We have had traffic lights on the one main road in and out of town for 2 months now on and off first they put pipes down for new development then a couple of weeks later they dug it all back up again to add the drains and so on and so on for weeks now.Today they were resurfacing the road which left tailbacks up to a mile long why the hell they couldnt wait till school holidays in 2 weeks i don't know.

I read today that congestion costs the country 20bn a year perhaps the govt /local authorities could save some money if they sorted out thier pipes and drains all at one time instead of continually digging up roads.


Have you been stuck in traffic recently do you have something you do to ease your frustration and please no rude answers hehe :)

I'm just getting onto the road, and already I'm getting impatient with traffic.

I've actually only driven on my own twice.

yes traffic jams are a problem, but a large portion of this is because of all the mothers (and fathers) that choose to run their kids to school in their soft roaders, plus the fact that the public transport system has been chronically underfunded, and then privatised, leaving companies to make lots of money from the profitable routes, leaving the much needed lesser routes to flounder.

The answer to the traffic problem is not, as the government reccomends, build more roads, but to sort out alternative means of transport and/or change the attitude of the general public.

digging up the roads is often a waste of time, and companies are starting to be charged for "rental" of the carrageway to dig it up, hopefully forcing them to be quicker/work together.

okay here is my problem. If Department of Transportation would just work around the RUSH HOURS of traffic, i don't think we would have that kind of problem here. Most rush hour traffic is because of all the 9 to 5ers. why not work between those hours or after 5? secondly, (and i'm glad i don't take this road that often) there are a lot of amish folks in this area. horse and buggy allllll over the place making it hard to get anywhere when you are late. Thirdly, there are some assholes that think they need to drive 10 below the speed limit (granted, i still think the speeds on some of our roads could be faster) UGH that just is ANNOYING!

when i was in college and traveling from the capital of Pennsylvania to a place only 1 1/2 hrs away, it would take me over 2 hrs to get there because of all the traffic coming out of the city because most of the workers don't live in the city. It was CRAZY!

I work on the junction of one of the worst points in this country for traffic congestion. There can be queues there all day, and all night, for no particular reason. Even when traffic isnt particularly heavy it slows right down to 20 ish mph.

I tink the people in the jam must be going insane.

Worst time I was stuck was when those morons known as the IRA planted bombs on the motorway, it took me 3 hours to make an 8 mile journey to work. It was absolutely infuriating, especially as it was just because fools decided to play silly buggers.

I do hate traffic jams but have started to ride my bike to work and its actually quicker than the car as i can nip in and out of the traffic...

I may not be quick, but whenever there's a traffic jam, I'm always infront. :D

My solution: Sky transit.

Think about the impracticality of it, you say!
Think about the danger of it, you say!
Think about how far-fetched and ridiculous it is, you say!

I say nay, nay, and, nay.

The practicality of it is obvious:

1) It offers a DIRECT route from point "a" to point "b"
2) It offers the ability to travel at speeds unsafe on land.
3) The lessend cost of infrastructure (roads, highways, etc)
will allow huge sums of money to be put back in the
economy. This will help affordability of individual vehicles.

The safety of it is obvious:

1) Computer navigation and compensation allows for
human error to be non-existant.
2) The sky's the limit space-wise for vehicle travel,
eliminating much crowding that goes on now.
3) Whereas on a ground wreck or equipment failure you may
never have the chance to avoid injury or even be able to
try and minimize damage, a personal sky-transit vehicle
could be designed to eject passengers safely, with
parachutes or similar. It could be made to aim itself for an
unpopulated area and/or explode itself before ever
reaching the ground.

The real, valid potential of this is obvious:

1) There have been, and are presently many ongoing
designs of personal flight craft.
(http://www.solotrek.com/tech_spec.html)
(http://www.moller.com/skycar)

2) Based on calculations of scientific, and technological
accomplishments in the last century...we had progressed
roughly 10,000 pre-20th century years. (http://www.kurzweilai.net)

3) Based on all present understanding of fuel availibility,
environmental withstandibility, and economic impact of
our present modes of transportation, it is absolutely
essential that our major modes of transit change, and
soon. (Various sources)

----------

So the real question is not one of finances, safety, or
realism, but rather one of vision, and patience.

When they come, won't you buy one?

its kinda bad in croydon. i got sent a survey from leeds uni, asking what could be done to improve things. i suggested that trucks and tractors onlt travel off peak. driving tests every few years, to weed out crap drivers. and school busses. i am sick of seing women driving their offspring to school in a 4x4. usually only one kid in said 4x4. these are one of the major causes of traffic. and why the fuck do they nedd a 4x4 in a city for satans sake?

some offices are staggering work times. my dad works from 9.30 to 5.30 and yet he still gets there at 8.30.

Don't even get me started on 4X4s doing the school run.

I spent eight years on the road through work, and during that time the congestion just got worse each year.
There's a cycle of more vehicles causing more damage resulting in more roadworks causing longer delays.
People regard car ownership as a god-given right and not the privilege it is- we are a tiny country with a growing population, more roads are no solution.
When I got stuck in a jam I used to sing my heart out to my favourite songs on the stereo- it cheered me up and gave the other motorists something to laugh at too!

