M6 Chaos
20th October 2006In the past week, the M6 has been affected by a number of crashes. When cycling home on Monday, I encountered a tailback extended from Congleton but I turned off on my way back to Macclesfield and left the queue behind. Today, though, has been much worse. Today’s cause was a series of crashes on the M6 and when the M6 is subject to delay and congestion, the result is that traffic that normally plies the M6 ends up on Cheshire’s trunk roads. Because it is an artery to Manchester and crosses the M6, the A34 usually is badly affected and traffic chokes the villages and towns like Alderley Edge and Wilmslow. Another town affected is Knutsford, not on the A34 , but not far from the M6. And when the roads are choked, buses and coaches are brought to near-standstill too. The result, like tonight, is that I got home 20-30 minutes later than usual and I was lucky; others had a 60 minute delay and I was left waiting for 90 minutes one evening when a lorry turned over on the A34. Also, being the time of year that it is, we can expect road congestion like this on the approach to Christmas. Curiously, things tend to settle down after then.
Of course, when it comes to traffic conditions, it often pays to know things in advance and that is where these traffic sites come in very handy. The first of these was very useful today. They may even stop me having to stand out in the cold for too long.
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