Motorway delays

stefanovic

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It's not Butlins, it's people trapped in Butlitz camp.
I imagine they don't wander over Selworthy Beacon to Bossington and Porlock, but stay under curfew playing on pool tables.

As for those going beyond Minehead, are they heading to forlorn Dartmoor, Ilfracombe or Redruth?
 

D-S

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As mentioned in another thread, I use the M5 past Bristol to go to the golf club. As last week the M5 south was nose to tail, no accident just volume of traffic, from 14-19 at midday today - a Monday after it was similarly rammed all weekend. Strangely it hasn’t been as busy as usual northbound - Devon and Cornwall must be seriously full!
 

Tashyboy

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Been on the M5 both North and south for 1 junction, not bad at all. Now the boring bit is outta the way and it is in keeping with the thread ?
Ave just finished me fish and chips overlooking Weston-super-Mare beach.
Loved Bristol, can see tash having a mucky weekend there. Very cosmopolitan indeed. But a bloody nightmare to get out of. Bus lanes with cameras, sat nav telling me to go wrong way. Am seriously getting old. There some gorgeous buildings.
Loved the brunel Bridge. Portishead very very continental. Clevedon had some seriously gorgeous old houses. Thanks for the tips boys. Heading south avoiding the motorway ?
 

stefanovic

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As last week the M5 south was nose to tail, no accident just volume of traffic,

So you drive along at the regulation speed the without warning the traffic slows and stops.
After 5 minutes it starts to get going again and you wonder what the problem was.
Most likely answer is that the traffic at the front had a vehicle that was doing below the average speed and the traffic behind reached a critical mass.
The screens might have said 50 or 60mph, so if all the traffic slowed then theoretically no hold up!
If caravans and motor homes were banned from using the M5 between 6am and 8pm then far fewer hold ups.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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As mentioned in another thread, I use the M5 past Bristol to go to the golf club. As last week the M5 south was nose to tail, no accident just volume of traffic, from 14-19 at midday today - a Monday after it was similarly rammed all weekend. Strangely it hasn’t been as busy as usual northbound - Devon and Cornwall must be seriously full!
Bank and other holidays we‘d stand on the 1st tee at Filton and I’d count my blessings as I wasn’t stuck in the nose-to-tail traffic we could see on the M5 heading to the south west past Bristol.
 

SocketRocket

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Bank and other holidays we‘d stand on the 1st tee at Filton and I’d count my blessings as I wasn’t stuck in the nose-to-tail traffic we could see on the M5 heading to the south west past Bristol.
Was a nightmare when I worked at Filton and had to go home to Portishead during the school holidays. I did start riding a bike so I could go over the cyclepath on the Avonmouth bridge and could do it quicker than in the car. The other way was to go over the downs and down bridge valley road then over the hotwells flyover and up the Clevedon road.
 

Billysboots

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So you drive along at the regulation speed the without warning the traffic slows and stops.
After 5 minutes it starts to get going again and you wonder what the problem was.
Most likely answer is that the traffic at the front had a vehicle that was doing below the average speed and the traffic behind reached a critical mass.
The screens might have said 50 or 60mph, so if all the traffic slowed then theoretically no hold up!
If caravans and motor homes were banned from using the M5 between 6am and 8pm then far fewer hold ups.

A lot of tailbacks are simply the result of vehicles travelling too close to the traffic in front. As soon as one driver hits the brakes, the one behind does and so on, and before you know it traffic some distance back is crawling.

Another cause will be the middle lane hogger travelling at a steady 65mph, causing everyone else to move to lane three to get past.

And finally, HGV’s in lane two taking a couple of miles to overtake the HGV in lane one, which is travelling 0.0001mph slower.

The vast, vast majority of motorway log jams wouldn’t happen if people actually knew how to drive on them. Far too many simply don’t.
 

Old Skier

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Went from Wiltshire to Exeter down the M5 on the 2nd May bank holiday this year - 5 hours to get there, 1 hr 40 to get back. And we missed the cooking demo/lunch we had booked due to the delays :mad: Teach us to book something the same day the whole world is going to the South West!

Living in N Devon means “No unnecessary travel between Apr-Oct”. With only two real routes -M5/303- plan your journey for 0200 hrs.
 

Old Skier

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A lot of tailbacks are simply the result of vehicles travelling too close to the traffic in front. As soon as one driver hits the brakes, the one behind does and so on, and before you know it traffic some distance back is crawling.

Another cause will be the middle lane hogger travelling at a steady 65mph, causing everyone else to move to lane three to get past.

