SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

This afternoon there was a collision on the M62 Eastbound near Castleford (between junctions 30 and 31).According to travel reports, one lane was closed for some time, but the other two lanes remained open.By the time I finished work, the tailback was approaching Chain Bar (junction 26) on the M62.As a result of this same incident, closing just one lane, the M621 heading out of Leeds towards the M62 at Lofthouse backed up into Leeds. By the time I got to that queue the tailback was past the city centre and Elland Road and onto the bridge over the Outer Ring Road.All the roads in the area were at near gridlock, largely due to people blocking junctions just so they were a couple of feet further forward.Traffic heading down the Ingram Distributor was also bad, moving at a snails place.When I eventually made it into the city centre to pick mrs ravey up, we made it to the on ramp for the Inner Ring Road at Park Lane (heading towards York Road) to find that at a virtual stop as well.We found that this hold up (which was presumably causing the tailback all the way past the Gyratory and up the Ingram Distributor) was as a result of someone getting a flat tyre in the long tunnel AND STOPPING THERE AND CALLING THE RAC TO CHANGE THE BLOOMING TYRE IN THE TUNNEL!!!!!So there we have it, Britains 3rd biggest city almost brought to it's knees by halfwits rubber necking at someone elses misfortune on the M62, and someone without the sense to drive 200 yards up the road on a flat tyre to a safe areas to get out of everybodys way.

exactly the same thing happened yesterday on the J1 roundabout of the M621. flat tyre. Does he/she think to drive on the rims 5 yards further on and out of harms way? No. Ring a friend to park at an angle behind you and wave 3 lanes of roundabout traffic on to the right turning lane and cause utter chaos in both directions on the 621 and the 6110. Brilliant

3rd biggest City.? I am a Loiner and proud of it but I think we are fourth behind that lot over the pennines.Should teh boys in blue not be moving them on to a safer place anyway?.

In this selfish/ignorant era,does all this surprise you ?It don't take much to stuff Leeds and the surrounding 10 sq miles.Proof(if needed)of poor traffic and planning investment in the past

No, to be honest it doesn't...Most motorways and road infrastructures have had no real invstment from any party in the last 50 yrs. look at the m1 as an example. Yet if we all got of the road and onto public transport it would collapse, it can't cope now.

Keg wrote: 3rd biggest City.? I am a Loiner and proud of it but I think we are fourth behind that lot over the pennines. There is no way that the actual city of Manchester is bigger than Leeds. The conurbation may be, but much of what we consider "Manchester" (including Old Trafford) is not in Manchester at all, but either Salford or Trafford. I'm not sure about Leeds's position in the hiearchy of English cities, but it is certainly bigger than Manchester.

Keg wrote: No, to be honest it doesn't...Most motorways and road infrastructures have had no real invstment from any party in the last 50 yrs. look at the m1 as an example. Yet if we all got of the road and onto public transport it would collapse, it can't cope now. Although not in our area, the M1 around Nottingham and Derby is undergoing major reconstrucition for about 15 miles. Leeds contractor Kevin Rouse have been major benficiaries from this in the last two years. TBH I hope it's worth it because it's been a real pain in the b***s for anyone (like me) who ventures down there on a regular basis.

That's happened before, about three years ago. A broken down vehicle on the Gyratory seemingly has the capability to bring the whole ring road to a halt. I was coming back from a weekend in London and it took an hour for a bus to turn up and nearly two to get back to Yeadon, with the hold ups being people trying to get out of Armley onto Kirkstall Road and crossing the ring road at Horsforth. This was early September 2006 I think.

Trojan wrote: Keg wrote: 3rd biggest City.? I am a Loiner and proud of it but I think we are fourth behind that lot over the pennines. There is no way that the actual city of Manchester is bigger than Leeds. The conurbation may be, but much of what we consider "Manchester" (including Old Trafford) is not in Manchester at all, but either Salford or Trafford. I'm not sure about Leeds's position in the hiearchy of English cities, but it is certainly bigger than Manchester. In 2001 census,the last proper count,not inbetween estimate,puts Manchesters urban population at 329819,a 9.2% decline from the 1991 censushttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pyrami ... 00bn.aspIn 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247,this is basically the boundaries before the 1974 expansion of the City of Leeds,and therefore best reflects the area of Manchester as IT was in 1974,and Leeds was pre 1974.This is because the urban area of Manchester hasnt increased,its hemmed in by cities such as SalfordThe entire 2001 population for Leeds in 2001,with all the areas such as Otley (sorry Si)etc was 715,000,now currently estimated at 770,800.Top ten estimated 2007 ,not including London and its boroughs:-1 Birmingham 1,016,800 Metropolitan borough, City (1889) West Midlands 2 Leeds 770,800 Metropolitan borough, City (1893) West Yorkshire 3 Sheffield 534,500 Metropolitan borough, City (1893) South Yorkshire 4 Cornwall 532,200 Unitary Authority Cornwall 5 County Durham 508,500 Unitary Authority County Durham 6 Bradford 501,700 Metropolitan borough, City (1897) West Yorkshire 7 Manchester 464,200 Metropolitan borough, City (1853) Greater Manchester 8 Wiltshire 455,500 Unitary Authority Wiltshire 9 Liverpool 434,900 Metropolitan borough, City (1880) Merseyside 10 Bristol 421,300 Unitary Authority, City (1542) Bristol

cnosni wrote: Top ten estimated 2007 ,not including London and its boroughs:- Not forgetting that Boris Johnson's empire is actually 2 very small citiesCity of London and City of Westminster surrounded by and including boroughs.I am taking it that the top 10 excludes Scotland, NI and Wales