Daily commute

[Weston Super Saint]

How the hell do you guys put up with it - those that have one of course.

 

I left the house at 7.00am this morning for a trip to Birmingham [annual conference].

 

I stopped off at Tescos for fuel, and chose the pay at pump option because didn't want to queue or speak to anyone that early in the morning. I put my card in and a lovely message informed me I could only pay inside FFS! I filled up and went inside to pay, but one of the two tills was being 'cashed up', so the queue was enormous and one old lady taking money FFS. After about 15 minutes [when I was almost at the front anyway], the other till came on FFS!

 

I then wanted to put some air in the tyres so went to the machine. I got out and took off the dust cap etc, but no air came out. When looking at the machine I noticed they now charge 20p to put air in the tyres FFS! When did that happen? They didn't charge about 2 weeks ago FFS!

 

When I got on the motorway - about 7.40 I was greeted by a queue FFS! Are people really up and about that early every day? FFS!

 

Then it started raining FFS!

 

The rest of the trip to Brum was very slow, especially the A34 FFS!

 

The only encouragement I had was hearing the M27 was solid from Pompey to Whiteley FFS!

 

Coming back from Brum, the M42 was its usual pea soup like self. The M40 was empty, but then I sat in a queue from the M40 turn off all the way to the pear tree interchange - a car towing a boat had lost a wheel on the trailer, the police seemed to be quite happy sitting around not doing anything FFS!

 

I take my hat off to all of you that have to suffer the inadequacies of our motorway system every single day, but really have to ask WHY DO YOU DO IT???

[Johnny Shearer]

The Avenue is a hard enough slog when the schools start up. Now takes me anything up to 15 mins just to hit the M3.

 

Then you never know whats thats gonna be like but once I get to J9 then WHOOSH straight onto the A33 and through some small villages to work.

 

Still takes anytime between half an hour to a hour depending on traffic.

[Barney Trubble]

We do it because it's a necessary evil.

 

If I could do without my car for work, then I would as I hate our congested and rudimentary road networks, especially in the suburbs.

 

Today alone, I was verbally abused twice, had some loon offer me out and block the road so that I couldnt get away and all because he didnt like the fact that I was driving 35 in a 40, he tried to swerve around me, misjudged the speed of oncoming traffic and nearly got hit head on by a dustbin lorrry.

 

He then gets out and runs at my car and makes a complete **** of himself by offering me out and then standing there when I ask him if he's just going to talk a good fight or actually do something. He meekly walked back to his car and drove off.

 

I dont need that ****, the traffic is bad enough and then you get all that and it' not even 10am. :-)

 

The A34 is about seventy miles of boredom, I hate that stretch of road into Southampton, even worse after a game when it's wet and dark. I find the M40 and M42 fine though.

[bridge too far]

The biggest hold-up for me is a tractor.

 

Or the occasional horse.

 

[rocknrollman no2]

You should try going over the Itchen Bridge,through town,then out towards Nursling.

Just about every road has roadworks or a speed camera.

Sheer hell!

[exit2]

You should try going over the Itchen Bridge,through town,then out towards Nursling.

Just about every road has roadworks or a speed camera.

Sheer hell!

 

The bridge is a nightmare especially now people have cottened on to the shortcuts! BTW I follow you most nights over the bridge! Renault with loads of Saints Stickers in it?

[Weston Super Saint]

You should try going over the Itchen Bridge,through town,then out towards Nursling.

Just about every road has roadworks or a speed camera.

Sheer hell!

 

LOL

 

The earliest I go over the bridge is about midday, and the latest coming back about 4.00pm.

 

Even then it gets a bit lairy down by the docks :shock:

[stevegrant]

Let the train take the strain

[Weston Super Saint]

Let the train take the strain

 

The train is awful, even more so when it's full and hot.

