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Being a nightshift truck driver (fancied a change after years of days), I drive most motorway & A roads in the country through the night & can't help but notice how early the rush hour seems to start in earnest. When I was a kid & went out with my Dad in his truck, we normally started around 3-30 to 4am & would most often than not have the roads to ourselves till at least 7am, this being the late 70's to late 80's. On the nightshift it seems to me that the rush hour is now starting at 3-30 to 4am so that people can get a head start to beat the queues. This is just the suits, never mind your milkie, postie & suchlike. If this is how much traffic volume has gone up in the 15-20yrs, whats it going to be like in the next 15. Are people just going to stay at their work Monday - Friday and go home at weekend, because by the time they get home during the week it's a case of "Hi honey I'm home see you in the morning, goodnight". By 2020 could we be looking at 24hr rush hours or not? Is there a solution or will we just have to grin & bear it, if & when it happens. Pity us people that don't have jobs that allow us to work from home. Oh well never mind.
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I've noticed this when we've been driving to Cornwall (Been there every year since I was a kid, leaving at 2 - 3am). The roads used to be empty when I was little. When I drove there this year it was quite busy, despite leaving at 2am.
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The car has given employees the ability to have a job miles away from where they work hence the congestion we see now - employees want the freedom to live where the want and also work where they want - the result is the congestion you are seeing. A local scenario. 15-20 years ago very few commuters would have considered driving between Leeds and Sheffield every day (or vice versa), my office in Bradford has three people who commute from South Yorkshire and one from North Derbyshire (who leaves for work at 5.30am to be in Leeds for an 8am start)!
The housing market and our obsession with owning property, the expense of moving house, the fact that we now have more households with two wage earners (with one it's easier to move), competition for school places etc etc all mean people are prepared to spend hours getting to work rather than move nearer to the office.
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>>>employees want the freedom to live where the want and also work where they want<<<
I seriously doubt anybody *wants* to commute long distances. You have to get a job where you can, and unless you earn a lot, you are likely to be restricted as to where you can afford to buy a decent house (particularly if you have a family). The further you get from where the jobs are the cheaper the housing.
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The car has given employees the ability to have a job miles away from where they work hence the congestion we see now - employees want the freedom to live where the want
I agree with what you are saying, however another factor which you haven't touched upon is that fact that people no longer bother trying to move nearer to their work simply because employment these days is, by and large, a transient thing. Meaning that nothing is long-term these days with corporate buy-outs and mergers causing much uncertainty amongst much of the workforce, leading to no more 'jobs for life' and much more of an attitude of "why should I move as my situation may only last 2 years or so".
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The motorways seem the same at the other end of the day too - I drove down the M6 into Birmingham at 9.00PM on Wednesday evening this week, and the traffic was moving (slowly) but it was a pretty solid mass. I just wonder where they're all going at that time.
One thing always puzzles me - I drive a bit in Europe and quite a bit in the US, but there seems to be *loads* more trucks on the roads in the UK than anywhere else. Is there a reason for that, or is it just my imagination?
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Our rail infrastructure still being in the Jurassic era.
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In europe a lot of bulk items move on rail or waterways. In the states due to the large distances, bulk stuff goes on rail lighter stuff or perishables gets flown. There are a lot of trucks on the road in the states tho.
Only in the UK has a "truck only" culture grown up.
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Actually guys, congestion is starting to go down slightly according to the latest figures.
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People are living ridiculous distances from where they work. A relative of mine is a senior manager at a major supermarket HQ. He lives about 70 miles from the office and the company pays for his (large, luxury) car and all vehicle running costs - there is little incentive for him to live closer to work. Another guy I know lives on the North Wales coast and works in the East Midlands!
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When I worked in Camberley my boss used to commute from Andover.
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Don't forget the huge number of client based staff. When you work with different clients for a few months or more at a time there's no way you can move each time. There are thousands of people who have this sort of job and who regularly end up with a long commute each way every day.
Sad but I actually think of my current 30 mile each way to the client every day as fairly good and yes, like a lot of others on this client I leave home at 6 something every morning to get here in reasonable time..
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It's house prices in my view, we live outside Bath since there's no way we could have the specification of house we want/need in the expensive city.
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Predictions of ever increasing congestion don't seem to take into account that it is finite.
When every member of the population who can drive has a car, and every one of them drives at the same moment, then we hit maximum possible congestion.
In the real world you could apply some percentage reduction to take account of circumstances - perhaps 80% of the population can drive, 80% of those want to drive, 80% of those own a car, and 80% of those want to be on the road at the same moment.
