Just spent two hours driving home, usually 15 minutes.

Join the a27 near Havant and I’ve got about 7 miles of dual carriage way with no junctions and no U-turns. Except there’s been a major incident at the far end and I’m stuck, mostly with the engine off for two hours, with only an overly keen desperate to pass tailgating and lane changing clichéd Audi driver to entertain me.

So what’s your tale of wo? Who can beat 8 times the usual journey time?

Years ago I used to live in Southsea with girlfriend (now wife).

Similar, incident on M275 out of Pompey and another up towards A27 left the city in gridlock. After an hour sat goingv nowhere, my now mother in law ended up ditching the car about 250m from her work and stayed at our flat.

So she ended up at home about 14 hours later for a journey that would be around 20 mins normally…

The joys of the road network around Pompey (don’t down mention Gosport!)

Also earlier in the year my 15min cycle commute was lengthened by an OTB incident and an evening in Minir Injuries having my face stitched – ‘journey’ was about three and a half hours longer than normal! But not sure if that counts….

There was on of those snow turns to sheet ice in seconds events about 12 years ago. Spent 2 hours driving about 1.5 miles. I then found some where to park an walked the last mile in a few minutes

Driving across Northern Zaire or worst day was 56 miles in hours. A normal day on the main road across the country

I knew this place could cheer me up and remind me it ain’t that bad 🙂

2.5 mile commute by motorbike. Got about 500 metres, conks out completely, fuel starved. Flatten battery fannying about with it. Walk home. Get car, drive back to where bike is, jump start, limp bike home on one intermittant cylinder (it turned out the fuel pump was dying). Get pushbike, ride back to get car, put pushbike in boot, drive car to petrol station 1 mile away for fuel. Clutch fails in car park. Abandon car, cycle home. Cycle back to car in middle of night, start it in 2nd and drive it home in gear. Total time lapsed: 15 hours. Maximum distance from house: 3 miles. Total vehicles disabled: 2. Sold the car as a nonrunner, put new fuel pump in motorbike.

Similar, incident on M275 out of Pompey and another up towards A27 left the city in gridlock. After an hour sat goingv nowhere, my now mother in law ended up ditching the car about 250m from her work and stayed at our flat.

I was in that too ! I walked across a minor road between 2 cars, came back an hour later and walked between the same 2 cars.
Waited in the office for at least 2 hours until things started to move even slightly

I also once sold a kids’ bike to a guy who I agreed to meet at the M27 services, which is 10 minutes from my house. He phoned me when he was getting near to it and I set off. As I rolled down the sliproad onto the motorway, there was a queue forming on the road ahead. I was stuck in traffic for over an hour, during which I travelled about quarter of a mile due to a burning car in the middle lane. I had no idea but phoned him and he told me about the fire which was visible from the carpark he was waiting in. They were going on holiday but very very decently he waited with his little girl in the middle of a really hot day. I’m not sure anyone’s ever stuck those ervices for that long before or since 😯

(HI!, if you’re on here, though he wasn’t a stwer at the time)

Yup, wife was on the A27, left Chichester at just gone 2pm, got turned around on the A27, took 4 hours to get home. Not impressed.

Northwind – Member

2.5 mile commute by motorbike. Got about 500 metres, conks out completely, fuel starved. Flatten battery fannying about with it. Walk home. Get car, drive back to where bike is, jump start, ride bike home on one intermittant cylinder (it turned out the fuel pump was dying). Get pushbike, ride back to get car, put pushbike in boot, drive car to petrol station 1 mile away for fuel. Clutch fails in car park. Abandon car, cycle home. Cycle back to car in middle of night, start it in 2nd and drive it home in gear. Total time lapsed: 15 hours. Maximum distance from house: 3 miles. Total vehicles disabled: 2. Sold the car as a nonrunner, put new fuel pump in motorbike 😆 Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you today’s winner, Mr Szodzlaw Zhytluk

Not quite the same, but i have a dacia sandero as a courtesy car today.
15 min journey took about 18mins, but felt like 18hours.

