town is gridlocked between 330 and 630 every weekday

[badtraffic]

The answer is to build more homes.

I could cry.

*car not farm!

YANBU. And I say that as a bus user for commute. There is so much building going on where we are I said to DH last week "in 5 years time everyone in the world is going to live here" . And before people start saying we need more houses - we live in an expensive area so the type of people buying are not those who need affordable good housing. The thing that bugs me about the bike/public transport mafia is that it negatively impacts more women who still do the majority of the child care/shopping /drop offs and pick ups/ checking on elderly relatives/getting home for school stuff etc etc. And single parents, disabled etc. Not always feasible when using public transport. Council happy to take the council tax money but the roads are third world. And on a slightly different note - octogenarians out on their bikes on the main roads during rush hour - why is that necessary. There's an old boy (he honestly looks about 80 or so) around ours who cycles up a steep hill about 5pm ish and he's going so slow he looks like he's going to topple into the oncoming traffic. My hearts in my mouth when I see him. Why not just do it where it's safer/less busy - there's plenty of cycle paths nearby which could be used.

Off topic, but I just read the cardiff story and saw this part:

“People are now abandoning their cars and going to get Starbucks while the delays are ongoing, and coming back up to find their car is still in the same place.”

If they were the only one in that car, then yes, it would still be in the same place.

I was thinking Colchester too! London traffic is awful but at least there’s the tube!

ArcheryAnnie local councils are being forced to build more houses by central government -- they are all compelled to have a local plan for housebuilding. Complaints to them will just see you referred to this local plan.
Not that more houses aren't needed, of course, but the way many local councils basically duck their responsibilities and let developers build willy-nilly with just a nod and a wink to planning regs, infrastructure and impact on existing communities is scandalous.
I live in a village which is on a rat-run between a motorway and an airport the traffic has become horrendous in the past three or four years. The school is very successful and so oversubscribed that village children are not guaranteed a place. The surgery well, you get the picture.
And I believe PP has been granted for around 200+ more homes within the village envelope. Given our rural situation this will mean some 400 more cars more on busy (and dangerous) local roads. I would no more cycle on them in rush-hour than I'd skateboard on the M25.
The local bus service is not too bad but no more frequent than one bus an hour and the last bus is at about 7.30 pm. Far less at weekends, of course. It is simply not feasible to use to get to work, it takes about 3X as long as it does than by car. Who has the time for that? As far as I can see it is mostly used by pensioners to go shopping. It's free for them, which is great. But no way does it serve the whole community.
The nearest town also has all the appalling congestion problems outlined by the OP -- combined with the council deciding to close roads just on various developers' say-so (very large housing estates are being thrown up) and at the same time refusing to open up existing car parks due to disputes with other developers. Madness.

Welcome to Bristol!
A ring road...that isn't a ring around the city. A metro bus system (whatever the fuck that is) that means half the city is being dug up at any one time, costs a million trillion billion pounds and isn't finished. A motorway into the centre of the city that has a speed limit lower than some of the adjacent A roads. An airport with no direct rail link .....

TaliZorahVasNormandy that excellent quote was quite popular in social media I believe.

I'm not surprised, Unihorn

So weird that two people said Colchester, it's exactly what I thought when I read it!

I live here and by far the traffic is the worst part of my day. It's is tedious, boring, gridlock from 3.30 until around 6.30. The mornings are no better. It's just abismal. If I drove to work at 11pm it would take around 12 mins. It takes at least 50 mins in the morning and getting home takes even longer. And no I can't bike or take a bus. I have kids to drop off on the way and no public transport which would work on our route.

It's seriously depressing

I'm the 5th person to say this must be Colchester 😂 Luckily I walk to work, walk DS to school and my DH walks to the station to commute to London so we don't need to drive at peak times. That's only because we live in the town centre though. If we lived up in the North of town or the west it'd be a different story.

I'd love to use my bike more, but currently I only use it to go to work as it's the only place that I have a secure place to lock it up.

Several housing estates recently built have tesco express, small co ops and would be perfect to bike to but nowhere to lock a bike to even for just 5 minutes.

Bikes are stolen every couple of weeks from the supposedly secure CCTV monitored area of our local station. It's about 1.8 miles from us so perfect cycling distance but I'll only be using it once I have a folding bike that I can take on the train with me.

This why we need to move towards a society where public transport is the norm, and private cars are a rarity.

