State of roads in UK.

quasar9

quasar9

Screwfix Select
as we go in for election I wonder if the incoming govt will improve things or make it worse.

I used to regularly go from SE England to Manchester and Leeds between 2005 and 2010. Then, leaving at 6am it used to take me about 4 to 4.5hours to go to either covering a distance of approx 250 miles. The return journey was slower taking an extra hour.

yesterday I had to go to north of Birmingham, approximately 130 miles but took me 3.5 hours although google and Waze were predicting around 3. The return took nearly 5. Much of the route was the same. This with a sat nav with real time traffic info.

while not a statistically accurate measure, the results do not bode well for industrial investment in the UK

What’s the view of other road users on this forum ?
 
Awful and getting worse - I live in Birmingham so can understand how it took you so long to get in and out of the city. Although we seemingly have roadworks every other week it is probably 1-2 weeks after they finish the potholes come back again and traffic is horrendous these days.
 
Guess it’s synonymous with an increasing population. More people more vehicles on the road. Add to that the lack of investment for so long on general infrastructure and here we are.

only getting worse imo. Especially whatever moron decided to introduce 20mph zones all over London. Got pushbikes overtaking me now.


Pot holes - i feel like I’m in a third world country.
 
arrow said:
They can't fix the potholes, but they can spend millions upon millions on cycling routes that are not used, causing more congestion. It is just punish and fleece the motorist.
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Indeed, as exemplified by mayor Khan for London. Now electric cars too will be subject to congestion charge and ULEZ will be turned into pay per mile. Despite his denials how else can you explain ULEZ camera at every junction well within the boundary of ULEZ.

Wales has committed economic suicide with their road and industrial policies. . They will have nice clean air and green valleys but no jobs. The steel mills in Wales owned by Tata and Jingye won’t be there by end of summer unless they get massive subsidies by UK govt.
 
arrow said:
I cannot see how he was voted back in again. There must be some massive corruption of votes in London, the electorate are brain dead or probably both.
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Yeah bonkers…..probably how gruesome the opposition was as well. Annoyingly some other good opposition candidates in the past but this year was horrible.

never really had major issues with london mayors but to watch some of his smug facial expressions being questioned winds me up even more.
 
You can only complain about the state of our roads when you have ridden a motorbike through Russia and seen the state of those. Not potholes but the tarmac just stops and turns to mud and gravel
 
quasar9 said:
as we go in for election I wonder if the incoming govt will improve things or make it worse.

I used to regularly go from SE England to Manchester and Leeds between 2005 and 2010. Then, leaving at 6am it used to take me about 4 to 4.5hours to go to either covering a distance of approx 250 miles. The return journey was slower taking an extra hour.

yesterday I had to go to north of Birmingham, approximately 130 miles but took me 3.5 hours although google and Waze were predicting around 3. The return took nearly 5. Much of the route was the same. This with a sat nav with real time traffic info.

while not a statistically accurate measure, the results do not bode well for industrial investment in the UK

What’s the view of other road users on this forum ?
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Not too long ago a 23 mile section of the M1 was speed restricted to make it all lanes running for an eternity.
Now they have gone and put restrictions around Luton. No joined up thinking.
On the subject of potholes and rubbish road surfaces anywhere with an NG postcode is terrible. As a lorry driver I cover a lot of miles.
 
Sintelliner said:
Not too long ago a 23 mile section of the M1 was speed restricted to make it all lanes running for an eternity.
Now they have gone and put restrictions around Luton. No joined up thinking.
On the subject of potholes and rubbish road surfaces anywhere with an NG postcode is terrible. As a lorry driver I cover a lot of miles.
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I feel sorry for you guys! Cities like london whose already narrow streets have been progressively narrowed further till the traffic chokes. Much of this by TFL, to a point two oncoming buses cannot go past each other. Clearly the TFL and the mayors team cannot do basic maths on width of two buses never mind the more complex maths of turn radius required by an HGV. I am beginning to think that local authorities think a bicycle is 6 feet wide, a car 4 feet and a HGV 4 feet 8.75 inches.

considering UK is a tiny island, the balkanisation between every authority on traffic rules is baffling ! Every one has their own ridiculous rules.

but cyclists are licensed to do whatever. An hour ago I saw a cyclist having removed the restricter on this electric bike was doing close to 40mph in a 20mph zone, overtaking dozens of vehicles and finally overrunning a red light nearly collecting a few pedestrians and without slowing mounted the pavement and disappeared down a path in a park.
 
quasar9 said:
I feel sorry for you guys! Cities like london whose already narrow streets have been progressively narrowed further till the traffic chokes. Much of this by TFL, to a point two oncoming buses cannot go past each other. Clearly the TFL and the mayors team cannot do basic maths on width of two buses never mind the more complex maths of turn radius required by an HGV. I am beginning to think that local authorities think a bicycle is 6 feet wide, a car 4 feet and a HGV 4 feet 8.75 inches.

considering UK is a tiny island, the balkanisation between every authority on traffic rules is baffling ! Every one has their own ridiculous rules.

but cyclists are licensed to do whatever. An hour ago I saw a cyclist having removed the restricter on this electric bike was doing close to 40mph in a 20mph zone, overtaking dozens of vehicles and finally overrunning a red light nearly collecting a few pedestrians and without slowing mounted the pavement and disappeared down a path in a park.
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Don't get me started on London and it's cyclists plus all the bonkers food delivery mopeds.
Seriously are people too lazy to go out for or prepare your own food or pop out for a pint of milk.
The new highway code guidance for cyclists makes lorry drivers lives impossible in cities. Plus if we do have an accident we are invariably presumed guilty.
Just a couple of months ago a car ran into the back of my wagon and I was breathalysed and drug tested. You couldn't make it up.
 
Sintelliner said:
Don't get me started on London and it's cyclists plus all the bonkers food delivery mopeds.
Seriously are people too lazy to go out for or prepare your own food or pop out for a pint of milk.
The new highway code guidance for cyclists makes lorry drivers lives impossible in cities. Plus if we do have an accident we are invariably presumed guilty.
Just a couple of months ago a car ran into the back of my wagon and I was breathalysed and drug tested. You couldn't make it up.
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I find lorry drivers useless nowadays. The amount of nutters that drive them you couldn’t make up. Not suggesting you are in that camp but I have had a fair few near misses with them
 
Oh and another thing about highways and pot holes and the state of our roads. For years now our local councils have allocated very little into the repair, maintenance and new infrastructure. They favour the cheap alternatives of cold lay tarmac to fill pot holes that last a few months on a good repair. Contractors are employed to do this work on a basis of chuck the stuff in and leave a hump and traffic will flatten it out. There is simply not enough money in the kitty to properly repair our roads as it is a very expensive thing to do to the regs. So keep bodging it up is the only alternative.
 
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