Prepare for Glastonbury gridlock! Motorists warned of nightmare journeys as festival-goers generate SEVEN times the normal volume of traffic on the roads
comments
Motorists have been warned to brace themselves for 'Glastonbury Gridlock' as festival-goers generate seven times the normal volume of traffic in some areas.
Journey times on some routes will double, it warns – with the worst period being when people leave the event on Monday.
As middle-class 'glampers and other music fans take to the road, traffic information firm INRIX, which tracks traffic flows and supplies data for car sat-navs – said: 'With 135,000 tickets sold, the roads around Glastonbury only see this level of traffic once a year.
Road chaos: Motorists have been warned of nightmare journeys over the Glastonbury weekend
'By 4pm on Monday 30th, traffic volumes will be seven times higher than normal.
'It means that the half hour journey between Shepton Mallett and the M5 for example, will take over an hour.
'Any journey on an A road in the area around Glastonbury will take double the normal time on the afternoon of Monday 30th June due to these increased traffic levels.'
It adds: 'Drivers can expect considerable delays on the more minor roads away from the site to extend journey times even further.
The INRIX report says the best time to leave the festival site on Monday is 6am - with 4pm the worst time for drivers to start the journey home.
Music fans: Thousands of people are already en route to Glastonbury for the legendary event which has Dolly Parton and Kasabian among the performers this year
It says: 'Traffic will start to build heading away from the site at 7am on Monday and by 8am there will already be double the normal amount of traffic on the minor roads around the site.'
This will have a knock-on effect for the more major roads.
Chris Lambert, INRIX traffic expert said: 'The journey there isn't the one that tends to cause the problem. This is because people tend to 'stagger' their journeys from the Wednesday morning onwards.
'Whilst traffic is certainly busier than normal as we approach the weekend, there are no really serious problems in terms of congestion.
'But Monday is a very different matter. There's a definite trend amongst festival-goers wanting to head home at the same time - generally between 2pm and 4pm.'
INRIX said it 'strongly advises' drivers to start the journey home from Glastonbury on the Sunday evening - or as early as possible on Monday 30th June and preferably before 7am.
Expecting lots of mud: The weather forecast is looking bleak this weekend
'This way they will also avoid hitting the regular Monday morning congestion as people drive to work.
Mr Lambert said: 'It's important to remember that the times of the day that see the worst traffic will also be those when drivers are at risk of experiencing considerable waiting times to get out of the car park, not to mention the potentially lengthy queues even before reaching a main road.'
Book your travel
Put the internet to work for you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment