Tuesday 18 December 2012

It's not the roadworks it's the drivers!

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The man in charge of the interminable M62 roadworks between Brighouse and the M1 junction has exploded into a little diatribe of blame. Essentially it's us not them that's to blame:

The boss behind a £150 million scheme to upgrade the M62 in West Yorkshire has insisted the roadworks are NOT the main cause of continual traffic misery, instead blaming poor vehicle maintenance and drivers running out of fuel for causing huge delays.


To understand how wrong this man is, let me tell you a little story.

Back in 2007, I got a job in Leeds and used the M62 on occasion as a commute (before all the greenies cry foul, most days I went on the train). There has been  no time since then that this stretch of the motorway has been free from roadworks and their associated delays. To put is simply, this is too long for one of England's busiest sections of road to be under "improvement".

The delays, the closures, the crashes - all that driver frustration - is the direct consequence of the roadworks. It has precisely nothing to do with the behaviour of drivers. After all, those lousy drivers are lousy drivers everywhere. They don't suddenly become brain-dead numpties the minute they enter the roadworks.

What bothers me the most is that the road we get when this work is finished - if it ever actually gets finished - won't be any better than the one we started with. All that seems to have happened in the replacement of a perfectly servicable central reservation with a new concrete wall and the erection of gantries to carry speed cameras and shiny flashing sign things.

I'm sure that these chaps know better than us motorists and the billions of costs, the frustrations, annoyance and irritation will be worth it! This is despite us not getting a proper extra lane and not getting the junction at Chain Bar sorted out.

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1 comment:

SadButMadLad said...

I've driven the roadworks a few times from Milnrow to go to Leeds and York. Not a nice experience. The 50mph limit requires you to either constantly monitor your speedo, and therefore not look at the road, or drive a lot slower than 50mph so that you can look at the road but then you cause queues.

And why, oh why, did they have to make miles and miles of it one big roadworks. Why couldn't they do it in sections.