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Was down the Gower over the weekend and in Cardiff yesterday.
The f'in traffic was grim coming down and we diverted off the M4 via Newport due to an accident which was a big mistake and took ages. The 50mph zones on the M4 are bonkers and make the journey a right misery. A new road around Newport is essential as the problem isn't going to disappear and having such crap road links would put a lot of people off business investment in Wales.
Then the reduction in speed limits in C4rdf and elsewhere. Came into Cardiff down the A470 now 30mph then along Heathwood Rd now 20mph.
Someone needs to think this through otherwise the city will come to gridlock.
Yes I openly accept that air quality is important and ideally built up areas should be restricted and zones around schools but unless you have an A1 state of the art public transport system and plenty of parking outside the city it will cause mayhem.
What with the state of transport and roads and the NHS in Wales I living in England has its advantages.
I am not going to get into the 20mph argument on here, but as someone who regularly drives between Sheffield and Cardiff I can confidently say that the motorways around Birmingham are worse than the M4 between Newport and Cardiff - a lot worse.Originally Posted by Taffy Blue in Berkshire
I was looking at the cost of a train ticket to come down for a game and the prices are nuts. Hardly an incentive to leave the car at home.
I agree. The rail system in the UK is scandalous - expensive, confusing, illogical, unconnected and unreliable.
Why do we have to trawl around splitter sites and become black belts in dodging and weaving through different online ticketing systems to come up with the cheapest rail option? Not cheap - but cheapest. End up with a mix of different types of tickets from a range of different stations and it can cost 15% of the price of a ticket (online or at station booking office) of a ticket from A to B.
No wonder tourists and non-regular train users feel robbed and treated with contempt. It isn't like this in most other countries. Surely it should be possible to create an integrated transport system for the UK with affordable ticket prices and a simple, understandable way of getting the best deal - a standard A to B price with a small discount for early booking and maybe a small premium for peak time.
That said, I still think parts of England can more than compete with the South Wales M4 corridor for worst motorway experience.
I have also spent a lot of the last 4 months at the Heath and dealing with different parts of the NHS in Wales (my aunt collapsed in April and died at the weekend) and in my experience - the parts of the NHS I saw - Wales and England are not very different.
We used to have that perfect system years ago: they called it British Rail.
Slightly off, but on Topic!!!
ULEZ, the people are deciding by decapitating them
Transport is crap in England
The NHS is crap in England
We have CCFC
Living in England has no advantages whatsoever
There has to be a solution to the London traffic issue but khan and his mad idea are not one of themSlightly off, but on Topic!!!
ULEZ, the people are deciding by decapitating them
Its the brainchild of Johnson and basically the policy is saying you can pollute if you want as long as you can afford it, bullshit isn't it ?,
Well may be I've been lucky because I've been well looked after by the NHS in the main. Agree some aspects aren't so good but was with my best mate in Cardiff yesterday who is getting palliative care for cancer which has now spread throughout his spine and into his skull and the poor chap has not had the response he ought and in a lot of pain. Horrible to see someone in this condition suffering.
Sorry for your loss, RIP.
dr livingstone, i presume
The motorway around Birmingham is a nightmare. But it is around an enormous city and the pinchpoint for routes between north and south Britain.
The same can't be said of the M4 in South Wales, which is almost entirely focused on the Brynglas Tunnels and for which under the former first minister, was proposed to be massively helped with a new M4. Drakefords scrapped that.
There is a fashion amongst many in Wales to blame Westminster but this one is on us. Only a fool would open a UK wide distribution business this side of the tunnel compared to Avonmouth etc.
Looking more your way, I have always been amazed how bad the links are between Sheffield and Manchester. The peak district is in the way of course, but still, there can surely be no worse a connection between two so major a cities as that example?!
Sorry to hear about your aunty Jon. I hope her/your wider family are okay.
I agree on the NHS. Despite different govts for the last 13 years, there is no notable difference. Different stats point to different things and if one is better than another in some areas then it is usually only marginally so.
The fact that there is so different between the NHS irrespective of it being Labour or Tory run should teach us something about the issues it faces and how-to solve them (ie, it isn't political)
We did. In places we also had a low cost, integrated public transport system that covered, buses, trams and rail.
Crazy idea to even think of bringing it back (but improved)?
Sorry to hear about your mate - and thanks for your comment.
My experience of the NHS in Wales has been generally good - especially where there has been a clear diagnosis and care plan in hospital or home - although not for preventative or community services where it is as bad as England. Once in the system it seems to work well both sides of the border. I do think there has been more effort in Wales to join up health and care services - the hospital and local council response and information is better and more co-ordinated than I have seen in the Manchester and Birmingham areas where my Dad and my Mam were before they died.
Thanks. We are OK and glad she didn't linger in a hospital ward for any longer. She wanted an end.
