Anyone found the roads less busy and/or motorists driving better?

[peetee]

I have seen people speeding and plenty appearing to try to conserve fuel too. I am in the latter camp as I have been since getting a car in August and find far more vehicles staying with me at 60 mph on the local dual carriageway. Or perhaps these two extremes are more obvious with the greater space and commotion that less traffic creates?
What is very common hereabouts in the last couple of days is the number of police stops being done to check your journey is necessary. Hopefully that should calm the local loonies a bit.

[RickH]

Unintended but foreseeable

What are Sergeant Dyfed and Constable Powys doing about it? Nothing!
..
Maybe the thread title could be changed, 'differently' or 'worse' instead of 'better'

There was a police post on Facebook, that I can't now find - I saw it only because a friend had commented. I'm pretty sure it was North Wales Police listing some of the speeders they had caught. Including someone clocked at 134mph (IIRC) in a 30!

At least at the North end of the country they seem to be on the ball. I can't comment about what is (or isn't) happening inother areas

[MOARspeed]

i'm seeing a lot of van drivers not slowing at all for roundabouts which have poor visibility, it's like they're rolling a dice knowing that the chances of an accident are lower than 50%.

[Mike Sales]

Smeed's Law would predict that driving gets worse as traffic density decreases.

Smeed's Law, named after R. J. Smeed, who first proposed the relationship in 1949, is a purported empirical rule relating traffic fatalities to traffic congestion as measured by the proxy of motor vehicle registrations and country population. The law proposes that increasing traffic volume (an increase in motor vehicle registrations) leads to an increase in fatalities per capita, but a decrease in fatalities per vehicle.

[mjr]

There was a police post on Facebook, that I can't now find - I saw it only because a friend had commented. I'm pretty sure it was North Wales Police listing some of the speeders they had caught. Including someone clocked at 134mph (IIRC) in a 30!

The Met clocked someone at 134 in a 40 on the A10.

There's hopefully going to be a lot of drivers finding their lives become even more constrained and it lasting a lot longer than the c19 crisis.

Meanwhile, today on Norfolk's roads, traffic levels were like a late Sunday night, not middle of a weekday.

[RH20]

Round here a lot less busy. Plenty of tumbleweed blowing down the streets, and heard a noise in the background, sounded like wa oo wa oo wa oo wawa. Creaking signs blowing and doors slamming shut cos thars strangers in town.
On a more serious note, there appears to be a lot more people on the local trails taking exercise. Perhaps when this is over we may all be a bit healthier.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I was riding about looking for broccoli today. On my way home, there was a car on it’s side in a ditch ( near Marchwood in Hampshire ) 2 police cars and an ambulance were present. I hope the driver had a good excuse for being out. That’s taken an ambulance, 2 paramedics, 2 police cars, and 2 coppers out of the loop.

[RickH]

There was a police post on Facebook, that I can't now find - I saw it only because a friend had commented. I'm pretty sure it was North Wales Police listing some of the speeders they had caught. Including someone clocked at 134mph (IIRC) in a 30!

The Met clocked someone at 134 in a 40 on the A10

It could have been that. My friend hails from Chester so I may have just assumed it was a local force.

Meanwhile round here the roads are pretty quiet. I came over the M61 earlier on my way home, about a mile south of junction 6. I often go over the same bridge on a Sunday morning around 9:30-10:00am and even then it is usually far busier.

M61 2:36pm 27/03/2020

[The utility cyclist]

It bewilders me that the government, whilst pleading with everyone to cut out uneccessary travel, have neither, for instance, rationed fuel nor imposed a lower blanket speed limit.
Okay, rationing fuel might be a very difficult proposition, but may be necessary if we start to run short, due to international tensions or refinery staffing problems. A low speed limit might discourage travel and might lessen the possibility of more serious injury due to high speed collisions and the resulting strain onA & E resource.
Only key workers need the use of a vehicle.
A twenty limit on all urban roads should be enforced and a priority given to HGV's on all trunk roads and motorways.
Car drivers on trunk roads should be obliged give way to HGV's.
I am in the vulnerable group, virtue of my age and I am seriously considering a SORN for my car.
I can do all my shopping either on foot or on the bike.
I appreciate that people in outlying areas still need to food shop by car so if fuel rationing was introduced, it could be tied to a notional round trip of say once per week.
Another remedy might be a personal shopper with a van who could obviate several trips and resultant waste of resource.
All this might seem far fetched, but if we drag on in lock down for say months,drastic measures may be needed.