Magpie, we go one better, we have an acoustic guitar on the parcel shelf. =)

And a dashboard makes a supprisingly effective substitute for some drums too.

Had to laugh today the road they resurfaced yesterday has been dug up again today By Transco apparently they put a hole through a gad pipe yesterday when they were doing the resurfacing hehe :)

got maxim: great idea, but the actually vehicle needs to be developed still

added bonus, itd slaughter pigeons

Traffic jams are awful, but sometimes they cannot be avoided. I work in road safety and the number of times i have had to deal with snotty people who have been stuck in traffic, despite the fact that they knew what was coming weeks in advacne, despite the fact it is for a greater good, despite the fact they probably asked for the work to be undertaken esp when involving road safety and yet they still expect it to be done overnight just like that.

people, please WAKE UP.

Ok traffic management is a big part of it, as is planning your journey, i have always found it takes no time at all to find out whrere road works are and thus avoid em, shame a few more people did not take the time to !!!!! But the whole i want to be there and i want to be there now attitude comes with the pace at which life moves these days, I am damn sure that if people were not in such a bloody hurry to get everywhere these days the roads would be a whiole lot safer.

Oh by the way - did you know, the monday morning after the clocks go forwards has the highest accident rate of the whole year !!

sad thing is, PennDOT (pennsylvania department of transportation) likes to wait till the last min to notify of their workings. There are some projects in this area that they only do at night to avoid the heavy traffic that comes from the city of Harrisburg. The one problemed areas that I hit right now are not that bad. They just recently posted signs saying they would be doing road work for the week of July 7 - 11th from the hours of 7am (when i'm on that road to go to work) and 5pm (i get out of work at this time so i get through in the afternoons with ease) Half the time when I go through some road work areas, the workers are standing around. Oh well, its not that big of a deal, i've learned to leave the house a little bit earlier because of it. Its not like me writing on here ranting about it is going to make them change anything!

slightly off topic but the town i work in, in devon has had the main route around the town dug up for 8 months now, the reason? Transco are laying a new pipe and say they can only afford 2 guys to work on it during office hours!

fucking mental, this country is shit

2k. spouted:
can only afford 2 guys to work on it during office hours!



they actually said that ??????? even tho they are duty bound to minimise the disruption to normal service ????? I knew that transo were bad, but that just takes the piss

Don't give me any public transport shit.

Build more goddam roads for private cars.

When Man U start getting more fans then they have space for they don't cry "eeewwww, congestion", and tell people to go elsewhere, they build a bigger stand to accomodate them.

Roads are congested because people like driving their own cars. Quite right too.

Building Public roads for the use of Private cars is...
....complicated.

It is this ambiguity that has allowed so many of the ideas
of freedom of thought, act, and state of being to be
compromised.

It's kindof like a private university taking gov't funding...
it rips the lining out of their current ciricula only to have some
hogwash p-c bullshit put in it's place.

Keep the private private the the public public I say.

Then the law is then CRYSTAL clear.

=> Hence, personal sky-transit vehicles.

If people like owning cars for a sense of freedom...
owning sky cars will GRANT that freedom outright.

With wings, you can traverse the entire surface of the planet.

I love it! It must be realized!

Long habiter la Voiture de Ciel!

why is everyone pissed at 4 x 4's doing the school run? Its only another car :rolleyes:

I have a 4x4 and take it to work every day.

You'll be pleased to know my working hours are 12-9 meaning I drive in the less congested hours.

I only get angry in traffic jams on the motorway. I get more angry when people cut me up or drive too slowly.

salsa spouted:
why is everyone pissed at 4 x 4's doing the school run? Its only another car :rolleyes:
It bugs me for a couple of reasons:
1) 4X4s are large and heavy compared to other cars, and so drink more fuel thus hurting the environment.
2) 4X4s are designed as off road vehicles, and as such have to pass different safety tests to a normal road vehicle. Ever wondered why buses have their bumpers set really low? It's because as a road vehicle there is a fixed height range for bumpers. 4X4s don't have to use this height range, as it would impede them over rough terrain, so you get big dirty vehicles with bumpers and bull bars set at 5year olds head height, which are only any good at protecting the occupant in an accident, and not anyone they hit. The same theory applies to crumple zones etc. 4X4s can get away with more as they need to be rigid to travel off road.

It's like driving around in an armoured tank: I'm safe, but anyone else is screwed if I hit them

toycar69 spouted:

It's like driving around in an armoured tank: I'm safe, but anyone else is screwed if I hit them

You find this troubling, aye?

I recommend a down-size for you if that's the case.

What's that? You don't have one? Oh, quite right...

The people who have SUV's sense of
self-preservation is what bothers you?

There we are!

It would be better if we all just drove tanks, though.
--
Or better yet -- didn't drive at all, and instead flew?

-MAXIM

fireboy spouted:


they actually said that ??????? even tho they are duty bound to minimise the disruption to normal service ????? I knew that transo were bad, but that just takes the piss

that was what was in the local paper, the Tiverton Guts Ache (Gazette) currently in the 8 months that they have been working they have managed to lay 300 meters of pipe *sigh*