[revolution saint]

I've been in a new job in Southampton for seven weeks now. There's no parking available so it's cheaper and easier for me to take the bus. I'd like to say it's hassle and stress free but it's not. There are lots of incredibly irritating people to put up with and never enough seats. What on earth happened to double decker buses? The annoying people would still be there but at least you could distance yourself a bit. I reserve my particular dislike for people who like to talk early in the morning, Why do they do that? No talking before 9 would be my rule if I had the chance.

[Barney Trubble]

The train is awful, even more so when it's full and hot.

 

I agree. Full of sweaty people with body odour, no seats and on the way home it's full of eaten McDonalnds or general fast food rubbish. I know not all trains are like this but some routes are terrible; usually Central Trains or whatever they are called now.

 

Plus the ticket prices are ridiculous for the treatment you get, unless of course you are fortunate to be able to afford first class all the time.

[rocknrollman no2]

The bridge is a nightmare especially now people have cottened on to the shortcuts! BTW I follow you most nights over the bridge! Renault with loads of Saints Stickers in it?

 

Blimey i am impressed.

How did you know that was me?

What car do you drive?

[exit2]

How did you know that was me?

 

The big elvis quif

 

I will let you know who I am when I see you

[rocknrollman no2]

The big elvis quif

 

I will let you know who I am when I see you

 

Yes,please wave or hoot next time.

It would be nice to put a face to a name.

[Ponty]

The biggest hold-up for me is a tractor.

 

Or the occasional horse.

 

Or an idiotic pheasant.

[saintrich]

My commute to work involves me walking out the front door and a few hundred yards down the road.

[St Landrew]

The biggest hold-up for me is a tractor.

 

Or the occasional horse.

 

 

You're making me nostalgic for my old house in Kent.

[LGTL]

The morning commute from my bed to the kitchen is hard enough for me.

Edited 11 September, 2008 by LGTL

[skintsaint]

My commute to work involves me walking out the front door and a few hundred yards down the road.

 

Must be handy living down the road from a fast food outlet

 

My commute is a 20min bus ride into the CBD which is easy and cheap. Then again the public transport here ****es all over the UK.

[Mao Cap]

Maiders to my work near the Old Street roundabout, which takes about an hour and a bit. Can be awful or the best part of the work day, depending on how knackered I am, how many dickhead City boys in Porsche Carreras I have to give the Vs to and how crowded the roads are (fortunately I generally manage to avoid rush hour).

 

Wish I could walk to work...that's the dream. Would like to take the train but just takes too damn long and is just as expensive

[mdearlove]

15 metres from my bed to my office in the garden...very relaxing. Having said that when i do have to go in to the office I have to drive from Luton to Staines - M1 and M25. Who knows how long it will take each day. Quickest is 40 mins, slowest 150mins!

[stevegrant]

The train is awful, even more so when it's full and hot.

It's usually full in both directions on my commute, but the air conditioning is pretty good on SWT trains these days so it's rarely stuffy at all.

 

It's not cheap (just under £400 per month) but I'd rather sit on a train for an hour and a half or so and not have to concentrate on anything than sit in my car on the M3/M25 probably for even longer and be obliged to concentrate for the entire journey.

[warsash saint]

The biggest hold-up for me is a tractor.

 

Or the occasional horse.

 

 

Bain of my f**king life, tractors.:mad:

 

Inconsiderate farmers driving at 5mph through the New Forest on the A31 at rush hour...WHY ???? They've got all bloody day, but do it to create maximum inconvenience to everyone behind them. :smt071

[scott_saints]

5 minute drive to Eastleigh for me.

 

Hardly any traffic at the moment due to people dodging Eastleigh because of the roadworks!

[CabbageFace]

I leave at 6.15am to get to the gym for 6.30am, then poodle from Eastleigh to Junction 2, takes me roughly 15minutes.

 

Not too bad.

[Guest Dark Sotonic Mills]

Commuting is dreadful. It takes me about 20 seconds to stroll down the stairs to my study.

[Mewsta]

I do bitterne to heathrow everyday............. It's ****!!!!!! Done it for 3 years...... won't be doing it for much longer!! I do find its worse when it rains.... A little bit of water and the idiots appear on the road!!

