Gridlock

There could only be one blip today after the events of this morning in the Brynglas tunnels, yes it's a matrix sign slowing everyone down because all roads in South East Wales are in gridlock. Thank goodness no one was injured in the fire this morning, because it could have been quite serious.

The Brynglas tunnels are a bottle neck coming into Wales at the best of times, but something like this is only going to cause chaos around the surrounding area and further a field as people try to avoid it. With only the eastbound tunnel partially open as I left work tonight I took the decision to go up the M5 and across the M50 home, a total journey time of about 2 hours 30 minutes. Just my luck though and there was an accident on the M5 which delayed me by about another 30 minutes. And the Heads of the Valley road was also bumper to bumper until you got to Merthyr.

Originally built in 1967 but now quite clearly cannot handle the volume of traffic using that stretch of the M4. Inevitably the traffic chaos this incident has caused will reopen talk of an M4 Relief Road, but is building a new road really the answer? Well in part I guess it will help, but surely we should also be looking to how we can reduce the volume of traffic on the road through public and sustainable transport. That is a difficult challenge as you've got to change the culture of people relying on the car, and changing culture is always a difficult thing to achieve, but surely it is worth taking on that challenge?

One wonders if the Environmental price we would pay by building a relief road is also worth it?