Just a Warning

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
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For those of you who use junction 1b of the M25/A282 as a “shortcut” when there are queues for the Dartford Tunnel…(i use the word shortcut but quite often it’s no quicker)

Junction is here for those that don’t know Google Maps

From KentOnline website
Kent will become home to the first enforced yellow box junctions outside of London in a bid to reduce congestion.

Dartford will become the first place outside of the capital to handout fines for anyone blocking the box.

The yellow box junctions will be on the A282 Junction 1b at the Princes Road Interchange, known as the Blue Star roundabout.

Highways England will begin works on the road to paint and install the cameras on Monday May 6.

Lorries and cars entering the boxes and blocking the junction now face a fine issued by ANPR cameras.

Dartford MP Gareth Johnson said: “This is good news. Getting these junctions enforced by cameras has proved to be surprisingly complex in legal terms and has taken a lot of planning with lots of different agencies involved. It seems now the effort has paid off.

“There are no claims that this will end all the traffic problems in Dartford but it’s something that local people have been calling for and it should make a noticeable difference to traffic congestion.”

“We all get stuck at this junction when there is a problem at the Dartford Crossing and I know that many people feel strongly that these box junctions should be properly enforced so I have been working closely with police, Kent County Council, Highways England and Dartford council to find a solution.
“This will be the first time, to my knowledge, that box junctions will be enforced by cameras anywhere outside of London where the law is different.

"It has taken a lot of work to ensure the box junctions could be enforced in a lawful way.

"Nobody wants to see motorists unfairly targeted but people are sick and tired of being held up at the Blue Star roundabout by selfish motorists who sit in the box junctions blocking people from getting across Dartford and causing traffic chaos. It’s this minority of motorists who need to be targeted.”

Traffic surveys were taken in the run up to the decision and showed that thousands of vehicles infringe the yellow boxes every week, causing longer waits for motorists.

Dartford council leader Jeremy Kite added: "One of the biggest frustrations is seeing the way congestion on the M25 impacts on local residents trying to make completely unrelated journeys across town.

"A big part of that is lorries stopping on the box junctions rather than letting local traffic flow more freely.

"Hopefully, imposing fines will concentrate the minds of lorry drivers in particular and allow the roundabout to operate as it was designed to do.”

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RIPPER:
From KentOnline website
Kent will become home to the first enforced yellow box junctions outside of London in a bid to reduce congestion.

No it won’t. Many of us who have used the Tyne Tunnel will recall police stood on the central reservations at the roundabout at the top of it during rush hour taking down the number plates of anyone who stopped in the yellow boxes there. I got a fine for doing so as I waited for a gap so I could proceed around the roundabout only for a nob from the left pull in front of me into the space leaving the back few feet of my trailer overhanging the box.

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Conor:

RIPPER:
From KentOnline website
Kent will become home to the first enforced yellow box junctions outside of London in a bid to reduce congestion.

No it won’t. Many of us who have used the Tyne Tunnel will recall police stood on the central reservations at the roundabout at the top of it during rush hour taking down the number plates of anyone who stopped in the yellow boxes there. I got a fine for doing so as I waited for a gap so I could proceed around the roundabout only for a nob from the left pull in front of me into the space leaving the back few feet of my trailer overhanging the box.

I wish I had a dollar/pound for every bloody time that happened to me.

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Hi thanks i do use that quite a bit when running up from sittingbourne somtimes it works somtimes it does not
but as with alot of these schemes its got NOTHING to do with traffic flow or keeping the roundabout clear its all to do with making money and showing that the local council " is doing somthing " so cue a lot of complaints from car drivers that they have been treated unfairly and they are a victim of circumstance while goods companies roll over and pay, passing the charge onto the drivers.
And while we are at it just on the news today it is proposed that the minimum wage is to go upto £10.00 an hour
that shelf stacking job at Tescos is looking good right now ( i know that there are drawbacks etc)
so yet again our skills experience and willingness to take on the very heavy weight of responceabillity that the job entails are being deminished almost to a point of worthlessness

5

Rather than…

Tackle the real issue which is the construction of a new tunnel further along towards Northfleet/Gravesend, let’s paint some yellow boxes and raise some cash. Half of Europe commutes through this area every morning and returns home again in the evening. Anyone who lives there has to expect the chronic traffic problems that are inevitable. It’s the classsic moving to Heathrow and then complain about the noise. Bearing in mind that the local council encouraged Sainsbury’s and all the other large companies that proliferate the area to build without giving a seconds worth of time to planning any new roads or junctions.

As already pointed out, if we leave a single car length gap in front of us at a yellow box junction, it is immediately filled with a car. It is almost impossible to leave a full artic length in rush hour and expect it to be empty by the time you set off. A possible solution is to change the setting of the traffic lights to allow the northbound on slip road to clear sufficiently for lorries to enter without leaving the trailer in the ‘let’s make money yellow box’ area.