M25 commute - how bad?

[Fred Bloggs]

This website may be helpful.....

http://www.trafficengland.com/index.aspx

Thanks.

[darmstadt]

I commuted Brentwood to Uxbridge and back for nearly two years. Usually 3 hours per day on the road. First hint of congestion - dive into the left hand lane (unless it's one of those that becomes a slip road). But that was 10 years ago.

I used to commute from Brentwood to Cockfosters but the M25 was reasonably new then but I did have a couple of incidents on it:

- once riding a Kawasaki GPz1100B2 (which is not a small bike and I'm not a big person) I got stuck in a traffic jam. As the traffic moved off I stalled and the bike fell over (we were in the 'fast lane') trapping me underneath it. The bloke behind just sat there and honked his hooter while I just lay there. Eventually I managed to crawl out and somehow heave it up. Tosser

- Driving a Ford Escort MKI which I had converted to an RS2000 beater by dropping a 3.0l V6 engine into it (I bought the original car in Tottenham) and driving one night to work when it was raining I conked out in that tunnel near the A10. Unluckily there was police landrover just up the road which reversed back to see what the matter was although I had got the car started. First off they noticed no tax disk, whoops, it had been applied for and secondly there were no bumpers. That was explained by the fact I was putting on some quarter bumpers from an Escort van at the weekend which was okay. They looked in the engine bay and were quite surprised at what they saw and some jokey comments were made. They then looked in the boot and noticed that the original color was a horrible purple. After getting in touch they then informed me that I was in fact driving a car which was registered as a Talbot Horizon! Up until that point they hadn't asked for a name but now they were interested and documents were asked for. Deciding to go for a 5 day wonder I had 'accidentally' forgotten them and my name was now frank furt. Car was sold on very quickly after that episode.

[stek]

Driving a Ford Escort MKI which I had converted to an RS2000 beater by dropping a 3.0l V6 engine into it

Was it a 1.1 originally!!? Did u keep the same brakes, most likely drums all round!!?

[darmstadt]

Was it a 1.1 originally!!? Did u keep the same brakes, most likely drums all round!!?

1.3 originally. Changed the brakes to disk at the front with steel braided hosing. Rostyle 4 spoke wheels, twin pipes (hidden) at the rear. People also thought it was just an old Escort. There was one problem, I only bolted the front seats at the rear so when you accelerated you were thrown backwards. Another conversion was a Kawasaki 7650 with a GPz1100 engine in it and z900 tank, seat and panels. Used to do run what you brung with that...

[SueEllen]

If you are going away from Heathrow towards Gatwick southbound in the morning the traffic moves faster and you can even get up to high speeds.

However you still have the problem of getting on to the M25 after about 6.45am from whatever motorway/dual carriageway you use.

I would also advise you to either leave an hour and a half earlier OR later than 5.30pm on your return journey. Mainly as if you don't hit traffic on the M25 you will run into traffic in the Uxbridge area.

[suityou01]

Specific junctions would help. On and off please.

I sometimes commute from 21 (M1) to 13(M3)
It is actually better when I can't be arsed and hit the roads at 8:30. Not that this helps.

Uxbridge IIRC is around J14, and Leatherhead around J20. Edit: It's not J20 is it? I'm a complete cretin. 5 or 6 is what I mean.

You usually get heavy build up from 6:30 am so should look to join the mway before this time. Weather is of course a factor, and the sunnier climbs may mean better fairing. On a foggy/icy day I would say no chance.
There was a weak bridge around Guildford that a truck hit around 2 years ago and this caused roadworks and around 6 months of pain so this is of course subject to change.

[vetran]

Get yourself a good sound system you will listen to it a lot. m4 - A3 takes about 40 mins on a good run.

[NotAllThere]

I found conditions considerably improved during the school holidays. Friday mornings, for some odd reason, were fairly clear. Agree about the leave an hour earlier or later than 5:30.

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks all, I'll be getting on the M25 at the M40/M25 interchange which is J1a on the M40 and I'll be travelling south to Leatherhead at M25 J9. I'll be leaving the digs at about 6.20 so I hope to miss the worst going that way. I have zip all to do in the evenings so I may well not leave the office till 6.00pm on my way back in the evening. I have 16Gb of music on ther MP3 player, could be listening to a lot of that. Watch out next week for the "Commute from hell" thread!

[Troll]

I commuted Brentwood to Uxbridge and back for nearly two years. Usually 3 hours per day on the road. First hint of congestion - dive into the left hand lane (unless it's one of those that becomes a slip road). But that was 10 years ago.

Ah a lane hopper - you should be shot