England traffic jams ‘worse’ despite congestion schemes. Jams have been made worse on dozens of major roads in England by a project to tackle bottlenecks, bosses admit.
…Evaluation of the first year of Highways England’s (HE) £317m programme showed rush hour benefits but delays at other times.
…The report concludes the schemes have not cut journey times and stated the impact of projects “across all 168 hours of the week, not just the 10-30 peak hours” must be considered.
You cannot consistently increase the population of a country, resulting in ever higher volumes of both private and commercial traffic to service their needs, and fail to provide the infrastructure to manage those increases.
To give you a comparison, in the mid 70’s my night trunk was up the M1 to Leeds, literally there were a handful of lorries on the road and most of us knew each other by name.
You could travel for half an hour without seeing one single lorry from the opposite direction, and often travel the whole route without being passed by or passing one lorry going the same way.
These days at night it’s as busy as peak times back then.
Any guesses what it will be like when we pass 100 million and still nowhere near what the UN migration people have planned for us.
your right, of course, Jud…was even better back in the 60-s mate before motorways had been thought of..but as always we never plan for the future..and by the time they're built, they're out of date. You also cannot make pigs from a sow's ear.When motorways were invented and laid, it was a well-known politician who got involved, to make a quick buck..he never laid the foundations right, he skimmed em, and they collapsed, and cost twice as much to rebuild it..like the towering inferno mate..they were reasonably well thought out, as they had stopping places for breakdowns and other emergencies..until a few years ago when they thought it was a good idea to use them as extra lanes..we could have told them that wouldn't work..but do politicians ever listen to the electorate do they ..and so with the news they don't work..never really surprised us..good quality motorways, that can carry the traffic today and into the future..cost vasts amounts of money, and we have it, if vehicle tax was used just for that purpose, bit like pensions really..and our gold reserves, but enough of politics. We should have bought a few extra metres of farmland, did what the French did, and have services twice as big, have aires ` in between with water and toilets…the best in Europe, instead of some of the worst…not only motorways but A-roads too, even in our towns and villages are pot holes, cracks, that need repairing…a total disgrace by any means.
The three previous posters are from the areas of the UK that may benefit (not sure how though 
) from the now £100+ billion being spent on HS2.
That could have surely been spent on roads instead?
Sure I heard something on radio today. About smart motorways being rolled out more with 800 miles planed or in the pipework.
Some. Top brass saying there a success accidents are down over past 5 years etc.
Yet all day today kept hearing on the traffic reports m6 j10 motorway signs arnt working cant activate hard shoulder use causing huge delays as can’t open hard shoulder to traffic to do sign malfunction
When I first started driving there was no M1 or M25, the Dartford crossing was one tunnel only with traffic going both ways, the A1 went through the middle of all the towns along the route and it had lots of roundabouts, the M11 had not even been thought of!!
And it used to take all day to get from Brighton to Leeds which is a run I did often, you would laugh if you saw the route I had to take!
So yes, all these road construction projects have made things better, just imagine what it would be like without them and all the traffic we have now!
Yes, I am old 
Got agree with the above,
I can remember doing night runs from blackpool in 91/92,
and seeing nothing on the m55, and running up the m6 from 32 to 40 with main beam on. As the road was empty bar the odd unit southbound…
These days I rarely get to use main beam except for on the m74
Darkside:
The three previous posters are from the areas of the UK that may benefit (not sure how thoughThat could have surely been spent on roads instead?
The only thing HS2 achieves for me is years of torment when they get to the M1/M18 junction where the whole lot is going to have to be redone because of the path of HS2 - I feel sorry for anyone wanting to go from J31 to Worksop whilst they’re constructing this stretch.
Given I don’t work in London and I have no need to travel there for any reason and from where I am. The time taken to get to a station fed by HS2 and then 2hrs to London would actually make the journey no faster than going direct from Hull, it sure isn’t my area benefitting from it.
hi juddian
in total agreement with you re the lack of traffic on nights in the 70s,i was on nights for 13yrs from leeds to rugby or southam for rugby cement what a good job that was,we used to stop at woodall services to play cards with the motor way police (crash) and as you said a great bunch regular drivers
all mates.were you on trunk in the summer of 1976 it never really got dark.
happy days
regards
sm1
snowman1:
hi juddian
in total agreement with you re the lack of traffic on nights in the 70s,i was on nights for 13yrs from leeds to rugby or southam for rugby cement what a good job that was,we used to stop at woodall services to play cards with the motor way police (crash) and as you said a great bunch regular drivers
all mates.were you on trunk in the summer of 1976 it never really got dark.
happy days
regards
sm1
'76 eh, stand pipes and wasn’t it bloody hot.
Twas the back end of the 70’s i got onto nights, in 76 i’d started on general on artics, so sweating me ■■■■■■■■ off roping and sheeting often handball 21 ton loads.
Oddly enough i got bored of the nights after a while, but once i’d left realised (young fool) that i’d dropped a bollock.
No complaints, my driving life just took a different set of turns is all, as you say, happier days 