On Friday I posted a comment to Twitter noting that river crossings to South-East London suck if you're going by road. I was at that time stuck in gridlock hell in the Docklands. There was an accident at Bromley-by-Bow which had fubar'd the Blackwall Tunnel.
This had a knock-on effect on the Woolwich ferry as everyone thought they would go that way causing massive tailbacks to City Airport on one side and Gallions Reach and UEL on the other. Now the only reason I was even there was because there was a 10 mile queue on the M25 for the QE2 Bridge. Oh yes, the Rotherhithe tunnel was knackered too.
This is the big problem that the Mayor, whoever it is, has got to sort out. I don't know whether the Thames Gateway bridge into Thamesmead will ever happen but I hope it does because getting from Easty London to South-East London is hell unless you do it in the middle of the night.
Ok morning rant over.
9 comments:
Just a long as you Londoners pay for it. Us country folk are fed up to the back teeth of paying for London's transport improvements whist our roads collapse and public transport becomes more or less notional, and when it does exist, outrageously expensive.
To be fair it is your own fault for moving north of the river......
The Dartford crossing is fine. My local Labour MP has stated that the crossing doesn't increase congestion at all!
Anyone who has ever travelled over that bridge knows that is complete nonsense as it's usually freeflowing after you get through the tolls!
Nah, it's his fault for wanting to go south of the River.
The QE2 bridge and Dartford tunnels were paid for by the tolls collected, and the cost was covered years ago. Of course the Government are still collecting money from users of the crossing, but it goes into Darling's bottomless pit rather than being ringfenced to fund additional river crossings.
The Barnett formula doesn't help. Any big one-off project in England has to be accompanied by an extra grant to Scotland of something like 10% of the cost, whether they have anything worthwhile to spend it on or not.
Several suggestions spring to mind if you must insist on physically moving on the Queen's highway:
1. Get a motorcycle or scooter. Some of the larger ones are very comfortable at motorway speeds, and you are allowed to legally filter between all the stationary lines of Audis!
2.Lobby the glorious EU to make our bit of the E15 toll-free in the pusuit of harmony between France and Scotland.
3.Time your journeys accordingly. Enjoy the local surroundings and take a good audio book. It will be several years before any additional capacity comes on line, and you are more likely to be retired by then.
4.Support the likes of Ken Livingstone to price the undeserving poorer people off the road.
5.Actually use all those cameras to remove uninsured vehicles out of your way.
6.Have a second home closer to London and get the taxpayer to fund it.
7. Invite people to come and visit you instead. You are an important national institution now, and have a bit of influence!
8. Drive in most of the way and use public transport or bicycle for the last bit, like an increasing number of outer SE London commuters.
hope this helps you to come to terms with the reason for your existence on this wonderful planet...
wv: orypoles - not just Poles on the road nowadays!
The problem with East London is the sparse mega-crossings mentality. Yes, this started out as a technological problem, but this really isn't the case any more.
Imagine yourself standing at the end of Curlew Street in Southwark, looking over the Thames. In the ten miles of river to your left, there are no fewer than fourteen road crossings, three foot crossings, and six rail crossings. In the ten miles to your right, there are just two road crossings, two foot crossings (both tunnels), and three rail crossings.
An alternate reality with Wapping Bridge, Stepney Bridge, Westferry Bridge, etc, would be quite fun...
Why don't you move out of London? It's an absolute shithole and full of tossers. And the clown-mayor is never going to sort this, by the way, because he's a useless twat.
ermm i don't live in London but I do need to go from north to south by car every so often where other travel options are not options.
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