And finally, HGV’s in lane two taking a couple of miles to overtake the HGV in lane one, which is travelling 0.0001mph slower.

The vast, vast majority of motorway log jams wouldn’t happen if people actually knew how to drive on them. Far too many simply don’t.

Love the bits of the M25 with multiple lanes - lanes 1&2 empty and a smooth 70 is always available. Waits for the day I get stopped for undertaking.
 

Billysboots

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Love the bits of the M25 with multiple lanes - lanes 1&2 empty and a smooth 70 is always available. Waits for the day I get stopped for undertaking.

I travelled M1 south today on a 4-lane stretch. Almost surreal when I came up to a section with nothing ahead, which is rare in the extreme. Reality resumed when I saw a van (white, of course) travelling in lane 4 at a steady 70mph, with nothing in the three lanes to its left.

Sadly, such appalling driving is not unusual. I recall when I worked the motorways years ago coming up behind a car in lane two on an otherwise empty motorway at night. When I stopped the car and spoke with the lady driver her explanation for avoiding lane one was “all the debris in it”, and a liking for having lots of space to each side of her car. I’ve heard many similarly creative explanations over the years, all of them absolutely no excuse for poor driving.
 

CliveW

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I travelled M1 south today on a 4-lane stretch. Almost surreal when I came up to a section with nothing ahead, which is rare in the extreme. Reality resumed when I saw a van (white, of course) travelling in lane 4 at a steady 70mph, with nothing in the three lanes to its left.

Sadly, such appalling driving is not unusual. I recall when I worked the motorways years ago coming up behind a car in lane two on an otherwise empty motorway at night. When I stopped the car and spoke with the lady driver her explanation for avoiding lane one was “all the debris in it”, and a liking for having lots of space to each side of her car. I’ve heard many similarly creative explanations over the years, all of them absolutely no excuse for poor driving.

I drove a minibus from Bisley to Edinburgh a good few years back and as soon as I hit the M40 I thought I had a puncture. I was travelling in lane 1 and the road surface was so heavily rutted by HGVs the minibus almost shook itself to bits. Moving over to lane 2 solved the problem.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Was a nightmare when I worked at Filton and had to go home to Portishead during the school holidays. I did start riding a bike so I could go over the cyclepath on the Avonmouth bridge and could do it quicker than in the car. The other way was to go over the downs and down bridge valley road then over the hotwells flyover and up the Clevedon road.
The alternative is a nice route - until you reach the river :) I just cycled down Gloucester Rd to where we lived in St Andrews.
 

Billysboots

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I drove a minibus from Bisley to Edinburgh a good few years back and as soon as I hit the M40 I thought I had a puncture. I was travelling in lane 1 and the road surface was so heavily rutted by HGVs the minibus almost shook itself to bits. Moving over to lane 2 solved the problem.

To be fair, I spent the best part of 20 years attending, dealing with and subsequently investigating fatal and serious collisions, many on motorways. Whilst not disputing that the occasional rutting caused by HGV tyres can be a mild irritation, I never dealt with a collision attributable to them, neither have I heard of anyone who did so.

A minibus almost shaken to bits by them? Presumably you reported it straight away so that the carriageway could immediately be closed for urgent repairs? Or left the motorway at the next available exit to have the minibus, clearly unfit to be on the road, towed to the nearest scrapyard?

;)
 
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CliveW

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To be fair, I spent the best part of 20 years attending, dealing with and subsequently investigating fatal and serious collisions, many on motorways. Whilst not disputing that the occasional rutting caused by HGV tyres can be a mild irritation, I never dealt with a collision attributable to them, neither have I heard of anyone who did so.

A minibus almost shaken to bits by them? Presumably you reported it straight away so that the carriageway could immediately be closed for urgent repairs? Or left the motorway at the next available exit to have the minibus, clearly unfit to be on the road, towed to the nearest scrapyard?

;)

The minibus was less than six months old and nothing wrong with it but it certainly felt like it was shaking to bits.
 

Lord Tyrion

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Bloody M5 ? don't know if its been mentioned
We got caught on it one year, never been down that way before and had no idea. Next time we used it the journeys were like a military operation, up at dawn everyone in the car, off we go. I wasn't popular but it avoided the hell that happens on there every summer.
 

D-S

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I think we should just hang a sign on the M5/M4 Almondsbury Interchange south bound saying “Sorry we’re full, please find alternative holiday areas”.
Played a match at Tehidy Park in Cornwall this week and the main topic of conversation from the locals was that they couldn’t go anywhere as all the roads are full and at a stand still.
 
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