CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Carmageddon

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Carmageddon http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Carmageddon en Tue, 19 May 2026 06:41:50 +0000 gembo on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352584 Wed, 07 Jul 2021 14:54:15 +0000 gembo 352584@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Apologies Stubbsie, South East it still is. Also the bridge at Dartford is thirty years old. Google map red congestion avoidance suggestions often useless dur to sheer volume of traffic ejstubbs on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352579 Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:51:01 +0000 ejstubbs 352579@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ @gembo: South west around Bromley. Bromley was definitely in the South-East of Greater London when I lived there as a nipper. Wikipedia strongly suggests that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromley">it still is</a>. But apart from that, I am tempted to relate my tale of woe from a trip down to my sister's in Gloucestershire at the weekend. We opted to drive because we had too much stuff to take with us on the train, including a cake which needed somewhat delicate handling. I opted for the 'direct' route via the M6/M5 - big mistake. Half of the M6 is being converted to 'smart' motorway, which runs reasonably smoothly* when the work has been done, but is nightmarish while it's in progress. We ground to a halt in a loooong southbound queue which turned out to be caused by a poor lassie whose vehicle had broken down in lane three in the middle of a stretch where the hard shoulder had been coned off preparatory to being converted. Fortunately (in one sense) the congestion was so bad and the traffic moving so glacially that she was actually in no great danger when we passed her stationery car. Can't have been any fun at all for her when it first happened, though. We escaped the motorway a bit further on, as Google Maps was showing another lengthy, bright red tailback southbound. We managed to navigate round that and rejoin the motorway, but by that time we'd been sufficiently delayed to put us at the notorious M5/M6 junction at around half past three, which these days is well towards the peak on a Friday afternoon. From there it was stop-start-slow-stop most of the way to our junction off the M5 south of Cheltenham - at which point we met yet another miles long tailback on the A417 which was to take us to our destination. The upshot was that a journey which Google Maps (which is supposed to know about things like long-term roadworks and traffic levels at different time on different days) had said would take six hours ended up taking eight hours. For the journey home I opted to go across country to join the M1 outside Leicester, then M18/A1/A68 to Edinburgh. Although slightly shorter in terms of actual miles, that took us the same amount of time as the congested journey down but with no endless queues of multi-lane stop-go traffic, so much less stressful and because less of the distance involved motorway speeds, actually better fuel consumption. OK it was mid-morning on the Monday when we left so you might expect traffic to be lighter, but the difference was like night and day. Next time we go down there, though, I will look a lot more seriously at taking the train. Unfortunately the station in the village closed in 1962, so we'll need to taxi/get picked up from one or other of the still-operational stations within about 15 miles of them (if I was going on my own I'd be tempted to take the bike, but unfortunately the mrs doesn't "do" two wheels any more). * Apart from the fact that the refuges are a mile apart if you're lucky, and the <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/153/transport-committee/news/154677/chair-responds-to-written-ministerial-statement-on-smart-motorways/">monitoring of traffic flow and breakdowns can be questionable</a>. Basically, 'smart' motorways are a poor answer to a desperately flawed question. crowriver on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352418 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 20:29:34 +0000 crowriver 352418@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ You may have noticed there was a wee drop of rain earlier. As a result folk leapt into their four wheeled chariots and proceeded to create a traffic jam on Easter Road. There's often one in the area, but this was bigger than usual. Drivers were getting very irritable, and there was much beeping of horns going on all along the street. It was a bit like a rainy version of that scene in The Italian Job where they "hack" the central traffic lights computer, except this time the chaos was all self-inflicted. Faster to walk. nobrakes on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352412 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 17:32:46 +0000 nobrakes 352412@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ That animation looks exactly like the centre of Cambridge. Every time I go down I am really impressed with the city centre setup. I sat outside on a wall with my daughter right outside one of the colleges and listened to the bikes going past. No car noise at all. Fantastic. chdot on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352411 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 15:14:16 +0000 chdot 352411@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ “ We do not lack public space. We lack imagination! “ <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/fietsprofessor/status/1372186425756635138" rel="nofollow">https://mobile.twitter.com/fietsprofessor/status/1372186425756635138</a> Video neddie on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352408 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 15:09:08 +0000 neddie 352408@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Everything in this thread. 100% Also, ban private cars in cities. End of. People will adapt Arellcat on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352404 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 14:21:59 +0000 Arellcat 352404@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Sturgeon hasn't been so forthright but we can perhaps assume that Scotland will be similar, possibly mitigated slightly by a deal with the Greens. I noticed today that Scot Gov is recruiting a Director General Net Zero: <a href="https://www.s1jobs.com/job/director-general-net-zero-23486967" rel="nofollow">https://www.s1jobs.com/job/director-general-net-zero-23486967</a> "This role will forge and deliver a coherent, joined-up strategy and subsequent outcomes which bring a just transition of the economy to the realisation of our net zero goal." I wonder if the role will have enough teeth to call out stuff like rampant roadbuilding, or will that authority remain with, say, Transport Scotland? I was at Dobbies yesterday. The car park was almost completely full. The bypass was at its usual standstill when I was cycling to Dobbies and still at a standstill when I cycled home again maybe 45 minutes later. Where are all these people going? I noticed a Land Rover with a bike on the roofrack, below me just as I passed over the bypass on the Gilmerton bridge, heading homewards, and they made up no ground relative to me for as long as we were in sight of each other as I rode along the Shawfair-Roslin expressway. wingpig on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352403 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 13:59:02 +0000 wingpig 352403@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ I didn't think the Dartford bridge was as new as that - I remember it being there when we went that way to leave my sister in Eastbourne, stopping at Thurrock overnight and because it looked vaguely similar to the