didn't think the traffic was that bad.

c_maguire

Strange that, on both counts.
I drive for work and traffic is definitely worse down South and idiot drivers are definitely worse oop North (relatively speaking, as there are plenty of incompetents in both directions).

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

To be fair, everyone oop North rides around on penny farthings with loaves of bread in the basket on the front, so congestion is never a problem really.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I think I got caught by the "It's bank holiday on Monday, so let's take Friday off too..." brigade.

NEVER seen it so bad except about 15 yrs ago in an absolute downpour the whole journey, everyone doing 40 and loads of rear enders.

As I said, I can usually do it in 4 hrs without trying.

Looking at the new layout at the tunnel, I reckon they can NEVER get the tunnel any better or faster, since the west tunnel, the older one, is too small to take the larger lorries, so THEY have to use the East tunnel, meaning they must cross all the other traffic.
plus, if one gets in the wrong lanes, everyone has to come to a halt to get him sorted.
They RECKON it'll be a fine in future.

NO idea what caused our twenty minute dead stand....unless they stopped everyone to take a convoy of dangerous loads through.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Friday afternoon on a bank holiday weekend in Birmingham is always the same; a mass exodus of people escaping the city like it was infested by a plague, with gridlock starting at about 3:00pm and remaining until about 7:00pm.

Thinking about it now, anything M25 related on a friday afternoon bank holiday or otherwise is almost always very heavily congested (more than a normal weekday at the same time); I forgot about this as I no longer cross the channel on a Friday afternoon for this very reason as it can easily add 2hours to my journey. The one time I stopped at Cobham services for an hour or so thinking it was just a traffic "blip" I was caught in, nope, as I sat outside watching whilst munching my McD's it just got worse and worse until it gridlocked in both directions!

Turbohot

LOL I didn't put spacing in between A and 55 in my previous post, so when I read it in my logged out mode, SN shows it as *** Fair-ish enough, but it even does it when I write the name of Sir Brian ***. Great!

Anyway, A 55 wasn't too bad yesterday. I only had to do 50 in 70 due to the holiday traffic, that's all. Today could be another story, I guess, as the Englanders must be driving back to their pads.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

...*** and *** ?

LOL, I'm logging out to take a look

Turbohot

Yes! ***, not ***, though. See it for yourself!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

LMAO, its amazing what IB sneak in under the radar without telling/asking anyone.

I guess Scunthorpe is back in there too...sorry Alcazar (We did try - you can add it to your bad luck )

Edit; Scunny is still in the exceptions so it still works, so the scunters should be happy (barring me calling them scunters)

Turbohot

Goes to show that to SN, Scunthorpe is holier than an innocent term for a coastal express way and a well-known clean cut physicist.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Or it could be that I complained direct to Stu.

At one time, Scunthorpe, Arsenal and Marseille all got asterisked out.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Stu you say?

Ahem: https://www.scoobynet.com/scoobynet-...ml#post9701296

I'm hurt

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Woops, sorry, I could have sworn it was Stu.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Well, he did do it...I just moaned at him more until he relented