AIBU?
To be fed up of being trapped between 8-9 and 3-6?
islandsandshores · 03/07/2017 07:59
Roughly speaking! The traffic in my town is gridlocked at peak times and 10 minute journeys can take anything up to 2 hours.
Yet new houses are constantly being built 
How do other towns cope with this? It's actually making me miserable.
HicDraconis · 03/07/2017 08:40
Get an e-bike? They're fun, they make cycling a breeze, they don't have parking issues and they don't get stuck in traffic jams.
However they're less fun in the rain and it's more difficult to drop kids to school while you're on the way to work if you're cycling.
islandsandshores · 03/07/2017 08:42
To be honest cafe it's always been a badly designed town, traffic wise. But over the years more and more people have moved into it and slowly but surely this ridiculous situation has arisen.
Bike is not a bad suggestion, except when I'm going to work myself I often have heavy books/laptop and so on and also I do like to nip into the supermarket. And also it would be nice in this warmer weather to go to country parks, the beach even, nature reserves, in the evening, but you can't, as you can't get anywhere!
lanouvelleheloise · 03/07/2017 08:45
I suspect there are 2 things that will solve this problem:
- Making a lot of roads one-way and using half of the road as a cycle lane that is separated from traffic. We need to prioritise people who are walking and cycling much more than we currently do, leaving cars for those who are disabled, elderly or frail.
2. The advent of the automated electric car, which will massively speed up journey times and improve air quality.
LifeBeginsNow · 03/07/2017 08:45
That's a fab idea tenforward!
I have a new bike with baby seat and basket. It's scary out there on the roads and I've had a few people nearly hit me (once with the baby on the back) but sitting in the traffic just now reminds me of why I use it. Plus I get my exercise out of the way for the day which means I actually do something.
Nanna50 · 03/07/2017 09:01
Its like this where I live, a new access road was built for a new supermarket and the amount of traffic it created causes gridlock every day. New estates with only one entrance create queues of traffic where people sit like ants waiting to get into line.
And parking on these new estates, there are never enough parking spaces, the roads are narrow or laid out all curvy so that no one can actually get parked and drives are tiny..... hence a few parking threads which I love 
ShotsFired · 03/07/2017 09:13
E bikes are now becoming available on many cycle to work schemes too. Lots of suppliers are making them available at the £1k max price point, but I have seen adverts saying there is also some government green initiative that does not have a limit = might be worth looking into?
(I know not why actual bikes have a limit but bikes with not-green batteries don't, but there you go...)
juneau · 03/07/2017 09:24
My city is like this too. It's ancient, built on a series of hills, has a river, a huge park and two train lines, so the number of roads from one side to the other are tiny and all the traffic gets funnelled onto the same ones. The ring road is horrendous too and in peak times doesn't save any time at all. Its the same story everywhere I think - particularly in the crowded southeast. Our city council, in its wisdom, is currently building a new 200-unit development, on one of the busiest roads in town. So that's another 200 vehicles, at least, going to be added that already heavily congested area 
Enb76 · 03/07/2017 09:27
I feel your pain - we already often have grid lock in our village and we have building developments all over the place, one a 'new town' of 10,000 homes on existing crappy infrastructure. The largest 'A' road is being upgraded but considering this should have happened at least 15 years ago, I am not sure that even the upgrade will cope with the amount of extra traffic, our village certainly can't. Our village is growing as well, so much so that they are building a new primary school yet, we still only have one doctor's surgery, our village is turning into a town.
On the other hand, there are lots of jobs here and we are quite "rich" as a community. The school is ridiculously middle class and that means the educational standard keeps going up and the schools (despite being in one of the lowest funded school areas) deliver increasing results as the demographic gets more and more educationally minded.
I cycle to work into the proper "town". It's a 30 minute journey by car and a 20 minute journey by bike.
In some respects we are extremely lucky but it has changed the face of the village - though we still have our duck pond :)
PetalsOnPearls · 03/07/2017 09:31
Walking bus or cycling to school and work.
I'm all for the chaos that traffic causes at rush hours because it demonstrates the necessity to think about how we are travelling, why we are travelling and the impact that travel has on child health and the environment.
BeyondDrinksAndKnowsThings · 03/07/2017 09:34
Our estate is a nightmare, one single lane road that's jammed, leading to a dual carriageway that's just as jammed and a section of motorway that's usually part closed because of accidents!!
Like sups DH, I used to start an hour early as it was a difference of about 15mins leaving time to get there an hour later. Then I'd finish an hour early. As it was inside regular working hours (I did a shorter day than others) it didn't count as 'flexi' working
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