Traffic -half term

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Fri 31 May 2019 09:38
Traffic -half term - FoxyJukebox

Yes--the motorways were jammed for the "big get away", rush hours are quieter and traffic in shopping areas is unusually chronic at mid morning with cars full of families -but I have noticed something else.

Living in a residential area with no garages and very limited off street parking--it has been almost impossible to find any spaces in the last week. From what I know re my neighbourhood it is very clear now just how many people are employed in education ( teachers, admin,etc) who all need that first, second or third car to get to work . When they're not working -their car sits in the road all day.

I will be able to easily find a space next week!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 11:09
Traffic -half term - Bromptonaut

Don't forget there will also be a lot of parents not working 'cos kids are on holiday.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 11:14
Traffic -half term - FoxyJukebox

Good point Bromptonaut-I suppose they must have gone by air somewhere -leaving all their cars in the street and taxi-ing to airport?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 12:15
Traffic -half term - Avant

Or just feet-up at home.

I had to go to Yeovil this morning in what would have been the rush hour, to take a friend to a hospital appointment, and the roads were mercifully free of kamikaze mums (and the odd kamikaze dad). Particularly in urban areas, there a lot of parents who could walk their children to school, but don't.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 12:33
Traffic -half term - RT

Recent statistics show that very few parents choose their local school, preferring to get them to a school further away they perceive to be better.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 15:42
Traffic -half term - Andrew-T

Particularly in urban areas, there a lot of parents who could walk their children to school, but don't.

Well, they could get wet (the parents, not the kids, they don't seem to notice) and it might take 5 or 10 minutes of their precious day.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 17:01
Traffic -half term - Engineer Andy

Or just feet-up at home.

I had to go to Yeovil this morning in what would have been the rush hour, to take a friend to a hospital appointment, and the roads were mercifully free of kamikaze mums (and the odd kamikaze dad). Particularly in urban areas, there a lot of parents who could walk their children to school, but don't.

I used to liken the commute on such days like the proverbial Red Sea parting - sometimes taking half the time to get to work. Oddly enough, this also happened (only on the way to work, mind you) on Fridays both when I was commuting by train to London from my home town of Royston (could always guarantee a seat on a Friday - not as many as on school holiday weeks, but still) and the same when driving to work in nearby Stevenage (25 min car journey vs 45 min car journey, practically no traffic on the A1).

Are that many people having long weekends every week? I never noticed this commuting/living elsewhere, including when commuting from other areas on other train lines into London/other parts of Hertfordshire and surrounds.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 14:48
Traffic -half term - Bromptonaut

Good point Bromptonaut-I suppose they must have gone by air somewhere -leaving all their cars in the street and taxi-ing to airport?

Plenty of working parents either want to spend time with their kids at home or have to because childcare is not affordable. Grandparents might step into the breach too bringing their own cars.

Not saying parking's not more difficult during holidays just suggesting it's not all down to school staff not being in work.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 13:13
Traffic -half term - NARU

Lots of reasons other than just teachers.

Our office is very quiet this week - lots of people have taken the week off. Not all of them have gone away. Others are working from home at least a day or two this week.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 13:36
Traffic -half term - Engineer Andy

In this vein, the large changes in traffic between the school holidays (especially in the summer) and back at school is one of the reasons (other than its much cheaper, for obvious reasons) why I choose my annual holidays just before/after the school holidays.

It can make the journey to the West Country about and hour or so less and riving around whilst I'm there far easier, as long as I avoid the rush hour periods. Not to mention the tourist attractions are much less busy!

I agree that during the school holidays, especially ones other than the longer summer holiday, I try and avoid (as far as possible) using retail/leisure parks (shopping, cinema, etc) as they are heaving with screaming kids running/mucking about and distracted parents driving and parking badly.

I've often seen many a near miss or cars get scraped at this time and now often wait a couple of weeks when a film I want to see is released to go and see it - besides, you get a better choice of seats and don't have to book in advance or wait in a huge queue at the fast food restaurant.

I suspect the local estate parking issue depends upon the mix of families and those without kids, and often how near they are to the local station, town centre, workplaces or other amenities - parking during the day used to be a really big problem where I live, especially during the school holidays, because the extra residents' cars meatn that those non-residents (illegally) parking to avoid paying the nearby station car park fees and the overspill for the local factory/offices lead to hardly any spaces available.

Now we have private parking control, few problems during the day, more so in the evenings and at weekends when most people are home (a good number of residents own more cars than they are allocated spaces) and have visitors.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 May 2019 17:25
Traffic -half term - Ethan Edwards

Yeah Half Terms great isnt it. My trip to work was 25mins quicker. What I'd like to know is why do they allow all these kids to drive cars? ;)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

We give you the low down on how to save on insurance, little-known tricks and tips, what insurance groups mean and how to use insurance aggregators to beat insurers.

Insurance group finder and how to save on insurance

From choosing the right tyre to what to do when it goes wrong - we have the answers.

Tyre News And Advice