30 Years Of The M25

[237SJ]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/britains-most-hated-motorway-the-m25-turns-30-years-old-a3381706.html It`s a pain but what would we have done without it?

[Buenchico]

An interesting read:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15474473

[lankeela]

I love it! I might be the only one but I still get a buzz seeing Heathrow and Gatwick on the same signpost. Having lived in Wood Green and taking an age to get through London to go anywhere down south it was a godsend and even now i live in Norfolk I don't have a problem - yes it can get hold ups but they usually get moving pretty quick.

[237SJ]

I quite like the M25 when it is moving.

[jno]

I gather what we did without it was drive less. Car ownership rose steadily as it was being built - I believe it doubled in London in less than 20 years.

It's actually a perfectly good road, except for the non-intersection with the M1 (what was that about?). It's the traffic that's the problem. But if you widen the road, it just attracts more traffic, so there's no chance the experience of driving on it will improve.

[Buenchico]

>>> I quite like the M25 when it is moving

So that's at 3am on Christmas Day then?

[tonyav]

It`s a pain but what would we have done without it?



I dunno I've never been on it.

[237SJ]

I was on the M25 a couple of Saturday`s ago. I was trying to get to Luton from SW London. I went down the M3 and joined the M25 Two hour`s later I was still there. I managed to get off the M25 at the Heathrow terminals 123 junction. That motorway can be a complete nightmare. Sometimes it has taken me longer to get to Essex than it would take me to get home to Devon. The M25 is good when it works though.

[jno]

all Boxing Day as well, Chris, we've done that a few times.

It can be awful round Heathrow and it's not going to be better if the airport expands. If being gridlocked on an eight-lane motorway is bad, being gridlocked on an eight-lane highway in a tunnel will be a nightmare.

[237SJ]

The only reason the M25 is bad around the airport is because there a a few motorways that converge there. Nothing to do to with Heathrow. There is no rush hour around the airport because the people who work there are shift worker.

[Buenchico]

I actually enjoy driving on the M25. (Well, most of the time, anyway!). It's joining it or leaving it which can be really tricky though. For example, if you're travelling anti-clockwise and wanting to join the A12 northbound (at Jn 28) the lane markings on the slip road don't seem to match up with those on the roundabout (or with any idea of common sense). Motorists all have different ideas of the correct way to go round the roundabout, which seems to be a recipe for disaster. Then, as you exit, you find that your path merges with traffic from your right (with no warning) and then, immediately afterwards, with traffic from your left.

That's not the only junction which scares me. About half of them do!

[237SJ]

I also like driving on the M25. I would much rather drive on a motorway than urban roads

[Buenchico]

Statistically motorways are the safest roads in the country, 237SJ, and I generally much prefer them to the winding country roads we've got around here in Suffolk. As I've said, it's just some of the junctions which I hate negotiating!

[237SJ]

I can`t believe this was so long ago either http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/controversial_qeii_bridge_marks_25th_anniversary_1_4744898 I remember driving back from the A127 and expecting to go through the Dartford Tunnel as usual. Next thing, I found myself listening to Radio 2 and the DJ was saying that the Queen had just opened a bridge and I realised that I was on that bridge.

[Buenchico]

^^^ That reports isn't entirely true when it says: "A quarter of a century ago, the Queen made the first symbolic journey across the £120m bridge".

About three days before the bridge was officially opened I was driving from Essex to Kent and, like you, expecting to use the tunnel, only to find that traffic was using the bridge. It actually had to be closed in order for Lizzy to formally 'open' it ;-)

[237SJ]

Oh. I thought the Queen went there and opened the bridge but refused to go over it. I went through the tunnel the night before and I don`t remember the bridge being openl

[237SJ]

The more I think about it, I`m sure the Queen declined to go over the bridge.

[Buenchico]

It was probably like a lot of official 'openings', 237SJ. i.e.the date was booked into HMQ's diary years before anyone knew when the bridge would actually come into use. As an analogy, I've known schools, hospital wings etc to be 'opened' by some bigwig or other many months (or, in one case, over two years) after they've become fully operational.

[237SJ]

I distincly remember driving over the bridge 20 mins after it was opened.

[Buenchico]

^^^ I'm sure you did. It can't have looked this empty for long!
http://www.connectplusm25.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Queen-opening-QEII-Bridge-1991-resized-339x300.jpg

I'm simply pointing out that thousands of people (including me) had already driven over the bridge in the days before it was closed in order for Lizzy to do her speech-making bit.

[Cloverjo]

I've never driven on the M25. I avoid motorways anyway. If I need to go anywhere near London I get the train.