To think one hour for six miles is ridiculous

[Lilacviolet]

No accident or other obvious reason, sheet weight of traffic.

AIBU to think this country’s roads are a joke?

Yanbu. They are. But, i think more people need to car share, and public transport should be cheaper.

Six miles is an easy cycling distance, it would probably take half an hour.

Yanbu, it takes 45 minutes to travel 4 miles.
If it's raining, there's no telling how long it will take

Takes me* obvs!

Urgh. My husband used to commute to Kingston. It was five miles from our house and took over an hour.

It’s because everyone needs to drive or they are cheeky fuckers who ask for lifts all the time and haven’t acquired the necessary life skill. You’re practically forced to learn to drive on here. The result is that there’s more cars on the road

Can be the same or worse here too (north west). The town next to us where I used to live rarely ever had traffic because the roads were well designed! This town is ridiculous because everything bottlenecks through town. You have to pass through town to get to any other part of the borough. No ring roads, no ways to pass through.
I'm in my car for work, with lots of equipment. So it is my only option. Infuriating!!

You’d be quicker walking.
Use a bike instead?

Try living by Stonehenge. The A303 goes from a two lanes to one just before Stonehenge. So bottlenecks then people slow down to see Stonehenge. Then it's a roundabout. It's even worse in the summer. Thus tear was worse as all the locals go through Larkhill, but that was full of road works all summer

This country''s roads aren't a joke but, as you've said, the volume of traffic is such that it can take an hour or longer to travel 6 miles on them.

How would you resolve this problem? Knock down a few million houses and build 6 or 8 lane motorways through urban areas and the countryside? Or build highways in the sky so that some unlucky folk can live under them?

I live in London and wherever possible I use public transport to get around as the roads are frequently gridlocked and the congestion charge is extortionate

My husband used to commute to Kingston. It was five miles from our house and took over an hour.

Did he drive or get the bus?

Sorry but if you are in a car you are part of the problem! (And yes I drive too but I don't want more roads I want better transport solutions and fewer cars).

The roads are great. It’s the number of cars on them and peoples unwillingness to walk or use public transport or mix travel methods that’s the problem; exacerbated by rubbish parking at suburban bus and train stations. (And the dangerous cycling conditions caused by the number of cars on the road).

The drivers are creating the very problem that drivers are complaining about.

I used to work 4.5 miles from my home on the other side of town, it could easily take me an hour to get home in the evening.

And to use a bus would mean two buses and would take twice as long.

How would you resolve this problem?

Often, a junction can be slightly adjusted or traffic light sequencing changed to relieve a long standing bottleneck. You don't always need expensive ring roads etc. We had a junction near us that had been a bottleneck ever since I remember, 30 years ago! It was a traffic light controlled crossroads, with a single lane approaching it, so all traffic, going left, right and straight on was in the same (only) lane, but the left hand turning was often blocked due to another junction a few hundred yards further on. That meant the left turning traffic was blocking the traffic going right or straight on. Very simple answer was to widen the road to make two lanes, one for left turn, and one for right/straight, but it took decades for them to do it. It was finally done a few years ago, no buildings needed to be demolished, just a small strip of land purchased from the farmer. Ever since, there's been no congestion at that junction.

Trouble is, whilst a local council can get govt funding for "big" projects like ring roads, they can't get extra funding for small scale schemes, so they just don't get done at all, or have to wait in a queue until they get their turn for funding out of the annual road maintenance budget.

It's a bit like HS2 which will cost between £50-£100 billion. Money can be found for huge schemes like that, but there are dozens/hundreds of small scale rail improvements across the country that could be done with that money which would improve journeys for millions more people, but that's not how govt funding works unfortunately!

Anywhere five miles away is cyclable, except in really bad weather. You can pretty much walk five miles in an hour.

All the posters who live in towns with plentiful public transport, safe cycling routes schools on their way to work will be along soon I'm sure to tell you shouldn't be in a car in the first place while those of us who literally have no safe or practical alternative will have to seethe in our cars to get to jobs that we need to care for our childrsn.

I would happily consider cycling to work if someone would spend billions of ££ to widen roads, move dangerous lorries to rail, build bridges over motorways etc

The drivers are creating the very problem that drivers are complaining about.

Depends if there are viable alternatives. If you live in a bit city, you've probably got far better public transport options, more cycle paths, more amenities within walking distance etc.

For those who don't, the car can often be the only option to have a normal life. Eg., we only have an hourly bus service to our city centre that only runs 7am to 8pm, and it's a two hourly service 8-6 on a Saturday and only noon and 3pm on a Sunday. There are no buses at all to our retail park nor industrial estate nor the big Asda supermarket, so it's either car or taxi (or walk if you live close enough).

I really don't think people who live in London and other big cities understand what life is like without the public transport systems they take for granted.

There is no point in blaming drivers. Public transport is dire in some areas particularly rural so there isnt a choice

Cycling is only an option for those that don’t have equipment or other needs like school runs.

The govt of years gone by have created this situation by allowing housing to be built in every town and village but not creating the facilities needed by these towns. Many of them are old Roman towns or built at a time when cars were not invented.

Blaming the car driver is ridiculous

I work 17 miles away.
I drive It can take 24 min to an hour depending on the time of day as I do shifts. I’d I went by public transport it would take 2& 1/2 hours to get there.

Cross post with millefiori who has proved my point, do you genuinely not understand that a 5 mile journey that can be done via a motorway could be 3 times that on normal roads dodging HGVs and taking your life in your hands?

It is literally nonsense to say that every 5 mile journey has a viable cycle alternative

I love how everyone says 'just cycle' 😂 I can hardly breath properly sat in the car. I also need to look like I haven't been through a hedge backwards when I get to work.

It's also incredibly dangerous.

Lots of people don't have an alternative.
DH is a tradesman. Should he take all his tools /materials on a bus?
What about care workers who have about 5 minutes between two visits?

Anywhere five miles away is cyclable

How about the steep hilly towns in Lancashire & Yorkshire?

Our son's school is at the top of a crazily steep 3/4 mile hill and they have a rule that pupils are prohibited from riding their bikes up/down the hill, so very few pupils ride bikes to school (not that they have any facilities for them anyway - no cycle racks, no lockers for helmets etc - they basically do all they can to discourage pupils from cycling!).

But that's not the only problem. There are no cycle paths, and the road is a major A road with not even any pavements/footpaths, so cyclists would be on the road with 60mph traffic whizzing by and then have to navigate a clogged/congested/dangerous one way system through town, again with no cycle lanes/paths.

And, no, there are no school buses to the school either. Kids have to get the hourly service bus to the central bus station and then walk a mile up the steep hill, so basically have to leave home at 7.30 to arrive there in time for registration at 8.50. If it's raining, they're drowned rats by the time they get there, and of course, their bulging rucksacks are also soaked. As there are no lockers nor cloakrooms, they have to walk round carrying their sodden coats and rucksacks all day. Nice!

And then people wonder why parents take them by car!

People living in cities with good public transport need to start understanding that they're lucky and that most people don't have that luxury.