Apprentice lost in London

FFS. All he had to do was to get from Dartford to Heathrow.

Tracker showed him using the Blackwall tunnel and then the Vauxhall bridge - last I heard he was in Battersea at 5.30pm after leaving Dartford 2 hours earlier.

Reply to
ARW
Loading thread data ...

He's not doing too badly, then.

Reply to
Adrian

About an hour and half tops using the M25.

Reply to
ARW

I take it he was using a satnav? They do tend to take you the shortest route. And through London isn't going to be the quickest way, especially if blindly following a satnav.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I wonder if he went through the Congestion Charge zone?

Reply to
Jeff Layman

Most satnavs have choices though shortest or fastest. Not always the same thing at all even if using public transport or feet. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Years ago I was trying to get from Oxford to somewhere near Greenwich by car, for work. I wondered about going the long way round via the M25, and then working my way westwards into Greenwich after crossing the QE2 bridge, but decided to go the direct way: M40, Marylebone/Euston/Pentonville/City/Great Eastern/Commercial/Mansell Roads/Streets (ie A501 and A1202), to cross Tower Bridge and then head eastwards along the A200 towards Deptford and Greenwich. It was after rush hour so traffic shouldn't be *too* bad.

Everything went well until I got near Tower Bridge, then the roads were jammed solid. It took as long to cover the last few miles from there to Greenwich as it had done from Oxford to Tower Bridge, and I began to wonder whether I should have gone the long way round.

This was in the days before satnav (probably about 2001), so I wrote myself a set of turn-by-turn instructions. It was also before the Congestion Charge so I didn't need to find a route that kept outside the Zone.

Reply to
NY

If you approach Vauxhall Bridge from the NE of the river then yes.

When I was working in Lambeth I used to use it on the way in. It is the boundary to the CC.

Reply to
ARW

Most SatNavs seem to know about that and avoid it, by taking a cicuitous route around the edge of it.

Reply to
Chris Green

I've taken an hour an a half to get from the A3 junction to Heathrow

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yes he was using a SatNav - his IPhone. And it's a journey he has dome 3 times - twice as a passenger, once as a driver (with me in the passenger seat because I had a hangover).

Reply to
ARW

Agreed. I bought a new cheapo 7 inch satnav recently as the Tomtom clapped out. It is much better at routing than either Tomtom or her Garmin as it avoids the back lanes and sticks to reasonably main routes. It's also much easier to read.

Reply to
Capitol

Any half decent satnav allows you to choose shortest or quickest.

Reply to
Slomo

It should give you the choice.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In fact it was an hour and half from the A3 to the M3

tim

Reply to
tim...

But were you starting in London and had a London destination?

I live in SW London, and generally ignore the satnav while in the parts of London I know reasonably well. Then just let it revise the route when I'm getting near to 'here be dragons' Although the traffic jams update can be very useful.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Only if you set them to do that. Mine is set for fastest and will readjust the route as I go if there are any delays ahead and a faster route is possible.

Reply to
F

Shortest can give you nice little scenic roads, although often it gives you farm tracks with locked gates.

Reply to
James Wilkinson

TomTom charged me =A360 to update the maps. I'm not buying a Tomtom aga= in.

-- =

Gary's weather forecasting stone: Stone is wet Rain Stone is dry Not raining Shadow on ground Sunny White on top Snowing Can't see stone Foggy Swinging stone Windy Stone jumping up and down Earthquake Stone gone Tornado

Reply to
James Wilkinson

Mine certainly would. The M25 route is a great deal longer - and not always the fastest either. As anyone who's been stuck on it will know.

But given the standard of some of Adam's apprentices, might not be capable of following a satnav anyway. And if take a wrong turn just carry on thinking it will update and not make much difference.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.