[70's Mike]

Locks Heath to Millbrook every day , although when i started for current employer negoiated hours to be 7.30am to 4pm.

 

Traffic not to bad in morning but joining M27 from M271 is a pain, I wonder if roadworks between 3 and 5 will end up with fast lane ending like at the skates end

[saint1977]

Have to use the Sussex A27 and it's populated by idiots, plus it needs proper bypasses at Chichester, Arundel, Worthing and another one at Bedingham. Awful road. A3 is a nicer road but hate having to go on the M27 anywhere near rush hour, particularly the Southampton sections which will remain a nightmare until SCC gets off it's lazy carrot-crunching arse and raises external funding to build the light railway the city has needed for 30+ years. A3 and A272 are my way of escaping the hell of the M3 South and normally I;m fine if I'm heading North after that.

[mini_me]

Yes,please wave or hoot next time.

It would be nice to put a face to a name.

 

You really don't want to see the face

[saint1977]

Bain of my f**king life, tractors.:mad:

 

Inconsiderate farmers driving at 5mph through the New Forest on the A31 at rush hour...WHY ???? They've got all bloody day, but do it to create maximum inconvenience to everyone behind them. :smt071

 

Agree, they only do it to wind people up, Sussex roads are awful for it. Tractors are even coming into city centres now which in places like Chichester is stupid. Mopeds do my head in as well - they should be banned by law from fast roads like A27, as should pedal cyclists who should stick to the A259.

[bridge too far]

Bain of my f**king life, tractors.:mad:

 

Inconsiderate farmers driving at 5mph through the New Forest on the A31 at rush hour...WHY ???? They've got all bloody day, but do it to create maximum inconvenience to everyone behind them. :smt071

 

Round here the tractor drivers are generally quite considerate in that they'll pull off the road if a queue has built up behind them. Mr TF says that it's a law that slow moving vehicles have to do that every so often :confused:

 

Refuse lorries are the bane of my life. Why oh why do they have to stop on blind bends, narrow lines without passing places etc. Why can't they just use a little bit of common sense? :smt102:

[saints_is_the_south]

Anybody who lives in the waterside area will know what a pain the A326 (Marchwood bypass or known by some as 'death road'). Even worse now they've closed the main road in Marchwood that runs past the Pilgrim.

 

Working in Totton i've started going up to Ashurst & turning off by the dairy farm & going down that way to Applemore roundabout. On a good day usually takes me about 15 minutes from Fawley to Totton, on a bad day up to an hour.

[Durleyfos]

I hate motor bikers who drive towards me on my side of the road when the oncomming traffic is stationary.

 

I tend to drift over to the middle of the road so they have to pull back in. :smt098

[Poshie72]

Sandhurst to Reading every day. Go via the 329m & M4, and generally traffic is good. Then take a bus from Madjeski Stadium into town. Leave home at 8am, drop kids off to breakfast club/childminder and usually sat at my desk at 9am.

 

Back roads are awful as clogged with mummies dropping their little darlings off to school and A33 is a nightmare. Not sure what it will be like in a few months as they have just started work to improve J11. May need to rethink my journey.

[dubai_phil]

Daily commute for me these days, Bedroom - Kitchen - Spare bedroom = office - bless

 

But...

 

There is a commute story here - many Brits move out and notice that Sharjah and Ajman are much cheaper to live in than Dubai, and are only about 10 or 15 miles from their office so they assume move there, save money and a short drive each day.

 

What they don't realise is that the planning and infrastructure develop here is non-existant and so we simply don't have enough roads for all the cars and have designed all the offices with spaces for 10 cars but they have 30 people in them...

 

The commute from Sharjah to Dubai takes at least two hours each way, and on many evening (because of the muppet driving here) takes 3 or 4 hours.... Makes a daily commute into say London seem like a cake walk.

