Today I am going to have a bit of rant. Why - well I had the most frustrating experience - along with with hundres of other people today. The thing which made it even more frustrating was that it was avoidable..
So what is it. Well this morning I set off very early (about 6:20 am), to take my step children to school. The journey takes a good two hours in the rush hour .
Today the weather was good and we felt quite pleased that we had made good time. I dropped my stepson off promptly at 8:30am and turned back out onto the road to conintue the journey to my step daughters school which should take another ten to twleve minutes. Today as we turned back on to the road we were met with stationary traffic which we sat in while the minutes ticked away.
It was obvious after about twenty minutes when we had not gone very far that my stepdaughter was going to be very late for school. We surmised that maybe there had been an accident, perhaps major road works. As we stopped and started along the road we saw the odd abandoned car that had broken down and vexed motorists peering out of their side windows also trying to work out whatever was going on.
Eventually we passed the obstruction causing all the problem. An accident - no. No sign of one at all. No it was road works. Not big road works, you understand, no probably three or four yards of road works, one man digging a hole (by hand). And a set of temporary traffic lights wich arguably seemed a little unneccessary.
Eventually I dropped my step daughter off at 9:30am and considered with some dismay that I was probably going to be stuck in a queue going the other way for some conisderable time.
However ten minutes later I was through the road works. I turned off and headed out of the town and saw at each round about queues and queues of traffic all heading into the town centre. Each roundabout was grid locked. I eventually turned off onto the main arterial road out of the town. Still more cars stationary. People out of their cars trying to work out what on earth was going on. Litte did they realise the reason they were being put to such inconvenience thank goodness.
Meanwhile there is a man digging a hole (by hand), blissfully unaware of the chaos he is causing.
Goodness knows how many hours it would be before the situation righted itself. Or maybe it stil has not.
Just think of the cost in loss of productiviy. The cost to the environment, the petrol and diesal which was consumed. The irate employers - the irate drivers. And so the list goes on.
And intriguingly will anyone do anything to prevent a rerun of this tomorrow?
Fortunately I won't be there to find out.