How have you found the Forth and Tay road bridge crossings now the tolls have gone? Feel free to comment and suggest things (moderated). If you use either bridge at peak traffic hours please also take a minute to vote in the congestion and flow rate polls for the bridge you use (please ignore the annoying adverts on the polls).
If you want to be a member of FATBUG please email me at fatbug@live.co.uk
Membership is free and only entails being on a mailing list which you can ask to be removed from at any time. Your address will NOT be given out to anyone else.
Richard Muszynski (FATBUG)
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 14, 2008 at 10:16 am
Mark Williams
Public transport much better as the bus I get ca now make a connection at Glenrothes in order to get to Kirkcaldy. However with road works on I am tempted to drive my car to work again due to missing the bus connection at Glenrothes and adding 35 mins onto my journey.
March 17, 2008 at 4:21 pm
chuck
Getting onto the tay bridge is actually slightly faster, but flow over the bridge is actually slower than before, due to the roadworks. The merging of the traffic flows is very badly handled and slows things down a lot.
The congestion on riverside seems much worse, which may be due to the reduction in the volume capacity of the onramp, although traffic in town seems slightly better. They seem terribly worried about speeding coming onto the bridge, which seems ironic considering how slow the traffic flows merge.
I can’t seem to shake the feeling that they are actively *disrupting* the flow of traffic so that commuters don’t go any faster than they did before.
The Forth bridge also seems faster (at 11.30 Sun night) but the removal of the toll booths appears amazingly disruptive. Again, I can’t help but wonder if this is deliberate, so that the anti-toll campaigners have less to crow about.
March 17, 2008 at 7:36 pm
fatbug
The following comments (and my answers) have been extracted from the Tay Road bridge congestion poll: comments on all the polls are now disabled; please comment here in the main posting instead, thanks, FATBUG admin.
From Jane on March 17, 2008 at 7:41 am.
Overall I have found the time it takes for me get across the bridge has reduced since the tolls have been lifted. I have often sat in my car for 35 minutes to do the journey from Nethergate crossroads to the slip ramp on to the bridge! It would often be quicker for me to get home if I stayed in the office until 6.30 than if I tried to leave between 5.30 and 6.
From Richard (FATBUG) in reply to Jane on March 17, 2008 at 8:45 am.
Thanks for this Jane. I take it you mean reduced slightly? I hope you voted in the flow rate poll too then. 35 mins from Nethergate to the slip ramp! that is really bad. Any idea roughly how long it takes you maximum/average to do that portion now?
From Thomas Bouch on March 17, 2008 at 5:46 am.
I’ve lived in Newport-on-Tay for eleven years and can hardly think of a time when there were two south-bound lanes in operation. Removing the toll tax has certainly eased congestion.The only reason for hold-ups is the bridge-work/roadworks.
I kinda miss the guys and girls in the booths but am happy to take comfort from the extra four hundred quid a year that I’ll be saving.
From Richard (FATBUG) in reply to Thomas Bouch on March 17, 2008 at 8:48 am.
Thanks for this as I’ve been using the bridge six years so this is useful to know it’s had works holding up lanes for at least five years before that. Your opinion about roadworks being the reason is overwhelmingly reflected in this poll and I note you say it’s the only reaason. Please know that I am trying to avoid giving my own opinion so that I don’t bias any comments or votes. I’m puting an article in the Courier very soon – this week probably.
From Dave on March 16, 2008 at 5:06 am.
I’m not generally one for conspiracy theory but The idea that someone was taking the piss did occur to me while sitting in traffic watching guys in yellow jackets hold up bridge access because of high winds. We seem to have had more high wind closures since the tolls were removed. As Doc said ‘It’s only a sodding bridge’! Lets have some creative thinking from those that control the bridge. The purpose of a bridge is to get people and goods across it. period.
From Richard Muszynski (FATBUG) in reply to Dave on March 17, 2008 at 1:51 pm.