Ah good old Warrington! I thought it was there as our road network is shocking. It feels like it is always gridlocked but complete and utter hell during those times. And if one of the three motorways around Warrington are closed, then it's chaos for hours. Or if one of the bridges is open over the ship canal!

The bus service is atrocious with many services being cut and the ones that remain cost an arm and a leg to use. I often walk rather than pay the bus fare but not always possible.

The council are useless and don't seem to care. How the town is supposed to cope, I have no idea. All to push for 'city' status. No one I know cares. We might need the houses but we need roads that actually work as roads not car parks more.

However I do see what other posters are saying about walking or cycling. I walk my primary aged child to school each day (0.6 miles) and people are shocked he does that. They do use the car just for the school run when it would be a 10 minute walk. Not going to work. They are just lazy. These people could help by not driving or making their teenagers walk/cycle to school rather than be a taxi service and drop them at high school. The paths are safe, it's not that far but people drive and sit in traffic for ages. It all adds to the problem.

Agree with everyone who is saying that I doesn't have to be this way and that local authorities planning the infrastructure properly is the key.

Except: Under the Tories and the coalition before that local government funding has been cut by about 30% or 40% since 2010.
How are councils supposed to deal with that and provide anything except a skeleton service? It's definitely worth raising these issues with the local council but copying in your MP is crucial so they can put pressure on the government.

Hahahaha to public transport. There is very very little and it is very very expensive (£3.25 single for 3 miles along dual carriage way, no footpath ) and also doesn't cater to be able to drop off and pick up kids from childcare.
I hear you op. What used to take 35 min now takes 90, they keep building thousands of houses (big ones 500k ish not affordable ones) but no extra facilities... Schools are full, childcare full, dr full, roads jammed, is OK though because builders are rich!!

This is about Bristol traffic The roads here are at breaking point and I do wonder what will happen as we ramp up to Xmas with all the late night shopping etc. It's always been a nightmare at this time of year (experienced gridlock at 9pm due to shoppers) but with the extra roadworks....it's not gonna be pretty.

OP, that's where I grew up! Bridge Foot was always a nightmare, but I know it's got worse.

The solution in Sheffield years ago was to take away traffic lights at junctions and build socking great roundabouts. Said roundabouts now have traffic lights on them as well. Sheffield is a sea of traffic lights. Rush hour entails crawling from one set to the next if your lucky, quite often you sit going nowhere whilst watching the traffic light go through it's cycle. Hardly any cycle lanes and few bus lanes so buses stuck in same traffic as cars. Tram system quite good but doesn't go anywhere near where I need to. It's just a vicious cycle with no obvious answer.

The thing that bugs me about the bike/public transport mafia is that it negatively impacts more women who still do the majority of the child care/shopping /drop offs and pick ups/ checking on elderly relatives/getting home for school stuff etc etc. And single parents, disabled etc. Not always feasible when using public transport.
Yes. That's why we need to radically overhaul the way we do public transport. It wasn't always this bad. It's not this bad in most of Europe. It's fixable, but people have to actively campaign.

Until we have a good public transport system outside London these sort of traffic problems will persist. About half of all those on the road in my view should not be behind the wheel at any given time, but no politician will ever take the steps to reduce car ownership and use that this would need.

Proper planning of roadworks would make some difference though. It would probably be less disruptive if the local government financial year was the school year, as there is always a rush of work in February and March to spend the budget, which would move to July and August when the roads are quieter.

Thing is most bus services are not run by local authorities. They are run by private companies as businesses. That's as insane as running healthcare for profit.

50% of car journeys are under 2 miles

So whilst people struggle to drive ten miles to work it’s the people driving 2 miles holding you up

I’ve given up on my bike as there are to many cars and makes it to slow- I walk instead

The thing is with building new roads is where does that end?? Surely we don't want to end up with roads like Japan!? Better and more affordable public transport would be the best solution IMO because too many people have excuses why they and the other 5 people in their homes ALL need a car.

I walk my primary aged child to school each day (0.6 miles) and people are shocked he does that - I am shocked that they are shocked, it wasn't so long ago that a car was very much a luxury that only few families could afford and children would walk miles to schools.

Building new roads just makes more traffic - M25 had another lane added and it’s still attracts more and more traffic. Alternative transportation is a solution

Not everyone needs to go everywhere in a car with 4 empty seats

More houses mean more people and therefore more opportunities to develop a sustainable public transport system.

A lot of rural services - bus, shop, pub etc have been lost because people stopped using them - now folks moan because they are not there.