The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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9:44am on Wednesday, 10th May, 2023:
Anecdote
I drove up to Yorkshire yesterday to visit my dad in hospital.
OK, so this isn't going to make much sense unless you're familiar with the major road layouts in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
On the way up north, Google maps recommended I took the M11 rather than the A14 to get to the A1. I took its advice, and it was all going swimmingly well until I was delayed by an accident some distance ahead on the M11. Ambulances and police cars were everywhere. It happened near an intersection, and eventually the police let us leave the M11 on a slip road, cross the intersection (which was a roundabout), then return down the other sliproad onto the M11. We'd been stationary for 55 minutes before we got moving again. Annoyingly, it wasn't mentioned in the traffic news on Radio 2, which was more interested in getting its traffic presenter to honk a horn on the Mersey Ferry for reasons to do with Eurovision.
On the way back, I had a choice: take the M11 again or try the A14. I'd heard there were nasty roadworks on the A14 so I stuck with the M11. As I got closer to the Colchester turn-off, signs appeared telling me that the A120 was closed at the A131 intersection near Braintree for overnight roadworks. Well that would have been useful to know 30 miles earlier when I could have done something about it. I took my turn-off, followed the A120 and was indeed diverted at the intersection with the A131. It sent me towards Chelmsford, where I could pick up the A12 to get me to Colchester. However, when I reached the A12 the north-bound sliproad was closed and it sent me south — where the A12 itself had more roadworks. Then, the diversion signs ran out. After passing one possible turn-around junction, I continued almost to Ingatestone before finding another, whereupon I managed to get onto the northbound carriageway and eventually to Colchester (through yet more roadworks). I arrived home 45 minutes later than I would have done without the roadworks.
It didn't help that the satnav in my car, which gets live updates for traffic conditions, doesn't get live updates for road layouts. At times I was travelling along roads built since 2014 that weren't in its database; it thought I was driving through fields. It could not, therefore, offer me an alternative route.
Still, at least I got to see my dad, the dice having rolled his way in the "there's a 30% chance this will kill you" operation he'd just had.
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Copyright © 2023 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).