As I said above, I do think in Wales there has been more of an attempt to join up health and social care services - although my experience is just three areas in England (Sheffield, Manchester/Cheshire and Worcestershire) and one in Wales (Cardiff/Vale). The WAG and Welsh NHS regularly get attacked for diverting NHS funding - but that is mainly into social care, and they seem to me to have done a better job of it than the Westminster government and English NHS. Wales also has to deal with more concentrated levels of poverty and deprivation that is the norm in England.
That said, politicians are not managers of public services, and although they can set strategy and budgets, they need capable people to manage and implement plans. I have generally ben impressed by the people who run the services - from cleaners and porters, through nurses and doctors, to administrators - in both England and Wales. Under-resourced, over-worked and still not appreciated.
The Sheffield to Manchester transport link is the worst in Western Europe between two such big cities. So many promises from London over the years and so little done - in fact nothing. We have 3 cross Pennine routes (A roads), one single track rail connection through Stockport, and the option of driving up to Leeds/Bradford to cross via the M62 - adding 35 miles to the journey!
Newport is Chaos if there is an accident on the M4 or a concert at the Principality Stadium.
Chepstow Rd becomes chocka block all the way from the Coldra, along the SDR and everything is clogged on the Magor Road that goes past Llanwern and through the roads around the Leeway industrial Estate.
Corporation Road, Caerleon Road and most of the roads on the East Side of Newport come to a complete standstill.
I’ve no idea if the speed limits will hinder things but I can’t see them helping.
If that's the case you need to be spending less time having a go at Welsh Labour's running of the NHS
There is talk of 6 new train stations in Newport?
How much traffic is that going to take off the roads ? Not that much
Bike lanes , extra bus routes ?
You would know more than me the HGV loads heading towards Newport
But quite a lot of it doesn't end up in Newport or Cardiff ....its headed for the rest of the country
Apart from exploded the tunnels and bulldozing them the only alternative if we are going to move forward is a road to take pressure off those tunnels and the subsequent pressure on Newport, Cardiff etc
If the gwent levels were not such an important ecological area then I think it would happen
Marshfield is a lovely place with a lovely little canal for fishing but one day it will be flattened .....
Unless we stop breathing
Re: Welsh speed limits - wtf!
Keep up at the back - Drakeford and his Welsh Labour pals in the Senedd have agreed official policy of not building any more roads in Wales. So, as a Labour till I die sort of person you should be happy with that ?
Unless of course you think this is all Thatchers fault..... which is the usual comeback
savings to the NHS will be a lot more than £33 million you'd have thought
I got sent this today,
People have been questioning what driving at 20 does to a car.
So I thought I'd go to some private ground and find out. (I'll try and keep this as short as possible).
{Image} Car driving at:
���������� ���� ������ - the car is asking you to shift to second because the revs are too low at 1200rpm.
�es��������� ���� ������ - (strangely) the car is asking for 3rd, because the revs are high enough to change up to third at 1800 rpm to maximise efficiency.
���������� ���� ������ - car is perfectly fine.
This was done in a VW Golf with a 2.0tdi Bluemotion(edit) engine, a fairly normal car. And one that should have enough torque to pull a car at lower revs.
But it's not happy. This was done on the flat. If the road starts to incline, you're going to need to select 2nd. An auto box will be working overtime.
... and there goes any reasoning by Welsh Labour that 20 is better for the environment.
I can't say what this will do for engines and gear boxes - there will be a lot more engine lugging (strain). If you have a diesel, you really need to change if you only drive in areas that are 20, it will kill the DPF.
This style of driving is going to mean a lot more shifting, more drifting above the speed limit and an added distraction that will require extra concentration. You'll probably also see a lot of stalls.
Further, everyone will be bored from driving so slow and will pick up a mobile phone. So it's not safer.
Their argument "being hit at 20 is safer than being hit at 30" is correct. But it doesn't factor real-world logic. If drivers are distracted there is a huge increase in dangers, especially reaction time.
���� ���� ���������� - in the real world, on the whole, no.
���� ���� ������������ ������ ������ ���������������������� - you'd need to see some more accurate data, but spending 1/3 more time in an area at similar or higher revs... sorry, but no.
���� ���� ������������ ������ ���������������� - maybe. Around schools or housing estates for sure.
���� ���� �������� ������������������ - £33m to implement and £4.5b (as admitted by the WaG)... ummm no.
Welsh Labour need to be questioned on their science and met with the real facts. Nobody in the the Senydd is doing this.
Can a petition be started to question their facts?
Please feel free to question the science here. But don't repeat tests on the road. 20 zones make a lot of sense in a lot of areas, but a blanket roll out is nothing short of stupidity.
Please, please don't vote for Welsh Labour in the next election. You don't have to vote Tory, just don't vole these idiots back in.
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