chalkey wrote:It's probably just over a two mile round trip from my house to Southend Town Centre and back, but it's just taken me half an hour. Sunday before last I drove to Oxford for what, according to my SatNav, was a one hour and forty minute journey. It took two hours, fifty. Then there was the nightmare some weekends back when Blackwall Tunnel was closed and everyone, including me and my family who were on our way to London, suffered. My wife and I spent two days in Barcelona back in March. We stayed in the city centre and did a lot of touristy walking, as well as taking two tours on the open-top tourist bus. We never saw a single traffic jam. I find it hard to believe that Westcliff and Southend has more traffic than central Barcelona. So what are they doing right, or us wrong?
I take my hat off to all out there who drive for a living. Tom Pepper, et al, stand up and take a bow. It must be horrendously stressful. I used to be a money broker, but I find one hour's driving these days more stressful than I used to find a whole day in the Money Market. One day this country will simply grind to a halt.
Rambling Phil wrote:Re "It's probably just over a two mile round trip from my house to Southend Town Centre".
That's 15-20 minutes each way on foot. Unless you're physically unable to or carrying a very large amount of stuff, why didn't you walk? Surely it must take nearly that long to drive, find somewhere to park and then walk across the car park.
It would be even quicker to cycle.
How much of the congestion of which you complain is caused by people taking unneccessary car journeys, do you think?
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