Bank holiday traffic and B roads. AIBU to blame sat nav?

[isanyonegoinganywhere]

I live in N Wales close to the English border.

I have always lived in the area, and have lived in my particular town for over 15 years. There are a couple of major A roads that criss-cross the area. Typically on Fridays between about April and October, and each day over bank holiday weekends, these roads are busy with cars heading to the N Wales coast. A pain in the backside when you are caught up in it on the way home from work but otherwise manageable if you avoid these roads.

However, I have noticed this year that the local B roads are now heavy with traffic. This didn't used to be the case. On a couple of occasions (May bank holiday and this weekend) the 6 mile journey to the next town has taken 45 minutes rather than the usual 15. Looking at where the cars join / leave and the fact that many of them are full with families and luggage I can only guess that the additional traffic is holiday traffic using sat nav to avoid the jam. I assume similar happens to other parts of the UK?

AIBU to hate the additional traffic on the local routes?

And AIBU to think Sat Nav is to blame?

Yes and yes. Not much you can do about it. It's peak holiday season.

YANBU, I am also near the Nort Wales / England border but on the English side and am sat sweating in my house thinking it would be lovely to take a trip to the River Dee or the seaside but have decided not to as I know the traffic will just be unbearable whichever route we take.

Yes, I would guess you are right.
My sat nav loves nothing more than dragging me round back roads to save 5 minutes here and there.

We’ve noticed it more over the last few year where we are in the west county. I do wonder if it also has a lot to do with more people holidaying at home rather then abroad.

Yes, I felt slightly guilty doing a b road detour off the a14 this week, but needs must.

@Theendofmyrope I totally get that it is peak holiday season, and accept that I avoid the major roads. It's the more recent development that I can't even visit my parents or go to the optician etc without it being a major expedition!

@MamaBee3 It must be so frustrating living in (not just on the way to) a tourist spot over the summer!

I think the whole country is just too full. Everywhere we go equals jams, queues, crowded places. We’ve got a local swimming spot. We’ve been going there for 30 years. Never see more than two or three other groups there. A few weekends ago there were hundreds of people crammed in. Seemingly something had been posted on Instagram and it’s become a ‘destination’. Sucks.

Whoops realise that makes me sound like some Nigel Farage type. That’s not what I mean. Hi think people (including us) just seem to go out exploring more than we used to

Not just sat man and road jams but really hidden and hard to get to ‘locals’ beaches’ are busier than decades ago with google maps/satellite use rendering nowhere hidden anymore.

pinkoboecross post!

Over twenty years ago I moved to an area that I loved. Yes we had holiday makers but it was a reasonable amount.
Now it is crazy. I know locals who avoid going anywhere and trips to shops and hospital have become almost traumatic.
Hold ups are frequent and can last hours. Yes hours.
I have missed hospital appointment recently for this reason. Missed by over an hour.
Our roads are just not designed for the amount of traffic we have now.
Sat nav has informed the roads the locals took and we often feel almost locked in because it will now easily take 45 mins to do what was a 12 min journey when I moved here.

Yanbu
I live in Swansea, South Wales and dread bank holidays what normally takes me 1 hour can take 4 and the B roads are also packed.

We get this in Cornwall too where as we didn’t so much 10 years ago. Not just B roads but unclassified roads. It must be a nightmare for farmers.

@isanyonegoinganywhere I live in a small town and it’s not really a touristy place but it’s on the way to quite a few, so much like you it’s a lot of passing traffic on the way to the beach etc. It can be an absolute nightmare at peak times. We tend to avoid the tourist spot near by this time of year or get up and go v early.

I hadn't even thought about previously 'undiscovered' spots but I can see how that would be an increasing probem now too.

Yanbu. Not the Welsh/ English border but for years there was a short cut that only locals knew about to avoid a hot spot for rush hour traffic. Now every fucker uses it because sat navs pick it up as not only a short cut but as a divert in heavy traffic.

But it is sometimes amusing to see which are the fuckwits still trying to drive at A road speed where it’s dangerous to do so. They always miss a certain small turning, at which point anyone going too fast will get diverted again down another windy, single track lane. Which appears to be fine for the first half mile. And then quickly becomes so bad you need a 4wd or to go slower than walking speed. And because you can see the road you should have been on in the distance people presume they will be off the lane shortly. Us locals like to laugh, and chase them with pitchforks.

Of course when I’m somewhere unfamiliar I don’t use the sat navs quicker routes out of respect to the locals

Yep, OP. M56 virtually unusable in decent weather but now all the usual west bound alternatives are also bogged down total PITA

I wish I could avoid it with my sat nav! Mine doesn't even have on-the-go traffic information, so it's just determining the route it thinks is the shortest. I'd much rather not be taken down single track roads and want to stay on the bigger ones, but am afraid to ignore it too much. I really wish i could tell it the route that I would rather take, and have it stick to that.

I also wish it would have a very quick button that you could press to say that you have to go another way because of a diversion etc. The A14 is always being closed at night lately in all sorts of places, and yet when you follow the diversion, the sat nav always tries to take you back to the A14 and you have to just hope you spot the diversion signs correctly.

But it has a much better screen and louder voice than my phone seems to, so I still like using it.

I had to work in our lovely local seaside town yesterday. Luckily I was there early because when I came out there was a queue about a mile long to get in.

We also have a fab outdoor pool near us. It’s only open during the summer. Unfortunately they have advertised themselves county-wide and now have queues every day. You can’t get parked anywhere near it and it’s just spoiled it really.

yanbu and yabu

yes, absolutely it's sat navs - and why not. tbh before sat nav anyone who could read a map could do the same. it's public roads.
if you want less traffic, use the trains more.

if you want less traffic, use the trains more.

Just wondering how I’d do that when I would need to drive for fifteen miles of local B roads to get to the station.

My sat nav has dyslexia.
It costs me a fortune by sending me the wrong
Ford Kuga 2017.
You`d think it would be top notch.

Hehe, we went from Manchester to north Wales on Friday and ended up on three B-road detours guided by the satnav. Two were to avoid heavy traffic, and the third was required because some dozy twit drove into the side of a house, closing the road ...

Should we have turned round and gone home, given up on our trip?

@AlexaAmbidextra and if it’s anything like where I live even if you make it to the station on time the train is just as packed as the roads 🤦‍♀️