Traffic misery in November
I seem to spend far too much time stuck in traffic these days. It's miserable. Today, on my way to work, I was faced with traversing three accident locations in the space of 15 miles. An hour and four miles later, I threw my hands up in despair, turned round and went home.
But much much worse was the totally pointless queue of traffic in which I was stationary on Saturday night. On my way home after midnight, with the husband, we turned onto the North Circular A406 in north London, expecting to zip home and be tucked up within half an hour. Five minutes in, at Finchley (having narrowly missed an exit which would have saved me two hours of finger tapping on the steering wheel, and also having watched a car reverse back down the slip road to avoid the traffic, something i should have been foolhardy enough to risk) I was at the end of a queue of about a thousand cars sitting like sardines squashed in a tin, going nowhere fast. 800 yards ahead, the three lanes were going to narrow to one for roadworks.
The traffic cones sprung up to close the lanes. Two hours later we got to the junction. THERE WERE NO ROADWORKS GOING ON. This means at least 1000 cars with an average of two people each sat still on a saturday night for about two hours each, for no reason at all. That's about 4000 wasted human hours at the very least. Not to mention all the pollution from all these cars going nowhere. This wasn't essential roadworks. This was no roadworks.
I will be complaining to the highways agency. I do wonder if there is any irony in their complaints email being "ha_info@highways.gsi.gov.uk". Ha_Bloody_Ha.
But much much worse was the totally pointless queue of traffic in which I was stationary on Saturday night. On my way home after midnight, with the husband, we turned onto the North Circular A406 in north London, expecting to zip home and be tucked up within half an hour. Five minutes in, at Finchley (having narrowly missed an exit which would have saved me two hours of finger tapping on the steering wheel, and also having watched a car reverse back down the slip road to avoid the traffic, something i should have been foolhardy enough to risk) I was at the end of a queue of about a thousand cars sitting like sardines squashed in a tin, going nowhere fast. 800 yards ahead, the three lanes were going to narrow to one for roadworks.
The traffic cones sprung up to close the lanes. Two hours later we got to the junction. THERE WERE NO ROADWORKS GOING ON. This means at least 1000 cars with an average of two people each sat still on a saturday night for about two hours each, for no reason at all. That's about 4000 wasted human hours at the very least. Not to mention all the pollution from all these cars going nowhere. This wasn't essential roadworks. This was no roadworks.
I will be complaining to the highways agency. I do wonder if there is any irony in their complaints email being "ha_info@highways.gsi.gov.uk". Ha_Bloody_Ha.
posted by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed at 17:11
4 Comments:
I was stuck in the same traffic a few weeks back. I did the naughty thing of driving the wrong way up the slip road coming onto the A406. It saved me 1.5 hours on my journey back to the west not that i'm gloating :)
I get this all the time on the M25: you see warning signs alerting you to road works ahead with instructions that all traffic must congregate to the inner lane. So you dutifully join a long slow-moving queue only to find that the roadworks are utterly illusory - not even cones, just eventually a sign reading 'End of roadworks' that never existed!
No doubt there is some bored soul somewhere in charge of motorway signage who relieves the tedium of a shift by inventiing imaginery roadworks.
Look on the bright side Shelina! you and your husband had the opportunity to spend some quality time together. I bet the 2 hrs just wheeezed past.
I've found being stuck in traffic an ideal opportunity to discuss major issues with the Mrs without being disturbed by unwanted guests or falling asleep or having her throw things at me.
We'd already spent nine hours travelling round london and then to and from manchester that day for a big family dinner. We just wanted to get home and go to sleep!
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