simont | (no subject)

There are long-term roadworks on the M25, starting just south of the M4 junction. This means that if you're driving to Reading from Cambridge, as I was this morning, you get stuck in the tailbacks from those roadworks just as you thought you'd survived the worst the M25 had to offer.

After crawling along in this jam for a little way, I saw a sign warning me about it (gee thanks). The sign said ‘Delays possible until Dec 2005’. Whoever chose that wording, I thought, was having far too much fun; meanwhile, better phone my destination and let them know I might be a few months late.

On the way back there was a jam on the M4, in which I crawled along for three miles or so at an average speed of perhaps 15-20mph, and eventually discovered that the entire cause of the congestion was an accident on the other carriageway, at which everybody on my side was slowing down to rubberneck. I imagine this will be old news to many readers, but I found it utterly gobsmacking that a slight glance to one side and perhaps a slacking-off on the accelerator, on the part of the drivers at the front of the queue, can slow down traffic by a factor of three two miles further back. Unless the drivers at the front really are slowing right down to 20mph to get a good look, which I'd find even harder to believe. I want to see a detailed replay of the incident (or one like it) as seen from a passing helicopter. Anybody got one?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Whilst on a business trip in Holland, I noticed that at least some of the major roads there seem to have a screen dividing the carriageways (as well as ones at the edges to reduce the escaping noise in urban areas, I imagine). This seems naively like a rather good idea - there's almost no circumstance in which I can imagine that being able to gawp at the other carriageway is actually helpful or liable to increase your safety. Well, unless perhaps a lorry is about to plough through the central reservation, but the odds of your being able to do something useful in that situation seem rather low in any case...

As usual, the question is not whether it's a good idea to screen off the other carriageway, but whether it's a sufficiently worthwhile idea to justify the cost (see also: better fencing where motorways pass over railway lines)