Wouldn't running out, or rather having limited supply of fuel be a good thing -except for those that are banking on oil making them a ton of money, for instance Hertfordshire County Council invests £140M into fossil fuels directly and indirectly, nearly 4% of the counties public pension fund is invested in fossil fuels.

If there's a shortage (I doubt it as they are bursting at the seams with the stuff hence the price drop) then only emergency services/key workers who are not within walking/cycling/public transport distance can get fuel. Except then 'volunteers' will be clamouring to get on the coat tails and demanding that they 'need' fuel to do their thing, and people 'need' fuel so they can social distance in the car (which is yet more nonsense) to get shopping 'essential' journeys.
Government both local and national are either too dumb to see where many of our nations problems lie or they have personal vested interests in not aggressively pursuing them and making drastic changes, to me it's clearly the latter, making drastic/unpopular changes that affect the typical UK moton public loses you your job, and those sitting on LA meetings think likewise so do not support the measures required, it's frankly criminal that they allow so many people die and live miserable lives by not acting.

If only there was an example of how policy makers/leaders could make drastic decisions to save many thousands of lives, oh wait ...

[arnsider]

One way of limiting motor travel maybe to ask all essential users, police, fire, carer's etc to apply for a dispensation from a ban with their registration numbers then set up number plate recognition cameras on all motorways and using the Police National Computer, to remove personal liability and accident insurance cover automatically from anyone flouting.
Rationing would be fairly straightforward, limiting a fill at the pumps to say a flat half gallon.
This would also get a lot of gas guzzlers and high performance oil heads off the roads.
In answer to the OP, yes, here on the Lancashire /Cumbria border, it is blissfull, though there are still a few idiot motor cyclists charging around.
The M6 between Lancaster and the A65/590 junction is very light indeed.
Northern Rail trains to Leeds via Settle are non existent and the Barrow line trains are almost empty.
There is a steady stream of overnight freight passing my place.

[fastpedaller]

i'm seeing a lot of van drivers not slowing at all for roundabouts which have poor visibility, it's like they're rolling a dice knowing that the chances of an accident are lower than 50%.

I saw this sort of thing yesterday (Daughter NHS worker, I took her car for MOT test). Vans driving straight out of driveways or junction expecting nothing to be there. In the 5 mile journey, I also saw 2 "idiot drivers" clearly exceeding the speed limit and having no regard for those they were overtaking.
I suspect it's only a matter of time before a cyclist gets knocked down by one of these idiots, and is victim-blamed and cycling gets taken off the 'approved exercise list' during covid-19

[Grandad]

I suspect it's only a matter of time before a cyclist gets knocked down by one of these idiots, and is victim-blamed and cycling gets taken off the 'approved exercise list' during covid-19

My impression on my recent rides is that walkers easily outnumber cyclists. Same scenario for them?

[John Holiday]

Am a volunteer with local Speed Watch in North Wales, but unfortunately we have been stood down for duration of emergency.
While the roads are definitely quieter, what drivers are around are ignoring the speed limits.
If we were out with Speed guns,we would have a field day.
Unfortunately, as we are not Warranted, all the culprits get is a mildly worded letter.
As has been commented earlier, much more drastic action is required to get the message across that speeding is totally unacceptable

[TrevA]

Even main roads were virtually deserted today. This is the main A46 near my house, at around 2pm today. It would normally be really busy at this time.

[MikeF]

There was a police post on Facebook, that I can't now find - I saw it only because a friend had commented. I'm pretty sure it was North Wales Police listing some of the speeders they had caught. Including someone clocked at 134mph (IIRC) in a 30!

The Met clocked someone at 134 in a 40 on the A10

It could have been that. My friend hails from Chester so I may have just assumed it was a local force.

https://twitter.com/SuptAndyCox/status/1243089727244374016 And it was in the Met area, ie built up, of London!
I note the 134mph was at 03:38, but there are still people eg NHS staff needing to travel at all hours

Edit And also https://twitter.com/SuptAndyCox/status/1242770214552567808