The M5 in summer

[Sou'wester]

Hi all.

First post here, please be gentle!

I drive about 50,000 miles a year covering the whole of the South of England including the notorious hotspots of the M25 etc. But I regularly travel between Bristol and South Somerset and I am at near braking point with the M5 in summer. Severely over capacity for every weekend for 4/5 months of the year, with patches of non-helpful upgrades over the years. I live just off the Almondsbury interchange, so road works are a con-current theme.

I know times are tight but something really needs to be done longer term. Between the M4 junction and Junction 25, journey times are really unreliable.

If the A303 was actually upgraded properly you would be able to take a chunk of S.E based traffic onto the M5 at Taunton of Exeter alleviating problems further North.

It will never happen, but if there was a Bristol ring way from East of Bristol to the Clevedon junction on the M5, of which there plans long in the past, except to meet the M32, which is now completely impractical. It would solve all Almondsbury interchange problems. The managed motorway is not even going to be a sticking plaster as it doesn't solve the problem of traffic crossing each other due to the vincinity of the Filton junction.

This motorway is just doing my head in, moreso than any motorway in the South. Unfortunately as it is quiet for most of the year, there won't be a business case to majorly overhaul the region, but for people living in the South West it is desperately needed.

Thanks,

J

[Haydn1971]

Welcome aboard... Whilst many will sympathise with the M5 near Bristol, it's not that indifferent to many other sections of the motorway network, in Yorkshire where I live, there are three areas of concern, M62 J24-30, in in particular J26-27, then the M1 J32-35a and also M1 J39-42. Solutions are aplenty, the sections above are like the M5/M4 are in the process of getting managed motorway upgrades, which are considered by many as the solution, but I consider as a short term fix until something better can be afforded. The M62 past Leeds/Bradford needs an alternative motorway preferably to the south, but I don't see it happening in my time, you aren't alone my friend... I deal with the problem by travelling to and from work outside of the main peaks, using alternative routes when possible, car sharing some days and going by train some days to break up the annoyance of driving daily.

[nowster]

Whilst many will sympathise with the M5 near Bristol, it's not that indifferent to many other sections of the motorway network...

Do you mean we have a road that cares about other roads?

The M60/M61 junction in the NW of Manchester is a regular bottleneck in the morning peak. Expect to wait 10-15 minutes at that junction at its worst. The M62 bypass in that area really ought to have been built back in the 1990s.

[ScottB5411]

What concerns me with a lot of the ATM schemes is that there has been no thought of any future widening meaning that when it happens it will cost a fortune to do

[Haydn1971]

Agreed Scott, but it's better than leaving things be for another 15-20 years without any modifications - it leaves sour taste in my mouth

[DavidBrown]

The M5 is much more comparable to the M62 than the M1 in that there are at least alternative routes if the M1 has problems - an incident on either the M5 or M62 causes a huge bottleneck and effectively isolates huge areas. It's the lack of alternative routes which is where the M5 and M62 masively fall down, and what's more frustrating is that, once upon a time, alternative routes were looked at (A303 upgrade and M67 across the moor respectively).

For me, there's not actually a huge amount that can be done with the M5 itself outside of Bristol. It will be very interesting to see how ATM is implemented around Almondsbury - so far the ATM on the M42 and M6 have been on relatively simple stretches of motorway with basic junctions. At Bristol you already have lane gains, lane drops, freeflow junctions, collector and distributor roads, climbing lanes etc etc - will ATM make all this lot even more complicated or is it the chance to sort it all out? Personally, I would dual the A303/A358 to Taunton, potentially widen or ATM J25-27, have a M5SB to A361WB freeflow link at J27 to stop the regular queues around there, and potentially ATM around Exeter which may be able to sort out the A30/A38 merge once and for all. The M5 is starting to shed its reputation of "only being busy for 10 days a year" - the pile-up at Taunton last year showed just how important the road is for the entire south-west even in November.

[B1040]

The two times I have tried to loop South round Bristol, I have found the going to be slow. A decent Southern loop from Bridgewater to the East of Bath would be good, but will probably not happen.

[SteveA30]

It does seem to be getting worse. Yesterday, there were queues from Stroud to Clevedon and a travel time of 95 mins on the HA Traffic news. Further queuss around Bridgwater and at Exeter. N/bnd from Tiverton to Wellington, past Taunton, then Bridgwater and Weston S Mare. In other words stop/go most of the way.

Good weather no doubt played a part but, there is good weather every summer....sometimes.
Seasonal roads are unlikely to get as much investment as say, the M25.

The A38 probably coped fine each winter, even on the Exeter bypass, not so much through Taunton or Bristol perhaps. It was mostly the summer traffic that earned it the name The Longest Lane.

[A303Paul]

The M5 is much more comparable to the M62 than the M1 in that there are at least alternative routes if the M1 has problems - an incident on either the M5 or M62 causes a huge bottleneck and effectively isolates huge areas. It's the lack of alternative routes which is where the M5 and M62 masively fall down, and what's more frustrating is that, once upon a time, alternative routes were looked at (A303 upgrade and M67 across the moor respectively).

Most of the A303 is done, the equivalent of the M67 being built with a two mile gap at Woodhead and built as a single carriageway (aka A6144(M)) past Stockbridge.

