I really wish someone would sort out the M25,last week [Friday]there was a jam as most will know from junction 7 to junction 16,thats got to be around 40 miles or am I wrong,today came back from Bromley and hit the M25 at around 1400 only to hear about another jam from junction 9 to junction 16 and it wasn’t even rush hour,not a day goes by now where we hear about jams on said motorway,not looking forward to tomorrow,M25 again to Essex so another long day watching the digi tach hours go by,when these jams occur why cant they get someone up in a chopper and see whats causing it,[apart from accidents]then they might be able to do something about it long term,i reckon the second worst one has to be the M6
The M25 seems to be just a ring road for London. The volume of traffic travelling to and from the channel ports/tunnel etc should have a separate motorway,but that will never happen. I don’t know what the answer is.
as you know that’s why they widened the motorway,as we both know it did not do much good
truckman020:
as you know that’s why they widened the motorway,as we both know it did not do much good
I think they only widened the M25 for the amount of traffic going to be using it for the Olympics. If we didn’t get them then I very much doubt it would’ve happend.
Dave the Renegade:
The M25 seems to be just a ring road for London. The volume of traffic travelling to and from the channel ports/tunnel etc should have a separate motorway,but that will never happen. I don’t know what the answer is.
Using ANPR on junctions charge all vehicles using the motorway for less than 10 miles (insert mileage here) a £5 charge ? (Insert charge here) then the SRN (strategic road network) can get back to its primary purpose of long distance journeys and not used as an excuse by local authorities to sort out their local road network.
The new barrier-less tolls on the Dartford Crossing might help things a bit around there when they come in.
The inconvenient reality though is that theres just too many vehicles on the road & any extra capacity will just get filled. Just look at places like LA & all the investment they’ve made in super-high capacity roads - the place is still gridlocked.
speedyguy:
Dave the Renegade:
The M25 seems to be just a ring road for London. The volume of traffic travelling to and from the channel ports/tunnel etc should have a separate motorway,but that will never happen. I don’t know what the answer is.Using ANPR on junctions charge all vehicles using the motorway for less than 10 miles (insert mileage here) a £5 charge ? (Insert charge here) then the SRN (strategic road network) can get back to its primary purpose of long distance journeys and not used as an excuse by local authorities to sort out their local road network.
Superb idea.
The biggest problem with Fridays and weekends is you get the casual motorway user mixing it with the daily commuters. How many times have you seen them slam the brakes on for a 40mph overhead sign when the road is clear (cue Big Jase and Boss Hogg) most drivers ignore them and travel at a safe speed for the traffic conditions. Its the sudden braking with cars in such close proximity that causes these ghost traffic jams. It would be interesting to experiment one Friday afternoon to see how the traffic would differ if the variable speed limits were not used.
I’ll be sitting in it tomorrow as well but might treat myself to the A3 and North Circular instead.
Wouldn’t make a scrap of difference if we had 20 lane motorways, they’ve stuffed a quart of people into a pint pot country and the results can be seen daily.
Widen the roads and concrete over the whole country, and they’ll stuff a gallon of people into this still pint pot country.
Chill out and enjoy, its only going to get worse, it what people voted for.
If they prosecuted people who sat in the middle lane constantly and never move to the inside lane, the traffic would move much more freely IMO.
The only ones stressing about the traffic are those on weekly/monthly salaries and paid by the job, or on productivity pay, but they have only themselves to blame for letting themselves being taken for a ride by their employers.
Those of us that are on hourly pay, traffic or no traffic doesn’t make any difference, I get paid per hour, so obviously more traffic, more hours I do and more I get paid.
yes, I would much more prefer to drive at a nice speed of 52 mph, but what can I do, traffic is there and is not going anywhere anytime soon, at least I’m getting paid for sitting in it.
I wouldn’t mind some road closures, every now and then, when you could actually stop and sit in traffic for hours, not moving at all.
Tacho on POA, so this way I’m also protecting my hours for future use.
Can’t see what the problem is , really
truckman020:
as you know that’s why they widened the motorway,as we both know it did not do much good
The bin in my kitchen always seems to be full, if I put an extra bin in I’m sure that would also be full too!
Statistically the third Friday of every month is a busy time on the roads, with the third Friday of August being the busiest. Black Friday tomorrow chaps, take your jimjams with you.