 

Because of the multi-cultural nature of Dubai we have - Lane Hugging Brits (I'm in the fast lane why should I move)... Italians - nuff said...... Indians who are taught to ONLY look at the front bumper of their car when they drive (what car/traffic queue oops splat), Lebanese ladies who drive while putting on their lip stick and eye-shadow, while somoking and arranging their night out on the phone, Middle Eastern men who spend all day on their mobile phones (but talk with their hands even while driving), young Gulf Arab's who simply own the place and this traffic jam does not apply to them, and of course the religous zealots who wish to be closer to their God who looks out for them and will make sure they are safe while they go through a red Light at 90 miles an hour, taxi drivers who are forced to work 16 hour shifts, Lorry drivers from mountain villages in the Indian Sub-continent who live 20 to a room with no a/c or water and who drive 30 year old lorries with bald tyres and a top speed of 30 miles an hour and who work 20 hour shifts....

 

It's not a form of racism, more that we develop a form of Driverism...

 

Out of the lot of them the Brits are actually the worst, they jam up the fast lane at 1kmh below the speed limit and cause all the rest to zip around them

 

So the commute here has to be honest become probably THE #1 reason why most people want to get out of here, (that and the number of funerals we go to because somebody else was taken out by a muppet driver)

 

Oh, and the FUNNIEST thing - the Police use speed cameras to catch speeding motorists, so it is REALLY weird hurtling past a cop car at 100mph in a stretch of motorway where you know there are no cameras.

Edited 12 September, 2008 by dubai_phil

[pedg]

Commute from home to work: Approx 100 metres

Commute from work to school to pick up son: approx 100 metres

Commute from school back to home: Approx 50 metres

 

This commuting is hell isn't it

[Pip87]

Plus the ticket prices are ridiculous for the treatment you get

 

A 16-25 railcard helps But it does mean I have to buy tickets every day instead of getting a monthly ticket which can be a pain

[bolo]

15 minutes on the Tube... Joy of joys in the summer...

[Alf Tupper]

Live in Southampton and work in Alder****. 56 miles if I go on the M3, 48 via the A31 through Four Marks. I set off at about 0630 so the roads are not too bad although on a Monday the M3 from Fleet up can be a bit naughty.

 

I treat my drive in each moning as quality me time. I listen to the radio. Get news of the Saints on Radio Bournemouth (I mean Solent) although that does mean enduring Julian Clegg who gives himself a name check every 20 seconds. Then I spend a bit of time with the real news with Radio 5 Live or Radio 4 or catch up with Alan Brazil's latest boozing stories on Talk Sport with the irritating Ronnie Irani, depending on my mood. I used to listen to Talk Sport every morning but find Irani so ill informed and up his own that I usually give it a miss now. Occasionally I'll shout at the radio if someone is getting on my tits, but at least I have that anger out of my system before I reach the office.

 

Anyway, my journey usually takes about an hour each way and as I said, I treat it as me time and that way I try to make it enjoyable.

 

Here endeth the lesson.

[saintrich]

Must be handy living down the road from a fast food outlet

 

.

 

 

 

I wish... I'd love to pop down the road for a Whopper meal when I'm walking home pis*ed from the pub.

[Wilko]

My daily journey is a 3 minute drive and a 5 minute walk.

 

Easy.

 

The bird has a 2.5 hour round trip.

[Bud Fox]

I live in SW London and work near Tottenham Court Road, I used to have a 20 minute walk, followed by the train followed the tube, taking about an hour in total.

 

I now cycle to work, and can do the 7 miles in less than 30 minutes, and save myself £100 a month at the same time!

[ecuk268]

I go from Winchester Road to Hardley and it's usually no problem apart from, since they ruined Millbrook Roundabout, I have to go through about 17 sets of traffic lights altogether.

[Guest Hacienda]

I've a 25 mile commute. Some days (wet) I drive and some (dry) I cycle/train/cycle.

[Al de Man]

Your best bet is live five minutes from where you work and make sure you're driving in the opposite direction to most of the traffic. Being a director helps too.