Good one Dave. I almost forgot about that. We were held up by these guys too and my wife, who travels with me, rolled the window down and told them how daft it was. I said to her they were only following orders but what they were doing was unsafe apart from anything else as it meant going round their van and having to negotiate with the traffic to the right of you going straight on. Once on the bridge ramp you were held up by the congestion tailback there anyway so the yellow jacket guys were both unnecessary and I will definitely bring this up thanks, Dave.
From JimBob on March 15, 2008 at 10:01 am.
I have to wonder how much longer these works are going to take. They seem to be extending the deadline everytime they approach the current deadline. Perhaps those who were in favour of the tolls are doing it on purpose so that they can claim removing the tolls has increased congestion like they claimed.
From Richard Muszynski (FATBUG founder) in reply to JimBob on March 15, 2008 at 6:40 pm.
You are right. They did extend it massively and the deadline before this one was supposed to be the end of last year as you will know. They claim the bearing work will end soon but are then saying some other work will start soon after (see link) on the site. I was one of the people who thought the flow would improve a lot once tolls were off but this was assuming the bridge work DID end before the toll lift. I also think the filtering into one lane could be improved as I’m seeing that traffic joining from the right lane is actually stopping and waiting till someone on the left lets them in. This stopping is the main reason I can see for the tailback into the city centre and I take almost as long to get across the bridge as when the tolls were on. I have a suggestion for the bridge manager on improving this.
The other point you make about pro-tollers holding things up on purpose is interesting and held by quite a few people but difficult to prove as you will appreciate. I will be telling both bridge managements this and they may be aware of it but I will give them the opportunity to say if it is not true. John Crerar the Tay Road Bridge manager is however on record as saying he was in favour of lifting the tolls. FATBUG will, initially at least, try to get the collaboration of the bridge managements rather than forcing them but either way the FATBUG poll results and comments will be essential so thanks for this valuable contribution.
From Doc on March 14, 2008 at 5:07 pm.
The Tay road bridge works have gone on so long and cost so much money with a single contractor, it is a wonder we haven’t had a public enquiry! Users of the bridge well before the tolls were lifted have simply accepted the delay, frustration and cost. If this were any other use of public money, the public would have been up in arms and arranging protest. Because once we have crossed, we forget about it till the next rush hour, people don’t feel like getting out of their cars to make a stand. I think the tay bridge controllers and their engineering chums are taking the piss now. Dundee city council are powerless to enforce any sanction and Fife council are too involved with the forth road bridge disaster to even look north. The repairs, removal of tolls and planning have been a total piss take on those that have paid their daily toll for years. It’s only a sodding bridge, how many millions do they really think they can take us for? Answer: till we stand up and say, enough! So well done on this site. Ps were can I buy shares in the clevland bridge contracting company… I hear rumour they may get the forth bridge contract
From Richard Muszynski (FATBUG) in reply to Doc on March 15, 2008 at 8:35 pm.
Please see my comment above to JIMBOB.
Many thanks for your view and hope to make a post with some answers soon but getting FATBUG in the Courier (and Edinburgh Evening News) at least is my next step.
March 18, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Jonathan Robertson
I agree with most of the above comments about the flow rate, i.e. that it’s difficult to quantify how it’s improved since the removal of the tolls, because of the constriction from two lanes into one further down the bridge. Imagine a bridge (in 21 years I’ve only known it like this for one or two years, intermittently…) in which you could drive on from the L or R lane, increase your speed up to 50 mph, stay in that lane until half way down the bridge and then find your way to the lane appropriate to your exit. That would be a triumph. An even greater triumph would be reliable public transport, at a commuter price which everyone could afford, so removing the need for congestion on the bridge in the first place. Last week I travelled from Brussels to Liege for less than 12 euros, a one hour+ intercity journey for the same price it costs from Cupar to Dundee. More people would use the trains if their price were affordable.