What is needs is a bit of vision and seeing it in terms of directly linking London and Plymouth rather than handwringing that the Blackdown bit does not get enough traffic (because its crap and people use the M5 instead)

There was a time when the idea of road upgrades like the A303 was not just to relieve existing traffic, the whole purpose was to generate extra traffic, especially commercial traffic, because that extra traffic was caused by the extra jobs and prosperity that the road generated.

[traffic-light-man]

What concerns me with a lot of the ATM schemes is that there has been no thought of any future widening meaning that when it happens it will cost a fortune to do

Agreed Scott, but it's better than leaving things be for another 15-20 years without any modifications - it leaves sour taste in my mouth

To be fair, I think by the time widening of a lot of the ATM/MM stretches comes along, most of the infrastructure of ATM will probably be life expired or obsolete anyway.

[DavidBrown]

It does seem to be getting worse. Yesterday, there were queues from Stroud to Clevedon and a travel time of 95 mins on the HA Traffic news. Further queuss around Bridgwater and at Exeter. N/bnd from Tiverton to Wellington, past Taunton, then Bridgwater and Weston S Mare. In other words stop/go most of the way.

Indeed even late on Friday night at gone 9pm, it took me nearly an hour to travel south from J25 to J26 due to a shed load closing two lanes, which was cleared by the time we got there.

[RichardA35]

..There was a time when the idea of road upgrades like the A303 was not just to relieve existing traffic, the whole purpose was to generate extra traffic, especially commercial traffic, because that extra traffic was caused by the extra jobs and prosperity that the road generated.

However, this has to be balanced against retaining local services - e.g. since the A55, the nearest ParcelForce depot to Holyhead is in Chester as services migrate to the optimum cost efficient location driven by the bottom line rather than the quality of service provided.

[A320Driver]

The lack of alternative routes is where we fall down, compared to for example, Spain. As it stands most HGV traffic from Devon and Cornwall will use the M5. If the A30/303 was uprgraded from Honiton eastwards, as well as the A358, we would have a decent pair of alternate routes.

Was the southern/eastern ring of Bristol planned to be something much bigger?

[Jonny A46]

I travelled along the M5 quite recently when heading for the ferry at Plymouth - it was mostly okay although the traffic around Bristol was fairly slow, which I suspect isn´t unusual.

However, around the M4/M5 interchange I did notice that there were roadworks going on and there was a very vague notice about some kind of traffic management system - has anyone else seen it, and does anyone have any idea what this is about?

[Thryduulf]

The roadworks around the M4/M5 interchange are to install all the kit necessary for the managed motorway, see http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/25754.aspx and http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/23382.aspx

[A5104]

I am at near braking point with the M5 in summer.

So it does keep moving then!

[nowster]

I am at near braking point with the M5 in summer.

So it does keep moving then!

Oi! I thought I was the grammar nazi round here, Mr Chester-to-Corwen.

[WHBM]

....there were queues from Stroud to Clevedon and a travel time of 95 mins on the HA Traffic news.

We lived in Taunton in the 1960s, so shortly before the M5 opened, and the traffic conditions were far worse than that on summer Saturdays.Known the A38 could take four hours from Taunton to Bristol. Of course, it was all the tourists following the map. If you went round by Wells and the A39/37 you made good progress.

Taunton was so choked with traffic (including in front of our front door) that the town bus service just deteriorated to turning up whenever.

One evening at about 8.00 pm my father walked down the road, doubtless walking faster than the jams, and encountered a man parking his car to go into a hotel and see if they had rooms for his family. They had left Newquay after breakfast - and were going home to Leeds !

[henhouse05]

If I am totally honest with you, I have only recently been caught in a traffic jam on the M5, and this was my first time. This did surprise me and looking at other people's experiences I find all this very interesting.

[A303Chris]

The lack of alternative routes is where we fall down, compared to for example, Spain. As it stands most HGV traffic from Devon and Cornwall will use the M5. If the A30/303 was uprgraded from Honiton eastwards, as well as the A358, we would have a decent pair of alternate routes.

Was the southern/eastern ring of Bristol planned to be something much bigger?

Agreed only the Friday before last (3rd August) i got stuck between J24 and J23 on my way back from Cornwall in the early afternoon.

Had a trouble free trip from the Lizard, Helston, B3303 to Cambourne then A30, A38 (to avoid Temple signs saying 3 mile queues at 11am already) M5.

Given how light traffic was, i decided to stay on the motorway instead of the A303 as I was aware that at the lane drops especailly on the Ilminster bypass queues can form.

Traffic built up at J27 and then after taken 20 minutes travelling between J24 / J23 where the queue went in to the horizon , I decided to go A39, via Glastonbury, WElls and Bath then the A46 to M4 J18. Have gone A39, A361, Sheppton Mallet, From, Trowbridge, Devizes then A4 to Hungerford J14 before but that takes ages.

Anyway going A39 took 2 1/4 hours compared to 45 mins on the M5 /M4. Thats the trouble there are no alternative roads. Every thing in the area east of the M5, South of the M4, west of the A34 , north of the A303 are awful roads with cheap single carriageway upgrades, there is only about 6 miles of DC in the whole area. It must be a nightmare living here must take an hour at least to drive to a decent piece of road.