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Britain's nightmare traffic-jams

Britain's nightmare traffic-jams

Old Aug 24th 2003, 12:27 am
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Originally posted by lynnj
Well hows this one then .My husband was driving up the M40 yesterday and hit a traffic jam, after an hour without turning a wheel, he sarted to crawl along and found 3 lanes merging into 2, why? someone in a BMW had fallen asleep and his car was blocking the lane, after crawling another 8 miles in another hour and a half he came to the real problem a lorry through the central reservation.

Lynn

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Old Aug 24th 2003, 8:11 am
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My cousin lives not far from the M25 and apparently, it was so blocked up a few weeks ago in 30c heat that there were radio appeals for local people to take bottled water up to the nearest M25 junction because people were flaking out in the heat whilst at a standstill.

I feel very lucky that I live 10 minutes from work and barely have to go on any main roads, let alone motorways. My most recent motorway journey was 2 weeks ago today (Sunday) when we drove on the M4 to the beaches on the Gower Coast. Considering it was a scorching day we expected to get stuck in at least one traffic jam (especially as we didnt make the early start we intended), but we had a totally congestion free trip. So, it isn't always that bad.....

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Old Aug 24th 2003, 9:18 am
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Are there no traffic jams in Oz?

Maybe they are not as bad or as many as in the UK but traffic must be bad around larger cities etc.?

Some feedback would be appreciated just to get a bit of perspective without my rose tinted glasses on!
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Old Aug 24th 2003, 11:34 pm
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Originally posted by cam the man
Are there no traffic jams in Oz?

Maybe they are not as bad or as many as in the UK but traffic must be bad around larger cities etc.?

Some feedback would be appreciated just to get a bit of perspective without my rose tinted glasses on!
Sure their are traffic jams here in the cities, especially in rush hour, but outside of rush hour the roads are generally fine. When you get good weather at the weekend (which is most weekends in Brisbane) you still have no trouble getting to the coast. Must admit it's eaiser getting to GC rather than SC as the road south is better then the one north.

Also all the main cities have excellent public transport systems and my preference is always public transport in cities rather than driveing.
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Old Sep 14th 2003, 10:13 am
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Default Re: Britain's nightmare traffic-jams

Originally posted by chippy
What pissess me off is that it should never have come to this. A succession of incompetent governments has bought about this utter chaos.
With the billions they rake in from motoring taxes you would have thought they could have sorted it by now.

God it pissess me off, I could go into a full scale rant about this...no...must stop...these bloody government bastards..no must keep control...must stop...that two jags, when I see him I'm gonna...no..no...bet he does'nt sit in jams on the way to work the fat arrogant....no stop now..stop....aaaaarrrrrrgggggggg......
here here!
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Old Sep 14th 2003, 10:33 am
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hi there

agree with all the above!
Chippy, I totoally agree with you!!!!
add public transport which I have to use every day, and no wonder the traffic is getting worse! As soon as I have passed my driving test I will be using the car...even though the bus to my kids school and nursery would take me door to door! I cant actually use said bus because it only runs every ten minutes in the morning and is always packed! many are missing on a regular basis and I once waited 2 hours for a bus we could get on! The drivers can be arrogant and rude (not all - some are very considerate) and when you have 3 grumpy kids to contend with, its a miserable start to the day.
those arrogant, upper class morons who sit in their flash cars getting driven into westminster every day should try our way of getting to work/school/wherever.....but I honestly dont think they would give a damn, because they are only looking out for themselves; have we ever had a government that cared about its people? you just have to look back at history and the answer is no.

Sorry to rant, I will put my soapbox back in the shed now.....
just posted on the thread about the weather in SAus, and I feel completely depressed about the coming winter.......boohoohoo!!

sue
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Old Sep 14th 2003, 1:19 pm
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Default Re: Britain's nightmare traffic-jams

Originally posted by onetwothree
Britain's roads are the most congested in Europe. Statistics show that unless something is done things are going to get much worse.
Key statistics:
* There are nearly half a million traffic jams in Britain every year. That is nearly 10,000 a week.
* There are between 200 and 300 incidents of major congestion every day.
* Congestion levels are forecast to grow by between 11 and 20 per cent over the next ten years.
* The cost of traffic jams to British business is £20 billion every year.
* Traffic levels in Britain are increasing by about three per cent every year.
* Over the past 20 years road traffic has grown by 70 per cent.
* Left unchecked, road traffic could grow by more than a third in the next 20 years.
* There are 26 million cars on the road and this is expected to increase to at least 31 million by 2020
Dunno what your problems are.
I and a million others get free parking on the M25 everyday. And now they are going to enlarge it to ensure free parking for 1.5 million cars.
How lucky we are.

Cheers
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 9:23 am
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We were talking about this in the local the other night and even tried to work out how many hours we would waste in traffic-jams if we stayed in England all our lives.

Thanks to a calculator.......22,500 hours of our life wasted!

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Old Oct 28th 2003, 9:30 am
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Did anyone see this article yesterday?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...868038,00.html

'Cos that's really going to help...
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 12:36 pm
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Originally posted by bryank
That's why we're so glad to be downunder
Yeah its a pain but it shows how much life there is in England. Aussie is just one empty load of nothing - everyone is so laid back they are half dead!
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 12:43 pm
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Originally posted by sculkin
Yeah its a pain but it shows how much life there is in England. Aussie is just one empty load of nothing - everyone is so laid back they are half dead!
A bit like I feel after 8 months here
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 1:36 pm
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Originally posted by sculkin
Yeah its a pain but it shows how much life there is in England. Aussie is just one empty load of nothing - everyone is so laid back they are half dead!
That is the truest three lines I have ever read on this Forum!!!
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 1:42 pm
  #28  
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someone in a BMW had fallen asleep and his car was blocking the lane
And not one person decided to check the guy was alive then? how did they know he was asleep.

Lets hope that at no time any of those that drove past him cursing, ever suffer a stroke or heart attack or any other problem.
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 1:44 pm
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The fact that he'd put his seat right back and his feet were on the dashboard were a bit of a giveaway.
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Old Oct 28th 2003, 1:49 pm
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The fact that he'd put his seat right back and his feet were on the dashboard were a bit of a giveaway.
Even so it was no indication that everything was OK, it only took one of those mindless morons to tap on his window to check. If in fact he was asleep he would have been woken and that would have saved others being stuck behind him.

Last edited by Jirrupin; Oct 28th 2003 at 1:58 pm.
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