Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Its not only rents that have destroyed shopping areas its also parking charges and traffic congestion.
I haven't been into town for about two years now, apart for a quick trip to get my eyes tested, its just not worth the hassle, even then I parked just outside and walked the rest of the way.

 

Our Hallmark cards shop shut years ago. It’s a vape shop now.

 

Not really opposites as a lot of the traffic is just trying to cross the river, apart from a bridge on the M20 and the one in town there are only single track ones built by the Romans out of town.
Planners have never worked out why there is so much traffic but its obvious to those that live here.
But yes I agree the car parks are mostly full, the main multi storey at the shopping centre has two floors dedicated to parents with kids and another floor dedicated to some car wash company, which leaves about 3 floors for everyone else.

 

The congestion in norwich city centre can be solved by a few tins of yellow paint. We have the inner boundary that is always backed up because people block the roundabouts and stop anyone moving. It would all run clear if these had yellow box junctions but the council seems to like massive congestion.
It's similar with the big shopping centre where before it was there, the traffic ran smoothly, but since it opened people will block the road as they queue for the parking. Initially there were people monitoring the car park who moved them on but they were replaced by signs that no one follows.

In other news, just as people can't move for cars anyway, they have green lit a new McDonald's in one of the busiest areas. It will mean we now have 11 in norwich with a 12 being campaigned against at the moment.

 

How many Big Macs can one town consume, @Thevictorian? No wonder as a nation we have an obesity crisis.

 

I do often wonder, if by creating congestion, the idea is we will all stop using cars.
Traffic light phases rarely seem to work properly to allow main road traffic to flow, and keep changing for about 2 minutes just to let one car out.

Regarding Mc Diddles, they built a drive thru one on a busy one way system on the main route through town here, they have spent the last 3 yrs trying to alter things to stop grid lock in the area, everyone knows the answer, SHUT DOWN THE MAC DONALDS, but they cant hear.
Why a "drive thru" in the middle of town anyway, surely they are for out of town areas.

 

If we're talking traffic lights, Bordeaux takes some beating. We're just one hour away but routinely allow 2 hours to get wherever. They're literally spaced at 100-200m intervals all along the main road by the river. I believe that Bordeaux recently stole the title of 'France's Most Congested City' from Paris.

 

A major junction near me changed from a roundabout to a completely different layout controlled by traffic lights. Between pedestrian and pedestrian crossing lights there were in excess of 50 sets of lights (several light sets per junction). Not long after the new system came into operation an HGV crashed and took out the big box with all the light control gubbins in it. Chaos ensued for weeks until it was all put back together again.

 

They have spent the last yr putting in a Dutch roundabout here, causing a prolonged slow-down to traffic in a busy spot. How much has this cost? Why has it taken so long? Who decided it is needed? Seems completely pointless to me.

 

They put one in just around the corner from me. It is a five lane roundabout which is far more dangerous than the one it replaced. The construction ran over by about 3 months and when it was finished they found out that it wasn't safe for guide dogs (they couldn't tell when it was safe to cross). There were plans to redo part of it because of this but they still haven't got round to fixing the problem. I'm mostly a pedestrian and it's so intimidating to cross because you never know if the cars are going to stop or if they even saw you at all. The crossings are just to close to the roundabout that it doesn't give the cars much time.
It was a bargain though, only cost 5 million including 90,000 for a wall.

 

We had a roundabout changed to one of those, it was a three lane roundabout, I get the feeling that a Dutch roundabout is just a single lane one, as that is what this is now with big studs in the road so you cant change lanes, oh and nice red tarmac.

 

£90,000 for a wall! No wonder councils are bankrupt!

 

My apologies I miss spoke. It was actually 100k The great wall of Heartsease... and YOU spent £100k on it

It is a nice wall though

It's simply staggering how much infrastructure costs in this country and the complete contempt they have for the public. It went on far longer than it should have because there was never anyone working on it, which meant the local shops really suffered.
It was supposed to benefit bikes but the local cycle association told them before work commenced that they believed it made things more dangerous but the council had a grant and if they didn't spend it, they lose it.