Road Widening
Posted: Wed 8 July, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Oh Good, just to make life even more fun, the M25 is going to be buggered until at least 2012. Not only will it be getting widened between Junctions 16 (the M40) and 23 (The A1M), but there’s also going to be similar work going on round the other side, from the M11 to the Dartford River Crossing.
I know, it’s hardly a shock to the system to know that there’s going to be even more congestion on the M25, but widening it by only one carriageway isn’t going to do a damn thing – well, not until Peak Oil kicks in, anyway. By the time the work is completed, I’ll pretty much guarantee you that it’ll go straight to being solid traffic jams again – just on four lanes instead of three.
What I don’t understand is why the planners for these projects (or the people at the start, when the M25 was originally being created) don’t just say “Oh fuck it, let’s actually think ahead for once, and make it six lanes in each direction, to cater for future demand.” Do the whole job at once, no need for further sodding about.
I’m sure there’s a good reason (rather than just that the planners are fuckwits) but it’s beyond me right now.
Driving to the Conditions
Posted: Wed 8 July, 2009 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts, Weather Leave a comment »As regular readers will be all too aware, one of my regular driving bug-bears is about the idiots who put on their foglights, and then forget to turn them off when the weather clears.
Rather more dangerous though, as I was reminded last night on my way home, are the idiots who don’t use foglights when they’re actually necessary – even if that isn’t in fog.
Last night, just before leaving the M11 to go onto the A11, the clouds opened. Full-on thunderstorm, and the torrential rain that seems to be part and parcel at the moment. Within moment, visibility had rolled down to dogshit (the official terminology for “less than 20ft”) and I’d slowed to about 40, having seen one person in front aquaplane and spin the car through a full 180° onto the hard shoulder. (That was impressive in itself – the driver handled it fine, but just span into the hard shoulder, no damage at all, just spin to a stop) At the same time, my lights went on – as usual, to enable people to see me, not in order to be seen.
The entire drive along the A11 until the A14 was the same – exceptionally low visibility, and incredibly heavy rainfall. You couldn’t see cars at all 100 ft away – and why? Because hardly any of them even put lights on, let alone the foglights that actually should have been on.
In fact, in the entire 10-ish miles of A11, I saw exactly one other driver with his foglights on.
It boggles my mind, the number of people who use their foglights when they don’t need them, but then don’t use them at all when they actually do need to be in use.
More and more, I find myself supporting the idea of drivers having to pass a “refresher” driving test every five years. I know it would be a pig to administrate, but I think it would lead to some significant improvements in driving.
Complaint to Wembley Stadium’s Parking people
Posted: Sat 27 June, 2009 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Driving, Wembley Stadium Parking 7 Comments »Ah, I do love writing letters of complaint. In this case, it’s about the car parking at Wembley Stadium, and the exit nightmare…
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you to complain in the strongest possible terms about the farcical car-parking situation at Wembley Stadium. I understand that it is primarily a “public transport” venue – however, National Express don’t do coaches to anywhere within 40 miles of my location, so driving was the only way to come to Wembley Stadium.
Last night, after the AC/DC concert, we left the Stadium by 11pm, and didn’t get to leave the car-park ’til 12.15am. 75 minutes to get out of a car-park (we were in Green Car Park, on Level 4, so there was only one ramp to go down in order to exit the venue) is simply not an acceptable time. The O2 manages to get people out within ten minutes, mainly because they have parking attendants guiding and managing the traffic.
In a venue like Wembley Stadium, where so much thought has been given to managing the flow of people out of the stadium, it’s deeply bizarre to then have absolutely no thought or management of the car parking. Getting away from the Stadium is, by necessity, the last thing one remembers: it is the freshest memory, and colours the judgement of the entire event. In this case, while the concert itself was fantastic, the parking and exit strategy is going to be enough to make me severely reluctant to visit Wembley Stadium again. I would rather go to a venue like the O2 where the exit policy is smooth, organised and rapid than go to Wembley Stadium where it is nothing short of farcical and shambolic. Paying £25 for the privilege of being stuck for an hour and a quarter is just adding insult to injury, I’m afraid.
I look forward to hearing your response to this complaint.
Sincerely
Lyle
See, and not a swearword in place! I wonder what the response will be?
Knackered
Posted: Sat 27 June, 2009 Filed under: Driving, Reviews(ish), Travel, Wembley Stadium Parking Leave a comment »So, yesterday was the AC/DC “Black Ice Tour” concert at Wembley Stadium – and right now I’m utterly knackered.
I left the house at 2.15 to go and collect the other person (the almost-brother-in-law) I was going with from Dereham before starting off for London at about 3.30 to go thrashing down to Wembley. We got there about 6pm – not too bad, although we could’ve done better if the satnav hadn’t decided to mis-direct us on the North Circular. Still, got there in plenty of time.
Wembley is bloody impressive – and effing huge. We were right up at the top, which meant that the band were about a centimetre high – although the big video screens either side of the stage meant they were much bigger – ooh, almost like watching a video of them live.
Anyway, two hours of standing, watching the gig – which was ace, and for which another post is due to be written (along with manky cameraphone pictures) – before heading home.
And that was where it all went a bit tits-up. You see, Wembley Stadium may be dead easy to get out of, but the car-parks really aren’t. Considering you’ve paid £25 – yes, twenty-fucking-five quid – to CS Parking (also known as City and Suburban parking) in order to park, I’d expect at least a couple of people out there guiding drivers and managing the traffic flow. But no. The parking situation when you’re coming out of Wembley Stadium is a total, complete and utter fuck-up. So we waited for half an hour, then decided to move, and all told it took an hour and a quarter to get out of Wembley Stadium’s car parking.
Once we’d done that, it was plain sailing – straight round the M40, M25, M11 and A11. Easy. I was back in Dereham at 2:45 and home at about 3:15.
But dear God I’m tired today – and my feet fucking hurt, too. There’s a learning experience in that – possibly “lose some weight you fat bastard”. We’ll see.
Bad Organisation
Posted: Sun 21 June, 2009 Filed under: Driving, Stupidity, Thoughts Leave a comment »Today, there’s a World Superbikes race at our local racetrack, Snetterton, which means that there’s an absolute shedload of bikers and cars all around the area, and coming off the A11 at Snetterton.
So I have to ask, what kind of fuckwit would organise a cycling time-trial along the same stretch of the A11 on the same day?
I had to drive up to Snetterton this morning to get rid of a carload of stuff at the tip, and saw three near-misses – two of them on the slip-road up to Snetterton, with cyclists going over it while idiot drivers were going too fast and trying to get onto the sliproad itself.
I get that dual-carriageway A-roads are (in theory at least) a good environment for cycle races – but not on busy days, and particularly not on a route where far more people than usual are going to be trying to use the sliproads to get through to other events.