As a very frequent user of the DRC, as i work out of purfleet and live in Dartford, you get to know what time of the year the crossing is gonna be knackered. I dred the school holidays as soon as they start, be it the 2 weeks or the 6 week summer hols, as you get the mass influx of mothers who don’t normally use motorways or the DRC. because they don’t use these types of roads very often, if at all?, they just plod along in the middle lane without a care im the world totally obvious to whats going on around them, and the tailbacks they have behind them, then with little warning, will cut in front of you at the last minute so they can come of the junction they need. All this just to get to the big out of town shopping centre such as bluewater or lakeside. Guarantee the ques either side of the DRC will dissappear and the extra traffic on the motorway network will halve when the kids go back to school. On a brighter note, the minor roads in the morning rush hour are a lot quieter at the moment. Ive never got from catford to merton in just over half hour in a loaded tanker before.
Going to be really bad on the western side tomorrow it’s the reading festival this weekend
Have you noticed most of the cars are single occupancy ?No car sharing,just the driver.
Then you get the car passenger clutching on to a road atlas in one hand, the other hand a few pages of Rac or Aa route planning printouts of the internet and they have a sat nav!
Then the morons that drive in to the truck parking area looking confused.
The look on their faces is how did we end up in here.
They now see where the cars are but can not get in that bit.
speedyguy:
Dave the Renegade:
The M25 seems to be just a ring road for London. The volume of traffic travelling to and from the channel ports/tunnel etc should have a separate motorway,but that will never happen. I don’t know what the answer is.Using ANPR on junctions charge all vehicles using the motorway for less than 10 miles (insert mileage here) a £5 charge ? (Insert charge here) then the SRN (strategic road network) can get back to its primary purpose of long distance journeys and not used as an excuse by local authorities to sort out their local road network.
I think the problem with this idea is that I’m not sure many local roads could cope with more traffic than they do already. Do we knock down property to increase the capacity on them as well? Not sure that’s practical.
Fact is that roads in built up areas all over the place are choking on the sheer volume of traffic on the roads. How do we reduce the volume if traffic? - The answer to this is the answer to all our problems.
The way I see it, heavy traffic and delays is just an unfortunate reality of driving around the UK these days, if it bothers anybody that much I suggest they start working nights. Can’t remember the last jam I sat in 
People that should be banned from using the M25…
(1) Middle Lane Hoggers
(2) 4x4 drivers doing exactly 55mph in the slow lane - so you on the limited @ 56 have got to kick it off, and then either slow down, or do a “elephant race” overtake… If they want to drive economically - get a ford fiesta FFS! 
(3) Those who come to a complete stop at the end of a slip road, because it’s beyond their pay grade to actually know how to use one.
(4) Merging into the traffic correctly, then slowing down for no reason…
(5) Car drivers with small trailers/horse boxes that wobble the trailer all over the place in the ruts, because they don’t have a powerful enough car to change lane and accelerate…
(6) Artics that bomb past me in the road works, like I’m standing still…
(7) Slow overtakers who then cut across the front of me, braking hard, to take the next exit
(8) Foreigners who have no tax disk on their windscreen
(9) Anybody on minimum wage - you can’t afford to drive!
and finally…
(10) Everyone gets more pocket money than they have IQ…
That should do it… 
truckman020:
I really wish someone would sort out the M25,last week [Friday]there was a jam as most will know from junction 7 to junction 16,thats got to be around 40 miles or am I wrong,today came back from Bromley and hit the M25 at around 1400 only to hear about another jam from junction 9 to junction 16 and it wasn’t even rush hour,not a day goes by now where we hear about jams on said motorway,not looking forward to tomorrow,M25 again to Essex so another long day watching the digi tach hours go by,when these jams occur why cant they get someone up in a chopper and see whats causing it,[apart from accidents]then they might be able to do something about it long term,i reckon the second worst one has to be the M6
I went past that queue today. The M3 had been closed s/b at bagshot for some reason … couldn’t see any crashed vehicles unless something had left the road. The queue went all the way from there to like you say J9 of the clockwise M25. Plus it’s the great bank holiday get away. I hate the M25 with a passion it’s usually the last bit of my journey when I’ve had a max hours day and it tests my patience
Doh, just seen you posted that yesterday 
Theres also a crash with a wobble box at the top of J8
tennantjon:
As a very frequent user of the DRC, as i work out of purfleet and live in Dartford, .
Phew, glad you made that clear by mentioning Purfleet and Dartford, I was thinking Democratic Republic of Congo 
On the subject off the M25, I left Bsildon at 11am for Camberley, booked for 1.30pm, arrived at Camberley at 2.30pm. 84 miles in 3hrs 30mins driving, Putting the DRC asside as I joined at 31, the standing traffic started at between Clackets and gate 6, and continued at snails pace right through to the M3 split, hence I’m parked for the night outside customer premises, and will be leaving at 1.30am, in the vein hope everyone else is in bed 