Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Roddy Graham's Blog: 12 December 2008 - Traffic nightmare
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Roddy Graham's Blog: 12 December 2008 - Traffic nightmare

Date: 12 December 2008

Roddy Graham

Is it surprising that our economy has come to a grinding halt, when we do so with increased frequency on our roads today?

In the past week, I have suffered significant sense of humour failure behind the wheel of the car.

It all started on Sunday with a scenic trip to the West Country avoiding the more conventional route of the M4 motorway. In the past few years, due to increased traffic levels, this trip has extended from an average of an hour and 20 minutes to an hour and 30. On the way out, it took over two hours due to gridlock in Devizes. OK, I was not best pleased but roadworks at a major intersection on a Sunday I can live with. It makes far more sense for temporary road works to take place on a Sunday than during the busy business week.

Knowing the same delays would take place on the return journey I opted for the M4 only to grind to a standstill in central Bath at 7pm. It took three quarters of an hour to move about four miles and it was then stop/start all the way to junction 18. Journey time - two and half hours.

Then on Monday, a commute that regularly takes twenty minutes took three-quarters of an hour. Why? Because some genius in a road traffic planning department has come up with the brainwave of allowing two sets of roadworks to take place in the same town within half a mile of one another at major intersections causing the second gridlock in 24 hours! Given that one roadworks was related to necessary drainage works and the other was linked to a new building site, why the latter was allowed to go ahead when it did was beyond me.

Tuesday passed incident-free with just heavy traffic to contend with.

But yesterday took the biscuit. Having stopped off on the A34 at a services, I re-joined immediately behind a wide load that took over nearly all of the two lanes. There was no room to pass, even if the escort vehicle had let me. For the next five miles, we proceeded at a snail's pace as the traffic backlog probably queued all the way back to Oxford. Fortunately, I was able to slip off at East Ilsley and re-join ahead of the log jam. Time of day? Not 11.00pm, when you could have forgiven such a traffic movement. No, mid-day! Can you believe the road traffic authorities permitting such a transfer at the height of a busy working day on a major arterial road serving the South with the Midlands?

As I said, no wonder the country is grinding to a halt if personal experiences in the past four days are anything to go by. If this country is to be allowed to run smoothly it needs proper planning in all areas, including road traffic. If we let mindless bureaucrats have their way, the forecast national gridlock will be on us much earlier than we all feared!



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