profitofdoom Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I travelled from the South Coast to East Anglia yesterday afternoon.Normally on a sunday you expect hold ups.I covered 200 miles in three and a half hours without hurrying and encountered not a single delay apart from average speed cameras on the M25.I half expected to see tumbleweed blowing up the A12.It's like the 1930's must have been.Think I'll buy a Bentley and cruise to the Riviera.Probably see Flashman and Boy George rolling the dice at Monte Carlo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snugglybear Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Yesterday morning my husband drove from Cheriton to Cardiff with a fully loaded car, so he wasn't going fast, and made it in two hours. Then went from Cardif to Lyme Regis in just under two hours. He says he'd never have been able to do those journeys in those times in the past. There's just less traffic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
interestrateripoff Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I've been noticing that there are far less cars on the road, people it seems are cutting out pointless journeys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50sQuiff Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I was going to post a thread about this but I thought it was just me seeing everything through my bear goggles. I've covered more miles in the last 3 weeks than I have the preceding 6 months. I've been surprised at just how quiet the motorways are. I've not even needed to take the M6 Toll because the M6 has been fine. The M40 felt like I was driving in the early 60s or something. I've also noticed that I've become one of the faster drivers on the road at a given time. Have the sheeple turned into hypermilers to preserve fuel? I noticed that on a recent journey every electronic sign said "Check your fuel level", which is a message I've not seen used extensively before. I wonder if high fuel prices have caused more people to chance it and run out of fuel on the motorway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmf Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Yep and coming down the M11 it wasnt as congested as normal either. 5 people in the cinema last night as well, in fact every time I've been to the cinema now theres been a handful of people watching and no where near the numbers I would normally see! One way you can see this for yourself is book tickets online and choose your seats, you'll see how empty they are becoming and no adverts from local businesses either in fact apart froma couple of trailers no adverts at all. Going round the north circular yesterday was heaving. My frozen prawns partially defrosted - where's the humanity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Serf Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 We had a trip out yesterday afternoon to the garden centre, the road have never been so quiet and the garden centre was empty. It felt very odd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Wimblebore was on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
depo Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I went from Heathrow to Gatwick Saturday morning 8 o`clock and M25 was damn busy, could not believe! Even had to slow down. But it could be just M25, its always busy. I haven`t noticed less traffic in London. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tahoma Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I drove through Ashbourne yesterday at 6; usually it would be heaving with caravans and motor homes coming back down the A515 from the Peaks after such a hot weekend. Quieter than the average weekday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishfinger Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I travelled from the South Coast to East Anglia yesterday afternoon.Normally on a sunday you expect hold ups.I covered 200 miles in three and a half hours without hurrying and encountered not a single delay apart from average speed cameras on the M25.I half expected to see tumbleweed blowing up the A12.It's like the 1930's must have been.Think I'll buy a Bentley and cruise to the Riviera.Probably see Flashman and Boy George rolling the dice at Monte Carlo. You obviously didn't come up the A3 and decide to have a 3/4 hour "rest" at the infamous Hindhead bottleneck then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PricedOutNative Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Spot on! We are banned from going anywhere while it was on... Wimblebore was on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedro2706 Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 As a weekly user of the North/South motorways my experience is that the volume of traffic is significantly down and so is the average speed. Autoglass recently announced about 400 redundancies(something like 15% of their workforce) specifically as a result of lower volumes and speed and hence less windscreen damage-fairly independent evidence of what a lot of people are experiencing. The "check your fuel" notices are a direct result of the huge increase in recovery service call outs to stranded motorists who have run out of fuel-presumably as a result of trying to "economise" by either not filling up or refusing to pay the exhorbitant service station petrol costs. Makes a nice change from "don't drive tired" or similarly inane statements on our overhead gantries which have been installed at regular intervals at a cost of 0.75m each Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chesnor Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 You obviously didn't come up the A3 and decide to have a 3/4 hour "rest" at the infamous Hindhead bottleneck then? Isn't that tunnel open yet? And