Traffic Chaos- Morning rush hour 3/7/12

[tyke bhoy]

Can anyone tell me what time the roadworks, blocking a lane, were removed on Victoria Road/Neville Street this morning and if the massive tailbacks were caused by this or just the failure to remove the lane closed signs. I started queuing on the A61 at the Wood Lane juction this morning with Radio Reports of "heavier than usual" traffic on the M621 at Junction 5 Tunstall Road. We crawled all the way down to Stourton gyratory and on to the motorway at junction 7 by which time the "heavier traffic" was being reported as "junction 3 westbound". We crawled all along the M621 to junction 3 where it was apparent traffic on Dewsbury Road was hardly moving too.We then crawled all the way off the slip road and all the way down to Victoria Road where there were two signs 100 yards apart indicating that the inside lane was closed further up the road. Except it wasn't!! Was it genuinely closed for emergency reasons or were thousands of people delayed for 30+ minutes and several miles for non emergency work or even worse 2 lanes of traffic attempting to merge into 1 to avoid a non existent lane closure!!

[raveydavey]

tyke bhoy wrote: Can anyone tell me what time the roadworks, blocking a lane, were removed on Victoria Road/Neville Street this morning and if the massive tailbacks were caused by this or just the failure to remove the lane closed signs. I started queuing on the A61 at the Wood Lane juction this morning with Radio Reports of "heavier than usual" traffic on the M621 at Junction 5 Tunstall Road. We crawled all the way down to Stourton gyratory and on to the motorway at junction 7 by which time the "heavier traffic" was being reported as "junction 3 westbound". We crawled all along the M621 to junction 3 where it was apparent traffic on Dewsbury Road was hardly moving too.We then crawled all the way off the slip road and all the way down to Victoria Road where there were two signs 100 yards apart indicating that the inside lane was closed further up the road. Except it wasn't!! Was it genuinely closed for emergency reasons or were thousands of people delayed for 30+ minutes and several miles for non emergency work or even worse 2 lanes of traffic attempting to merge into 1 to avoid a non existent lane closure!! It was like this last night just before 5, tyke bhoy.Admittedly the hold ups weren't anywhere near as bad, but all the signs stating a lane was closed were out and to their credit a sizeable number of people were filtering their way across in preparation for it - only to find that there was no lane closure!This is happening more and more now - the cause seems to be that you now have goodness knows how many contractors involved in even the smallest of roadworks.You need a 'traffic management' team to come in, put signs up / cones out, etc, then there is the preparatory workers (hole diggers) who come and do there bit, then the specialist (pipe / cable / gas main works, etc), then you need the hole fillers back once the previous lot have finished (often followed by a different set to reinstate the final road surface / markings) before the traffic management stuff can all be shifted. It's a blinking nightmare and no wonder it goes wrong so often. The roadworks on the IRR (York Rd / Regent St flyover) often suffer from the same problem, with the lane closed signs being left out even when there are no works being carried out and both lanes are open.At least the hold up wasn't caused by a private hire waiting for a fare outside the Hilton (as seems to happen frequently now...).

[somme1916]

raveydavey wrote: tyke bhoy wrote: Can anyone tell me what time the roadworks, blocking a lane, were removed on Victoria Road/Neville Street this morning and if the massive tailbacks were caused by this or just the failure to remove the lane closed signs. I started queuing on the A61 at the Wood Lane juction this morning with Radio Reports of "heavier than usual" traffic on the M621 at Junction 5 Tunstall Road. We crawled all the way down to Stourton gyratory and on to the motorway at junction 7 by which time the "heavier traffic" was being reported as "junction 3 westbound". We crawled all along the M621 to junction 3 where it was apparent traffic on Dewsbury Road was hardly moving too.We then crawled all the way off the slip road and all the way down to Victoria Road where there were two signs 100 yards apart indicating that the inside lane was closed further up the road. Except it wasn't!! Was it genuinely closed for emergency reasons or were thousands of people delayed for 30+ minutes and several miles for non emergency work or even worse 2 lanes of traffic attempting to merge into 1 to avoid a non existent lane closure!! It was like this last night just before 5, tyke bhoy.Admittedly the hold ups weren't anywhere near as bad, but all the signs stating a lane was closed were out and to their credit a sizeable number of people were filtering their way across in preparation for it - only to find that there was no lane closure!This is happening more and more now - the cause seems to be that you now have goodness knows how many contractors involved in even the smallest of roadworks.You need a 'traffic management' team to come in, put signs up / cones out, etc, then there is the preparatory workers (hole diggers) who come and do there bit, then the specialist (pipe / cable / gas main works, etc), then you need the hole fillers back once the previous lot have finished (often followed by a different set to reinstate the final road surface / markings) before the traffic management stuff can all be shifted. It's a blinking nightmare and no wonder it goes wrong so often. The roadworks on the IRR (York Rd / Regent St flyover) often suffer from the same problem, with the lane closed signs being left out even when there are no works being carried out and both lanes are open.At least the hold up wasn't caused by a private hire waiting for a fare outside the Hilton (as seems to happen frequently now...). It doesn't take much for Leeds to grind to a halt at the best of times I'm afraid.With a delapidated road system,lack of cohesive transport strategy,no alternative transport modes......it can only get worse.Must cost the local economy millions attempting to cope with a road network many years past it's usefulness.Of course a very limited "off their" trolley bus scheme would alleviate all that (lol)....nightmaresville