Re: I know I've said this before but...

The motorway system is heavily overloaded but why Well it's simple, the population is expanding faster than the services can cope, everywhere you look ones quality of life is being eroded by too many people.

Julies husband can't get to appointments on time, millions of man hours lost sitting in the M25 car park, it's so obvious but no one seems to be willing to address the basic cause.

So we have the continuing mantra, build more houses, build more motorways, instead of looking at ways to reduce the population, yes horror thoughts, but sooner or latter the problem will need to be addressed, thank God I won't be around then.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

I'm not even sure that is what is needed when you look at foreign lorries why isn't freight put on trains and get those mammoth trucks off the roads. We have almost empty canals why aren't we using them ? Must be better ways to get things around the country without reducing the population which seems a bit drastic.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

Sending all freight by trains would not work Julie, trains do not deliver door to door or to the final destination, trucks are still needed to take the goods from the train station or collect from the docks if goods have by sea. Mr Clumsy was a heavy goods vehicle driver for most of his working life, my son too is a heavy goods vehicle driver, he drives a car transporter all over Europe, currently he is on the ferry from Sicily to Malta. It is even more difficult for truck drivers, no matter where they come from, they are subject to tachographs and MUST stop wherever they are for the designated breaks. Plus of course trucks pay an absolute fortune in tax to be on the roads. How many people within Europe would be put out of work if there were no trucks? It wouldn´t cure the problem of busy roads anyway, anyone who drives a vehicle is quite literally part of the problem.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

But we could have smaller vehicles doing the last part of the journey. It could work there is just no will to make it work.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

That simply would not be viable cost wise and of course one large vehicle can carry a lot more than a small one so many more smaller ones would be needed, causing more problems not less.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

IME those big lorries are far from full. Often I have seen them opened only to find a few pallets which could be taken much more easily through a small town in a smaller vehicle.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

You are far too sensible, Julie - we have said the same thing but so far the canals and rolling stock remain underused. It seems such a shame, we're a very small country, there has to be an easier way to move stuff around the place.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

Julie it´s possible that the lorries you see with pallets only have had multiple drops, no transport company likes to run lorries without a full load, mostly wanting a return load too where possible.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

Fact is Julie all those foreign lorries are on UK roads because there are not enough UK drivers but there are too many orders for goods. Why are there too many orders simply because there are too many people. If the population was 20% to 30% less than it is then there is a possibility that our own nation trucking industry could meet the demand.

I agree with you about alternative means of transport, rail or trains, but there are problems with both of those.

Re: I know I've said this before but...

Ah Motorways , I love them, mainly because it's my job. Working for the Highways Agency in their Regional Control. Centre for the south east of England. The M23 is struggling at the moment due to some Emergency Bridge repairs seeing traffic having to contra flow onto one carriageway whilst these repairs take place. Motorways carry around 80% of England's traffic but but only make up around 20% of the roads we have to use out there.
They do get heavily used a case of too much traffic on them, trying to keep it all moving is a tough one with the hold ups occurring from Accidents and other incidents happening all of the time.