isn't going to be Britains most expensive road. Or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 The M6 jammed up with what looked like people coming from Blackpool, I've not seen that happen for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ungeared Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 ....And over in Berkshire, Went out for an Indian on Saturday night, popular place normally, 6 people in the place and the chav rubbish loitering outside in what used to be an ok area was very noticable, Sunday lunch time in a local village pub, empty, bar 2 local bar propers, BBq in sisters back garden was packed though, family must have been hungry and waiting for an invite for food The road was clear on the way back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric pebble Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I travelled from the South Coast to East Anglia yesterday afternoon.Normally on a sunday you expect hold ups.I covered 200 miles in three and a half hours without hurrying and encountered not a single delay apart from average speed cameras on the M25.I half expected to see tumbleweed blowing up the A12.It's like the 1930's must have been.Think I'll buy a Bentley and cruise to the Riviera.Probably see Flashman and Boy George rolling the dice at Monte Carlo. WIMBLEDON.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric pebble Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 (edited) The M6 jammed up with what looked like people coming from Blackpool, I've not seen that happen for a while. A303 pretty chocker this weekend as far as I could see........... i.e. huge numbers of people ploughing down to Dorset, Devon, Cornwall from the Great Wen ... - and back on Sunday evening........ i.e. not taking easyjet flights to cheapo holidays nearly as much as in the past....? Traffic on A303 at weekends has been v busy recently -- does anyone think the same? [Or am I imagining this?] Edited July 4, 2011 by eric pebble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagarde's Drift Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 A303 pretty chocker this weekend as far as I could see........... i.e. huge numbers of people ploughing down to Dorset, Devon, Cornwall from the Great Wen ... - and back on Sunday evening........ i.e. not taking easyjet flights to cheapo holidays nearly as much as in the past....? Traffic on A303 at weekends has been v busy recently -- does anyone think the same? [Or am I imagining this?] Finally someone mentions it. You bloody Northerners and South-Easterners have been choking the South West highways for the past month now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R K Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Clearly the Tories are managing the road system much better. Every lane's a Zil lane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profitofdoom Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hypermiling doesn't have to = slow. When the roads are clear I manage to get averages of 60mph 60mpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hypermiling doesn't have to = slow. When the roads are clear I manage to get averages of 60mph 60mpg Most cars seem to be tuned to get their best MPG at 56 mph, I think it's a standard test speed. But it's on motorways that you notice the big differences - going down from 85mph to 70 mph does wonders for your fuel economy (so I've heard, of course, would never do 85, honest guv). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagarde's Drift Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Most cars seem to be tuned to get their best MPG at 56 mph, I think it's a standard test speed. But it's on motorways that you notice the big differences - going down from 85mph to 70 mph does wonders for your fuel economy (so I've heard, of course, would never do 85, honest guv). I would hazard a guess that the biggest difference would be to avoid any form of non-motorway traffic, ie stopping / starting / slowing down etc. Huge numbers of journeys are under 2 miles, an easily walkable / cycle distance. Given the Motability disgrace, I doubt that a significant number of these journeys must be in a car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccc Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Maybe we are doing the opposite of the past. Back then we didn't have any idea of the # of vehicles that would use the motorways and roads. So they very quickly became congested. Same with car parking spaces in estates etc.. Maybe today we are building all this infrastructure - and in a few decades it will be half empty and disused. Things do tend to go in cycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Maybe we are doing the opposite of the past. Back then we didn't have any idea of the # of vehicles that would use the motorways and roads. So they very quickly became congested. Same with car parking spaces in estates etc.. Maybe today we are building all this infrastructure - and in a few decades it will be half empty and disused. Things do tend to go in cycles. You should see Spain, motorbike touring there several times you see perfect roads all over the place with bog all traffic on them. My ride a few years ago from Santander to the South Coast I covered 100s of miles of roads with nobody on them but me. They were so underused they were slightly slippery. The traffic only really picked up at Seville and Gib. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuffy Chuffnell Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Clearly the Tories are managing the road system much better. Absolutely. Price the riff-raff off the roads! Next: restoration of the turnpikes! Beep beep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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