Cirencester to Heathrow...traffic delays
 

I'm travelling by car from Oaksey (near Cirencester Cotslwolds) to Heathrow on a Friday afternoon.
Michelin,Mappy etc gave the route at taking up to 1 1/2 hours. What would be the "true" travel time with traffic etc.
Flight leaves at 7pm, need to book in by 5pm plus return the hire car to Hertz at ?4pm.
What time should I leave my little stone cottage so I don't mess up!

If you leave at 10:00 AM you should make it with time to have a cuppa before your flight leaves.

thanks Ira

If you left Oaksey that early you will have HOURS to kill. The village is only about 10 miles from the M4 that is high speed all the way to LHR. Unless the traffic is terrible - and it shouldn't be in the middle of the day heading east - it will definitely take less than 2 hours.

But your check out time is probably 10 or 11 AM anyway. So go ahead and leave at checkout time and you will have time to stop at Avebury or Windsor if you haven't been before.

The drivetimes on those systems are generally accurate, as long as you don't encounter unscheduled roadworks etc.

So the universal solution, if you've an important deadline to meet, is to make sure you have your car radio set to allow traffic report interruptions.

Some non-Europeans might not be familar with how this technology works in a country dominated by national radio stations. But if you're listening to, say BBC Radio 4 or Radio 3 (and if you're not, you're missing part of the point of an English holiday), the technology ensures that you're interrupted whenever any of the (quite different) BBC local stations have a traffic report.

I understand the same thing works if you're tuned to the commercial Classic FM or Jazz FM: you're interrupted by an appropriate local, separate, local station. And it also works (though you have to get the radio tuning right) if you're using the CD player.

So kimerley can plan the day to include Eton College Chapel or a nice walk round Windsor Great Park, then rejig when that voice announces the M4's decided to close.

Hi flanneruk,

Here I am on the M4 and the radio tells me that they have a major problem.

Assuming that I know where I am, will they tell me how to get to where I am going?

Will I need a very good map?

Ira:

If you're driving in a foreign country without a map you're beyond help.

Though in my hitchiking days I once got a lift from a driver whose directions from Calabria to Hamburg consisted of a piece of paper saying "Napoli-Roma-Milano-Sempione-Basilea-Francoforte-Colonia-Amburgo"

Explaining why there were no signs to Basilea was tough enough ("Ma qui in Svizzera si parla italiano, no?"). It didn't get any easier.

Hi flanneruk,

I have a map. Will I need a very good map to understand the driving directions for getting around the tie up on the M4, assuming there are any.

Here in the US we usually get, "Major traffic jam in I85. Expect delays" without any indication as to what to do.

Ira - if by "map" you mean a fold out map, no it won't really do. What you need is a proper road atlas. You can pick one up in any news agent, book store, petrol station, or motorway service area. Trying to navigate around the UK with a single sheet map is REALLY difficult.

As for the radio alerts - I was not familiar w/ these until about 5 or 6 years ago. We picked up our rental car in Windsor and were heading down to Chichester. Driving along and all of a sudden the radio comes on and gives a road alert re the M25. It really startled us - but the info is a godsend. And if you are listening to the radio it will change stations, give the road info, and then change back to the one you were originally tuned to.