I stole the title from a news article. According to T. S. Eliot, it is OK to steal from the work of others.
The Highways Agency closed a bridge in Nottingham on Thursday night to check some damage they had found during a routine inspection. Along with thousands of others I did not know this when I set off to take Julia to work at 8.00 that morning. (To clarify – thousands of others did not know, but only I was taking Julia to work).
A journey which should have seen me spend about 45 minutes in the car, took me two and a half hours. I won’t describe it, or the behaviour of some drivers in the queue. Nor will I complain how bad it was for me or how useless the Highways Agency are (though this is very tempting – they were totally useless in warning people and totally useless in setting up diversions). They were great at closing the bridge and causing chaos, but I could have done that with a few signs – that’s they easy bit). I won’t even moan about the fact that the bridge, which was supposed to be closed until Friday mid-day, is now likely to be closed until Wednesday.
I am not even going to remark that many people must suffer worse inconveniences than this on a regular basis.
No, today’s gem of wisdom is that if the fairly small matter of a closed bridge brings a city to gridlocked chaos, where would we be if something serious ever happens?
Despite having a prize-winning bus system and an expensive tram system, neither was much use. The buses don’t have bus lanes on the ring road and the trams don’t necessarily go where we need to go, though the network is expanding.
The second gem of wisdom, and I can’t help feeling smug at managing two in one day, is that this is why we can’t get people out of cars and onto public transport. Even when things are running properly Julia has to take two buses and two hours to get to work by public transport. I have never even tried, as it would take two buses and the best part of an hour to do a journey that only takes me ten minutes by car.
So, from one point of view, the problem is poor public transport. From the other it is that I’m selfish. When the world comes to an end, I will have to take my share of the blame for pollution. But in my defence, the bus would take the equivalent of three working weeks out of my year, and deprive the world of a substantial chunk of my writing. This may, or may not be a price the world is willing to pay, but it does at least allow me to say this is the way the world ends, gets me back to Eliot to complete a circular blog.
Nottingham – Sunset on Wednesday
The pictures are from Wednesday, when we ate scones and did other things I have not yet written about because I left the camera at work, and was then overtaken by circumstances.
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The deregulation of bus services has been a disaster for everyone as it has increased car traffic as well as reducing buses. The solution lies in electric bicycles (perhaps).
I could manage an electric bicycle as most of my route would be via cycle paths. My problem would be secure parking.
Good point.
We have a customer who comes by bike and he always brings it inside for safety.
I know it will never happen but my solution to all this has always been free, efficient, public transport and severe restrictions on private methods.
I’d be happy to pay if it was efficient. Unfortunately this is just a dream.
Indeed – but the only way to get people out of cars is with a carrot.
I was talking to someone who used the tram to get to tonight’s meeting of the Numismatic Society – it took ages because the continuing traffic queues are stating to disrupt the tram system too. We just rely on cars too much.
Yes. However, I just couldn’t go anywhere without one at the moment.
We are often forced into things by circumstances. 🙂
The traffic into Leeds is so poor during rush hour and the nearest free parking is a substantial walk from where I work, it makes sense to use the bus to work. That is not to say there is always a disadvantage is taking the car: you have to go into the city to get to another point on the outskirts. In my case this would also require the purchase of two separate tickets due to the fact that different bus routes are run by different companies. Oh well, at least Leeds hasn’t won any accolades for the constant mayhem on its roads.
I bought the house because it was good for getting out of Nottingham, as I used to travel over six counties. Julia used to work in the centre – just one quick bus ride from a stop a couple of hundred yards away.
Times change, jobs change, and we aren’t so convenient now. Ah well! 🙂
Yes, they do indeed!
🙂
I’m in the East Mids – it feels like Nottingham has been buried in roadworks for decades. I saw the news on Friday – very sorry to hear you were caught up in the traffic chaos 🌿
It happens. We have several sets of roadworks around at the moment. It’s not as bad as the road from Peterborough to Cambridge – it was chaos when I was a teenager and it still is. 🙂
If that’s the one with all the crawler lanes, I know what you mean as that’s our route to the coast and it takes forever!
Sounds right. We got stuck for several hours last time we used it. Now we use a variety of different routes.
Yep I have similar issues with our public transport, on the positive side it does give you time to read if you are so inclined.
Ours have wi-fi so it could be worse. 🙂
Nothing like aging infrastructure. I was living back east when this happened. Fortunately I did not need to cross this bridge to get to work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mianus_River_Bridge
We have had it easy in comparison. We were fortunate that it didn’t fall and cause any injury.