I have just returned from an epic 2,200 mile tour of Southern France, Andorra and part of Spain.
In all this mileage I saw virtually NO roadworks (other than some minor streetworks in Calais town centre).
This begs the question, how can the continentals do such a good job of making their arterial motor route so clear of cones and restrictions, whilst we in the UK are plagued with seemingly non-sensical delays, speed restrictions and phantom roadworks where nothing much seems to be going on in them ?
Why are there so many signs in the UK warning of sometimes months of road works with restrictions, while the French seem to maintain a similar or even better standard of motorways without this, even in places of known heavy congestion ?
Comments please.............
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I have thought about this long and hard, and there's only one possible conclusion.
It is that compared to our ethnic brethren in mainland western Europe we the British are as thick as that stuff that comes out of the back end of pigs.
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Yep, Lud.. that's it. I've heard some cracking excuses for it in my time, but when you think long and hard about it, we're usless.
The Dutch have a similar density of population, and they don't have anywhere near as many problems.
We have a very short-term view of things in the UK, and it's holding us back.
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Returning from France last October I travelled from the south west to Calais via a mixture of autoroutes and N and D roads. The total distance was 515 miles, which took me just under eight hours of driving. From Dover to the north west - a distance of 290 miles and virtually all motorway- it took me almost seven and a half hours of driving.
Every time I drive along the N154 it has been further improved. In twelve months the French have constructed goodness knows how many miles of this dual carriageway, whereas it took nearly eighteen months to improve less than three miles of the A580.
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My only real experience of driving in Europe is in France and the pleasure of driving on their roads is half the fun of the holidays for me. But is the quality of the roads and relative lack of roadworks just down to a combination of low traffic density and privately owned/financed roads?
I've certainly been driven through some horrendous traffic in Holland due to long term roadworks and in the dim and distance past, Germany too.
I drove on that new Autoroute between Alencon and Rouen this year (forget the number) and it was a lovely road winding through the countryside plus a couple of spectacular, purpose built viaducts too. Apparently it cost 900 million Euros with each of the regions (counties?) it passed through contributing something to the cost and the remainder made up from the private sector.
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"Autoroute between Alencon and Rouen"
A83?
They seem to have built it in less time than it has taken to do some modifications to Junction 28 on M1 (dedicated left filter lane to go South?) A similar thing seems to be being done at M69/M1junction but a relatively simple (?) job seems to be taking months and causing endless holdups with speed restrictions on M1 (why?), M69, and road into/out of Leicester with (needless?)lane closures. Went through these works yesterday for the first time in about 6 weeks and couldn't see any sign of progress.
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Phil
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Trouble is, half of our roadworks are 'virtual' roadworks. The speed restriction signs are out - but nobody's doing anything. We came down the stretch of M1 on Saturday between Leicester Forest East services and the M69 exit. The 50mph signs are out, the car in front slows, we slow - and the rest of the world goes past at 80mph (presumably locals or regulars) - and there's no sign of any roadworks. I cannot understand it. [leaves in grumpy old man mode].
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I have driven quite a bit in Holland and missed ferries due to HUUUUUUUUGE tailbacks at roadworks that were still there when I went back the next year. The standard of driving on fast roads in Holland is appaling as well,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Have to agree TVM as a regular visitor to Aterdam & surrounding area this year their road works and traffic jams don't seem that different to over here and they have their fair share of speed cameras etc as well
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come on wake up everybody.
roundworks, speed cameras , revenue
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Dresden to Calais 1000km no problems ,Dover to Leeds an absolute nightmare ,I noticed a recently finished section of the M1 is already tracked by HGV's its like everything else in the UK falling to pieces and repaired on the cheap but there will be three tons of reports about it coting millions .Just look at motorway network map of Europe to see how tiny the infrustructure of the UK is,its a disgrace considering the revenue received.
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When I was in Rotterdam recently they were doing some work on the A20 to the west of Capelle Aan Den IJssel. They seemed to be trialling some kind of bridge over the roadworks - a temporary structure that was the full width of the carriageway over which the traffic travelled and under which the workmen were doing whatever it was that they needed to do. It seemed to be easily moveable to other locations - every time I want back it was on another bit of the road. There was a lower speed limit in place, naturally, but the traffic flowed fairly freely because all the lanes could remain open.
Chances of that sort of thing being employed over here?...
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