The Transport Secretary here in the UK has some very strange ideas. We’ve already had a bus lane on the M4, which remains the only bus lane on a motorway in this country.
So, how to make things worse? Well, our current Transport Secretary – Alistair Darling – has decided to do something which – in theory at least – is a good idea. He’s decided to build the UK’s first “car-pool” lane on a motorway. The idea itself is good. In the USA the car-pool lanes work well – a diamond shape indicates the lane and signs over the lanes advise people to call a special short number if someone is abusing them. From what I saw when I was there, people were pretty good at adhering to the rules and the lane worked well. So yes, everything should be fine. Let’s give it a go here in the UK shall we – let’s really go for it…
Errr.. wait.. wait a minute.. Have a read of this BBC news story.. notice something ? Has everyone missed the most important detail ? It’s gonna cost us 2.5 Million and it’s ONE MILE LONG!!!?!!
One mile of motorway? That’s not really going to do too much is it? ONE MILE?! Way to go ! Woohoo!! I can see all those people in Bradford now, stumbling over themselves to start sharing their cars. Off we go – We simply pull out of all this traffic, into the car-pool lane.. vrrroooooom… and then .. errrmmm.. back into the traffic again after a few short seconds.. WOOHOOO!!! Yeah baby.. That’ll fix it.
I don’t care about all the facts and figures, or the details that say it’ll “allow cars carrying more than one person priority entry from the M606 southbound onto the eastbound M62” etc .. Arse.. Absolute 100% arse. Look at the M6 Toll – it’s still empty, I live about 2 miles away from it and it was supposed to be the “pill” to “cure the congestion of the M6”.. has it ? Nope. Every day, without fail, the M6 is blocked up between junction 8 and junction 11.
The best part of this news is how it’s being reported though. Just have a listen to this audio clip from the Radio 1 news this morning. This RAC guy had possibly the funniest comment. Apparently he’s having trouble telling the difference between a blow-up doll and a real person. Errrmmm.. I feel sorry for his wife…