I made up the percentages but the point is there - there is a maximum congestion limit, and my feeling is we may be getting near it.
I suppose I could dig out some numbers to substantiate this subjective argument on the web but I'd rather gnaw off my left leg.
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It's house prices in my view, we live outside Bath since there's no way we could have the specification of house we want/need in the expensive city.
Hmm, i moved into Bath from Peasedown, which is 6 miles out. it could easily take me 40 minutes, sometimes nearly an hour, to get to work, whereas i could walk from the new house in 25 minutes.
However, i no longer work in Bath, so that was short lived. My new office is in Clifton, Bristol, which despite being 14 miles away, can take well over an hour. If i can't leave Bath before 7am, i take the kids to shcool and go in after 9am. Life is really too short.
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When I worked in Camberley my boss used to commute from Andover.
I dream of doing a mere forty mile commute! SWMBO commuted to Andover from Reigate for quite a while.
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I have been commuting 75miles each way to work every day for more years than i care to mention.As i start work at around 7.45,i am departing my house around 6am.It is very noticeable how over the last three or four years how commuters(especially heading towards the home counties)are on the roads earlier and earlier.I am often sitting in crawling traffic at 6.40 am,when most people i expect are still asleep.I would love to live nearer my place of work,but as my wife commutes in the opposite direction,and house prices are out of my league then this is not an option.The small market town i live in is due to double in size in the next 14 years.There is no work locally so where are these people going to work?.Assuming that this is happening all over the south east and more housing is built in already congested areas,then people will be commuting further and further and the 24 hour rush hour will soon be here.
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With the decline in jobs for life and the growth of short term/contract work a house that easy for the office now won't be in two years.
Uproot the kids, find the partner a new job, take on the stress of househunting etc etc or take on a long commute?.
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I noticed about 10 years ago going on long trips I would leave at 4.00AM and go flat out and get as much distance behind me as I could until the roads abruptly ground to a halt around 6.30 AM. Sounds like more and more people are now having to do this.
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Earlier this year I would leave Poole at 05:15 and be at my desk with a paper and a coffee in Milton Keynes by 07:00. Leave at 05:45 and I'd be lucky to get there for 08:30
Even with the early departure there were slow spots on the lower section of the M3 more days than not.
$$
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When I was in France I could drive from Aubusson to Clermont Ferrand (approx 50 miles) and be able to predict within ten minutes when I would arrive. Motoring was a joy.
I hate driving over here, and it can only get worse.
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My recent experience seems to bear out the theory that the rush hour, were that it was only an hour!, is starting earlier.
In the last three months I have been fortunate enough to have been offered a four day week by my company, basically do the same number of weekly hours but across 4 days instead of 5. Company likes it as they now save 20% on DERV, mileage on the van and 20% of my old travel time is spent on the job rather than in a traffic queue, I like it because I now get every Friday off. To make this work I now start at 7:30 in the morning instead of 8:30 and was really looking forward to an easier drive to work. Fat chance!
For the first week or two my morning drive went down from 45 minutes to 35 minutes, great stuff. Then the schools went back and my journey time is now 50 minutes each morning! The reason being that one of the largest primary schools and a large comprehensive have now moved the start of their school day to 8:00, both with pre-school 'breakfast clubs'. Nett result, about 2,400 children now travelling to school between 07:00 and 08:00. This mass movement finishes just in time to coincide with the start of the school rush for the remaining schools which haven't changed. Same thing happens in the afternoon, these schools kick out between 14:00 and 14:30, hence school run now starts about 13:45 and runs through to 16:30.
This is the effect just a couple of schools changing their hours have had so heaven only knows what will happen if businesses start to follow suit, as is being mooted to try and even out the travel situation. I think the rush hour will just start to flatten out into a constant rush.
I noted the other day that, I believe it was Great Western, one of the train companies is going to start offering lower fares to commuters arriving in London before 08:00. If a companies' rail commuters want to start earlier then it will only add pressure for that companies' road commuters to travel earlier as well.
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They type of job that I do/career that I pursue is not done by many companies. I have moved each time I have changed job, on average every two years. This is great when it is over a large distance and the company pays for the relocation! But is they don't or the change in distance does not warrant moving then one is stuck.
Moving expenses for me reach a five figure sum and the most recent comapny move has made this prohibitive (thank-you Gordon Brown). I would much rather move closer to work, but cannot justify this on cost grounds. I now commute 30 miles rather than 8. It takes me 40 mins to travel those 30 miles each way and I get in for 7:30 am. I pity the poor people at my company who do not have flexi-time.