more-familiar Humber bridge (before I learned the difference between cable-stayed and suspension) I assumed it was about the same age. We definitely went a different way (A1 and South Mimms) for a couple of school trips but might have crossed the river at some point when I was much smaller when heading to Ramsgate for a ferry. Yodhrin on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352402 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 13:51:37 +0000 Yodhrin 352402@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Honestly it's insanity, that's the only term that adequately describes it. Even in Edinburgh next to a busy arterial and on a major bus route into the city centre the experience of lockdown was almost as serene as what nobrakes experienced. I mean it sounds cliché and soppy, but literally all you could hear for days on end was birdsong and the laughter of children(and on occasion your upstairs neighbours having a screaming match, lol). Literally everybody I spoke to was aghast at how pleasant the city had become to live in, how much more relaxed and friendly people seemed - pandemic worries aside - and how they wished that part of the whole experience at least could go on forever. Then as soon as lockdown eased, 90% of them leapt back into their metal boxes and half of those were right back to whinging about "the bloody cycling lobby" etc and how any measure that might edge us even a smidge closer to that cherished lockdown peace & quiet is "simply impractical". crowriver on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352398 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 12:16:23 +0000 crowriver 352398@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Johnson went on record the other day to say the government's aim is to get back to what he called the "status quo ante" as much as possible post Covid restrictions. Talk of "building back better" seems to have been a flash in the pan. Sturgeon hasn't been so forthright but we can perhaps assume that Scotland will be similar, possibly mitigated slightly by a deal with the Greens. Problem is, on current evidence people are driving more than they were pre-pandemic. Public transport getting busier, but passenger levels still down. Driving is ever more the default option for those with a car. The vision of hell that gembo brought back from London's hinterland is not quite here yet, but we're not that far behind. In recent years I've noticed more and more front gardens in the east of Edinburgh being paved over for vehicle storage. Only one locally ten years ago was a taxi driver who stored his cab in what used to be the garden. Now quite a few more non-taxi drivers have followed suit. Residential permits for on-street parking are coming to the area soon. While that will shift commuter parking further east, given the increased number of drivers living round here I wonder if it will also result in more paving slabs being laid down where once lawns, roses and herbaceous borders stood... gembo on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352397 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 11:51:29 +0000 gembo 352397@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Same @nobrakes with the A70 first lockdown, became a wild life corridor. But we just slide back to lazy usage. We are very good friends with a family of five who have six vehicles. One each and. VW camper van. Just because we can buy them doesn’t mean we should. nobrakes on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352395 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 11:35:04 +0000 nobrakes 352395@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ I have come to the opinion that the car is possibly the worst invention ever made by humans. Up there with nukes. We moved out of Edinburgh mainly to get away from cars and fumes. After chemo my wife found herself very sensitive to pollution. In a perverse sense one of the most peaceful times in our life we just after getting Covid. Full lockdown, no cars on the A7. No endless stream of people feeling the need to do 60 through the village. Birdsong loud and clear all the way across the valley. A fellow Buddhist friend of mine who is a much more powerful meditator then me says he could feel a stillness in the earth when cars were more or less removed from the roads. I believe him. We don’t really have a clue how much they affect the wildlife around us but I hate the damn things, despite having two. gembo on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352394 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 11:24:37 +0000 gembo 352394@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Yes But central London has improved with the congestion charge. This was first time in years we hadn’t taken the train. There seems an inevitability about it The new dartford bridge which did not reduce traffic jams looks flimsy and has an astonishing volume of traffic going over it. I think it will fall down stiltskin on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352393 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 11:18:06 +0000 stiltskin 352393@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ I lived in London for the first 26 years of my life & rode a motorbike around the centre of it for 3 of them. Sadly, none of this is new. London has always been like this. gembo on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352388 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 09:24:21 +0000 gembo 352388@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Blackwall. blackhall is a nice place in Edinburgh with comparatively fewer cars, though they are all fat cars, and no tunnel. gembo on "Carmageddon" http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=20639#post-352386 Sat, 03 Jul 2021 08:10:03 +0000 gembo 352386@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ Just heading back from a trip to London to visit relatives, blooter a garden and pick up an enormous telly going spare. South west around Bromley. Bromley has a Bike Bromley campaign and I spotted a disability biking programme in the park I was using as a cut through. I had my sister in laws’s flat barred spesh which was two sizes too small. And my Chimpeur cap on so some of my smiles were actually being returned and some people said good morning back to me. I had a favoured route over to Hayes then up through the country lanes to Keston Village. Nice little route and after chatting to the people in the bike shop in Hayes (Panagua brand - they do this in London - bike brands have their own shops). I discovered Keston is the starting point for a system of lanes that stretch out to Sevenoaks and are alleged to contain fewer cars. These cars are driven too fast but the modal share judigimg by the number of roadies heading out is perhaps in favour of the cyclist. Lots of lovely routes, Village ponds, good road surfaces and would be quite tranquil if it weren’t for the cars. Make no mistake the rest of the area, even the country lanes up to Keston are the domain of the driver and even the London buses. The collective ignoring of the hell of moving anywhere is far worse than in Edinburgh. Any road work, burst pipe or very frequent crashes leads to ten mile tailbacks. Traffic is at a standstill in SW London. Everyone is jumping in front of you, gesticulating, blaring horns, jockeying for position, fumes everywhere, at every junction you can wait five minutes to get an opening. Every house has paved the front yard and has three cars parked in what was garden. There is a new bridge at Dartford that runs north south to relieve the tunnel that runs south north. Both queues stretch permanently for at least five miles and there is no relief. Satnav even rerouted us via Blackhall Tunnel claiming this would save time. That was carmageddon. I was quite feart. But Mrs Garto prevailed.