The roads are packed!

I thought the very same Esspee.
Dh and i just got back from a short break and the M5/M6 was solid north and south bound.
I think lockdown has had an effect on most people,they are free at last.
And of course the weather has been very kind too.

Did you notice that most people are still speeding? I thought they would be driving to conserve fuel.

It's the same here in Wales. The roads are very busy so the rise in petrol prices isn't stopping people going out in their cars.

We drove from Oxford to Portsmouth on Thursday, The traffic was as heavy as it usually is on a busy Friday, DH kept saying to me 'Are you sure it is Thursday, or are we a day out?' But it was and we weren't.

I was just saying the same to DH. I heard a news report that car journeys have gone down by nearly 20%, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the case round here. It took us longer than ever on Friday to get over to our DD's to do the usual school run.

Also very busy here. Conversation with friends and neighbours indicates that most of the trips on Saturday/Sunday are to visit relatives, friends or places which have been out of reach during lockdown. City people getting out into the Countryside and country people, like me, venturing into the city for the first time in over 2 years.

Is it tourist traffic or more people now going to and from work? Shoppers? Or more lorries? Or all sorts?
Travel is such a necessity, even on our small island. ? ? ?
It's the air pollution that concerns me.

I know it's not the same thing, but there have been several road traffic accidents down our way over the weekend. It always happens in nicer weather, and drivers who are unfamiliar with the roads. Hope they are all OK.

It is very busy around here, it would seem the present price of petrol isn't a problem for everyone. I do agree that people are feeling freer now and want to catch up with things that have had to be put off.

It’s not just around Glasgow OP !
Perhaps they are all driving around trying to get petrol?
The M1 northbound out of London was manic today and will no doubt be as bad on the way back.

I live in North Norfolk and we have really noticed this too. We are trying to combine trips to shops etc in order to reduce our petrol bill but the traffic is horrendous and yes people are also driving like maniacs. If we have a coffee out we also notice how many people are doing the same; you would never know the country is in the middle of a serious financial crisis. We wondered if everyone has decided to stay put in the UK and are having more weekend breaks. I can't say I blame them.

We drove back from north Norfolk after seeing friends last Thursday and traffic was busy fir all the 3 hour journey.
Don’t think we noticed any bad driving though thank goodness. The return journey took a while tank of petrol, we may have to extend time between visits, which is a real shame.

Maybe a lot of people decided to turn the long Jubilee weekend into the start of a holiday and are today reluctantly returning to the grind?

Typo Whole tank of petrol

Most of the extra traffic we have seen has been lorries. On the Oxford/Portssmouth run it has been mainly big shipping containers heading for Southamton freight port.

There had been a huge car event near us all day. Far enough not to be annoying but close enough that we could hear it. Some people can clearly afford to drive round in circles all day.

Conversely, DH and I were walking home at about 8 pm last night and the roads were eerily quiet.

Strangely enough it’s the opposite here in Cornwall.
We are here on holiday for a fortnight having arrived last week and after many years holidaying here and in Devon, it’s the quietest I can ever remember.

The usual A303 bottlenecks were non existent, and driving around here has been a delight due to the lack of visitor traffic.

Not good news for the poor beleaguered hospitality industry though of course, although having said that there do seem to be a lot of locals eating out.

The lack of holidaymakers does surprise me though, as after all the news of flight delays and cancellations I was expecting Cornwall to be bursting at the seams.

We will see what the coming week brings as the temperatures are set to rise over the next few days.

We will be in Cornwall next month so hope it’s still quiet for our sake but perhaps not fir the locals who depend on tourism.