M5 Motorway

[mjheathcote]

BBC News - Lorry fire on M5 near Gloucester closes motorway in both directions

Lorry fire on M5 near Gloucester closes motorway in both directions

The motorway is closed between junction 8 for Worcester and 11 for Gloucester.

www.bbc.co.uk

What a day.
Travelled down to below Gloucester today.
Took me 3 hours this morning.
Coming back... 7 hours.
Could have driven down to the Alps in less time!

 

[Wack61]

Waze is your friend

Saved me hours in jams , I went to Hadfield just off the end of the M67

Massive queue coming the other way , right up the hill , through the lights and into Glossop

My heart sank because it wasn't moving at all

Did the drop , put home in on Waze and I kid you not , 10 minutes and I was back on the M67

 

[Andyk]

I left work at 4 came on at 11A and there were two lorries with train carriages on that seem to have broken down on Northbound side and all traffic stopped. This must have been on top of your issues.

 

[hashluck]

M5 will be my car park tomorrow as well I am sure

 

[mjheathcote]

The problem was all traffic was directed off the M5 onto B roads and it was instant gridlock.
It took me 4 hours to travel 33 miles until I was back on the M5 north bound again.

 

[MarkMas]

This is pretty normal for the M5.

 

[Wack61]

The problem was all traffic was directed off the M5 onto B roads and it was instant gridlock.
It took me 4 hours to travel 33 miles until I was back on the M5 north bound again.

Did you use Waze , , I thought the same but it found a way round it

Whoever it is they're tracking every phone now so they know where we all are and how fast we're going

 

[mjheathcote]

Did you use Waze , , I thought the same but it found a way round it

Whoever it is they're tracking every phone now so they know where we all are and how fast we're going

Google maps.
Trust me, no way out today as was too close to the truck fire to avoid the area in good time.

 

[Wack61]

I was on the M62 yesterday heading east , at the A1 turn heading west was a motorhome on a recovery truck which was towing a caravan , didn't look crashed

Police were running a rolling roadblock

Coming back I missed Waze directing me off and got stuck in a 45 minute queue , a mile from the A1 the orange arrows were on L 2&3 advising the lanes were closing and the M62 was closed

EVERYBODY started piling into lane one at least a mile from the junction

**** that , the arrows are advisory so I drove right up the front , on the sliproad everyone was going right , Waze said left down the old A1 , do a loop , back on the M62 in 5 minutes which was empty as everyone who'd gone right was stuck there

Odd thing was the Motorhome combo was still there , I can only assume somebody had died and they were investigating , only old farts have motorhomes so it's quite probable

 

[Andyk]

This is pretty normal for the M5.

i have to say the stretch between Gloucester and Bristol has been pretty good in my 3 years working in Gloucester. Now the M4 when I was working in Swindon was a different story. That was a **** journey.

 

[philw696]

When I lived in WsM the stretch between Bristol and Bridgewater was always a nightmare.

 

[safrane]

M5 + Caravans = Long delays every weekend and summer.

 

[Andy4200]

Yep, the Bristol to WSM stretch is terrible, especially in July and August. I work in Filton and live in a village near WSM so working from home has saved countless hours being stuck trying to get home.

 

[Wanderer]

I once came off the M1 around Hawes to avoid a massive queue guided by a very early sat nav and ended up back on the M1, same queue but three miles further back....

 

[Wack61]

Before Waze when everybody had a TomTom you'd come off the motorway and be in a convoy of cars all following the same directions through housing estates

It still amazes me people use the manufacturers built in nav on a 10 year old car , Waze has saved me hours stuck in traffic

 

[Wanderer]

Another time was on the M40 TomTom diverted me off ended up near Tamworth-in-Arden so popped in churchyard to see Nick Drake's gravestone, so was worth it.

Or was that the A42/M42?......

 

[Zep]

Before Waze when everybody had a TomTom you'd come off the motorway and be in a convoy of cars all following the same directions through housing estates

It still amazes me people use the manufacturers built in nav on a 10 year old car , Waze has saved me hours stuck in traffic

My view on that is the longer they stick to their old nav, the quicker I get where I am going. So I am fine with it

 

[Wack61]

My view on that is the longer they stick to their old nav, the quicker I get where I am going. So I am fine with it

There is that

On the M62 yesterday this dick in a van was prepared to write it off rather than let me in , I had a wry smile at how long it was likely to take him to get back to Bolton going right , I was back on an empty motorway in 5 minutes

 

[Wack61]

M5 + Caravans = Long delays every weekend and summer.

One year we went to Cornwall from Warrington, left at 4am , one stop on the way , there by 9am , some friends were doing the same trip 2 weeks later only they cannot get out of bed , they left at 8am and got there at 6pm , multiple crashes on the M5 including a speedboat that came off the trailer

 

[midlifecrisis]

When I lived in WsM the stretch between Bristol and Bridgewater was always a nightmare.

Don't forget that the M5 was just dual lane around Worcester in the 90s. Nightmare in the summer.