Work, as mentioned elsewhere, is now seldom for life. More and more it is project based with companies hiring and firing as contracts and economic cycles come and go.
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I use the M62 everyday (see recent M62 Post) to get to work. I drive from Huddersfield to Stockport (Jnt 23 M62 to Jnt 25 M60) and leave home at about 06:00 and it takes about 35 minutes. I leave for home at about 15:40 and it takes about 45 minutes. I used to use my Blackbird (since sold) and could leave half an hour later at both ends and take the same time. In the car if I leave 10 minutes later it will take me 20 minutes longer to get to work. The traffic is now far worse than it was 6 years ago when I started the job, it seems that more people are doing what I do.
I used to be able to drive to work in Halifax in 20 minutes but that site closed and I got made redundent. As I am the Chief Engineer for a brewery I have got to travel for the work. There are less and less breweries, I am lucky that I only have a 70 mile round trip. It seems to me that companies are heading towards larger sites with lower overheads for them, but with far larger overheads for the people who work for them. I have stayed in Huddersfield because I cannot afford to move to South Manchester/Cheshire and my kids are in good schools here.
The relentless reduction in manufacturing sites of all sorts means that people have to travel further and it costs not only the people concerned money but the environment as well due to the excess distances travelled by not only staff but transport as well. Several small trucks delivering locally have now been added to by 45 tonners moving the products from super sites to local distribution depots. I think it just adds to the traffic issues we now have.
Bill
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Hopefully more widely available broadband will allow more people to work from home. Unfortunatley it means management types will have to learn to get over the fact their workforce are at home so they can sit and watch over them all day.
I'm lucky to live within walking distance of my work and have a secure job. Pay isn't as good as in business but I have access to an nhs dentist and zero commuting costs which to me is priceless.
As someone once said, money you can earn more of but time lost can never be retrieved. I tried driving up the M6 at rush hour the other week and it was such a waste of time to be sitting in traffic for so long. I feel sorry for anyone forced into the situation of commuting vast distances. Silly thing is there's probably someone else commuting from where your going to your own town to do a similar job!
Bill: there is a good brewery in Burton On Trent. It is fairly civilised around that area if you feel like a move :-) Microbreweries also seem to be the in thing so I guess there is a market for someone to give remote support to lots of breweries at once to keep their costs down.
teabelly
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I am sure Bill would agree the breweries in Stockport are pretty good. Is it Robinsons or one of the micro's, Bill?
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Ahhh, the joys of living in the Highlands. It's not unknown in these parts to be able to drive 60 miles on a pleasant evening without meeting a single motor vehicle. How glad I am that I don't live down south. Except, of course, when I have to travel 95 miles to get it serviced, etc etc. Here, no one worries about gridlock - just depopulation.
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I think I'm with teabelly on this one. I live 5 minutes drive from work. It's in the real northwest (that's Cumbria, not Manchester). Sure, I could have earned more and made more on the house elsewhere, but I could never have replaced those hours sat commuting on a motorway and my kids have been raised in a relativley sheltered, benign environment. This southeast bias in the UK is daft.
... besides, I like the lake district!
No, this country isn't overcrowded, just the bits of it were most people live :-0
Les
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scotty-totally agree.Think the government should encourage companies to move to various locations around the country to spread work around more evenly instead of more overcrowding in the south-east.
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Wasn't there talk some years ago of making Manchester the capital? That would help.
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I also agree.
If you live down South, North is Manchester and anywhere further north than that your in Scotland!!
Some form of decentralisation would be good, where major firms and government operations are moved out of the capital city to other areas. It has a range of benefits, which in this case would probably mean easier commuting for some. A good example of this is the government spreading its operations out across the country, for example, the DWP in North Tyneside.
Why anyone would want to move a big operation into the 'big' city is beyond me. Its practically ground to halt anyway, and is ridiculously expensive but I was taught in Business Studies it was because of better transport (communication) links and better image.
Up here in Northumberland and Tyne and wear, the rush lasts from about 7-9 ish but you can go about relatively easily until about 3.30 when things get a bit busier but by 6-7 everything?s back to normal.
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When I lived in Stoke I took on contracts in Manchester. Now I'm living in Manchester I'm working a contract in Stoke!!
Working for myself I would be prepared to do a 200 mile round trip each day, before considering renting a place and staying away from home during the week. Currently I leave at 0530, and leave at 1600, and can often do my 5 days worth of work in 4.
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I certainly do not envy you guys! I live 5 minutes drive from my work. I could walk but I like to go home for lunch. A tank of petrol will last me three weeks. I don't earn as much as I would in the city but life is much more pleasant in a small town.
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