Yesterday we drove down to Brighton to take in a beautifully sunny day in Brighton, sun being a premium these days in London. By mistake we took a long route leaving from north east London around to the West and south, but still, it took only about 1.5 hours by car to get to Brighton, which is about 90 km (55 miles). It was a beautiful day, a coastline day trip in the shining sun, which soon turned sour when we hit the London traffic.
We came into the city during rush hour on the M25 to slow moving traffic crawling along in a line for kilometers leading up to the Dartford Tunnel. This is something you might expect in such a major urban center in London, which added at least an extra hour onto our trip back. However, what made this frustrating is to see how the City of London actually caused the problem through its own ineptitude rather than it being just a case of traffic over-congestion.
Prior to the Dartford Tunnel there is a toll where each vehicle has to pay a fee, in our case a car and the fee for a car was £1 (about $2). The effect though was to slow down traffic for kilometers leading up to the tunnel, greatly increasing travel time and inconveniencing thousands of drivers coming home from work in a city where personal time is already at a premium. As my buddy said, “What am I paying council taxes for anyways?”
All this inconvenience just so the government can find another way to take a small little tax. That sums up the ineptitude and poor management that plagues the UK and causes problems like Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
A great country to visit but a stressful and expensive place that reduces your quality of life if you decide to live there; at least in London.