No where near in multiplus, but the worst journey of my life was coming home from Rotherham to Cardiff on a Friday afternoon, it should take 3.5 hours, I left at midday for Peat’s sake – got home at just before 9pm – no accidents, just sheer wait of arseholes on the road – the lorry drivers who decide making a pass of another lorry going 1mph slower is worth a 5 mile tail-back, the miles and miles of hundreds of cars crammed into lane 3 and no where else and the ACCELERATE then BRAKE drivers who all conspired to make me hit the ‘ain’t Newport hell’ queue for the Bryn Glass Tunnels so I got home 9 hours later, ruined, spent 1 glorious day at home and spent my Sunday going back again.

Never again, some other mug can do that job.

Took me two hours once to get a mile or so from the centre of Taunton onto the M5 and then only another three hours to get the 210 miles to Manchester.

fifeandy – Member
Not quite the same, but i have a dacia sandero as a courtesy car today.
15 min journey took about 18mins, but felt like 18hours.

So, not so good news?

I kid you not, its horrendous.
Doesn’t go, doesn’t stop, doesn’t turn (except of its own accord over uneven surfaces). Its noisy, has no steering feedback, height and pitch of seat not adjustable, steering wheel not adjustable. Combination of tiny wheels and useless suspension seem to magnify every bump.

I’d go as far as saying anyone that test drives one and still buys it needs their licence taking away.

December 6th 2010. Left work just before 2 pm to drive the 18 miles home.

Got home just before 3am.

It snowed a bit.

Cycling into work for a night shift during the Edinburgh festival the traffic was jammed for miles – must have taken me 5 mins extra to get to work as I had to weave round all the cars going nowhere

I like bikes me 😉

Once took me ~90 minutes to travel from Bitterne to Bassett, a journey that’s normally ~20 mins, due to black ice in Southampton one winter’s day ~10 years ago. We were all sent home way earlier than normal, for fear of the conditions worsening, wish I’d taken the offer of not going in at all!

Not on the same scale, but in 2004 we drove back from Wirral with my mum’s old car, only the journey took 9 hours instead of ~4.5 hours. Massive motorway accident near Bath involving a coach, all three lanes boldy going nowhere for over three hours.

Perchy – I left the office that day at 330 and got up M77 and home to EK in half an hour. A colleague left an hour later and didn’t get home to Strathaven, eventually found his way back to office and slept under his desk 😀 . I was in a BMW and he had a Land Rover 🙂

Once left Warrington at around 11.45 am and got back to depot in Bolton at 4pm. Normally takes about 20 mins but was stuck on the M60 due to a car transporter being on fire.

Had a load of brand new MG rover 200 and 400’s on the back so it wasn’t totally bad news 😀

Fuel tanks with very little fuel in make a very loud bang 😯

8 or 9 years ago.
Left the office as normal about 4 ish. Just as the snow started drifting down.
Apparently 10km away it’d been coming down like nobodies business for a couple of hours. So the motorway was shut as they didn’t have enough ploughs to do everything. Ended up using the lanes. Had to dig myself out three or four times. Usually after stopping to help someone else when they’d blocked the road.
Didn’t exceed 15kph. Took 10 hours. Usually takes 45 minutes.

On the plus side I put winter tyres (studded) on relatively early as our road gets quite icy even in November. And I’d been out that lunchtime to pick up a couple of new snow shovels. And filled the tank at the same time…… my boss ended up sleeping at work, after getting half way home. Giving up and going back as the roads were clearer behind him. He wasn’t the only one!

What was most annoying is the following morning it’d all been ploughed and cleared. So I didn’t even get a snow day.

I used to live in the Staffordshire moorlands and work in Stoke. One particularly snowy morning the main roads were pretty screwed with people who couldn’t drive in the snow, as usual. So I took to the back lanes in my old series land rover, mainly sliding about in rear wheel drive for fun (yeah burn me at the stake having fun on the public highway 🙂 ). I got a bit carried away and went a very long way round to work arriving about lunch time. 30-40 drive probably became more like 4 hrs. But was seen to have made a heroic effort to get in to work when plenty hadn’t bothered. Boss reckoned it would take me a while to get home so best head off early too 😀