M25 on Friday afternoon

Guv

Guv

Guv

Soldato
Joined
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There must be people on here who will have more of an idea than me..

At what time does the M25 start to clear or traffic start to move at more than 5 mph on a Friday afternoon/evening?

I'll be travelling down the M40 and heading round to the M23.

Unfortunately the earliest I could hit the M25 will be at around 5:00 - 5:30pm. I'm guessing this is a bad time, so I can leave later. I'd like to leave ASAP but I don't fancy sitting for a few hours on the M25 in a queue that's not moving.


Any rough idea would be great.
 
I usually join the M25 at around 8 pm on a Friday evening and I can normally do ~ 80 from the M4 to M1.
 
AcidHell2 said:
*Threatens to chop cute bunnys head off, unless you are forthcoming with times of travel.
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Let the bunny have it! :eek:

I normally do 8 pm onwards Friday evening up to M1 and then 10:30 pm onwards on Sunday evening coming back. If you want to travel Sunday morning then you need to be on the M25 by 8:30 as after that traffic builds around the M1/A1 area.
 
shine said:
Let the bunny have it! :eek:
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I would guess 8pm at the earliest - you'll be going round the Surrey stretch which is always hammered on a Friday night.
 
Guv said:
There must be people on here who will have more of an idea than me..

At what time does the M25 start to clear or traffic start to move at more than 5 mph on a Friday afternoon/evening?

I'll be travelling down the M40 and heading round to the M23.

Unfortunately the earliest I could hit the M25 will be at around 5:00 - 5:30pm. I'm guessing this is a bad time, so I can leave later. I'd like to leave ASAP but I don't fancy sitting for a few hours on the M25 in a queue that's not moving.


Any rough idea would be great.
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I've done that route plenty of times. It's slow but it's not usually at a complete standstill. It'll be completely clear when you get to the M23. If you're going in on the A23 it'll be a complete nightmare onwards from where the road narrows to one lane under the railway bridge.
 
I did Reading to Cambridge in 1hr 15 minutes on Friday night at 11.30. Most of the Fridays nights I've hit the M25 it's still been busy at 8ish.
 
Gah some people talking rubbish :P

I used to do staines to M23 (then another few miles on the M23) daily. It gets busy from about 3.30pm on a friday, its like a mass exodus.

Hotspots:
*M4 junction

*M3 junction (if you know how to go from staines to chertsey then you can miss a good bit of this queue, or you can be cheeky and stay on the left hand 2 lanes (for M3) until about .5 mile from the junction and cut back across, this does save time)

*Leatherhead - DO NOT be temped to get off here and head down through leatherhead / dorking, you will hit horrible traffic.

*M23 junction - dont be tempted to stay in the left hand slip lane for M23 as you will queue for ages, stay in the other lanes as there is a 2nd slip road for the M23 a bit further along (after the bridge)

Take a look at keepmoving.com before you leave, its very upto date on traffic, even giving live CCTV along the route :]
 
I live at Crawley and my parents live at High Wycombe so I do M23 - M25 - M40 a fair bit.

Wait until at least 8pm to travel as the other have said because from J16-J10 is a complete and utter nightmare on a Friday evening. After that time you should have a relatively smooth journey at a decent speed.

When you approach the M3 junction try to stay in the middle/fast lane otehrwise you get tied up in traffic attempting to get off onto the M3 and muppets who were unable to read the signs trying to get back onto the M25 from the M3 sliproad.

The same applies with the M23 southbound, don't get into the left hand sliplane because it is usually full of numpties who are uncapable of doing motorway speed, stay in the left hand M25 lane and take the second exit for the M23. It is much easier.
 
Minxy said:
When you approach the M3 junction try to stay in the middle/fast lane otehrwise you get tied up in traffic attempting to get off onto the M3 and muppets who were unable to read the signs trying to get back onto the M25 from the M3 sliproad.
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Rubbish! if you stay on the M25 lanes then you will sit in very slow traffic from staines right to the M3 junction. Get over on the left and you will sail past most of the traffic there, saving yourself quite a bit of time. Trust me, I got onto the M25 at staines and did this daily.

Btw, where in Crawley?
 
peige said:
Crawley is right slap bang between London and brighton.. its also where the M23 turns into the A23 :)
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I said where IN crawley, not where is. The M23 turns into the A23 after crawley ;]
I know where crawley is given ive lived there the last 2 years :P
 
Thanks for the help :)

At 7ish would the traffic be moving? I don't mind if it's busy but moving at, say, 40mph but what I don't want is to be sitting there not moving at all.
 
Honestly it'll be moving nearly at that speed at 5:30. You might stop once or twice. No point waiting until after about 6pm in my opinion. It's the clockwise direction of that route that's really hard work on a Friday.
 
Jonny69 said:
Honestly it'll be moving nearly at that speed at 5:30. You might stop once or twice. No point waiting until after about 6pm in my opinion. It's the clockwise direction of that route that's really hard work on a Friday.
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Ah ok thanks, that's not too much of a problem then. I'll leave work at 5-5:30 and hit the M25 at 6-6:30.
 
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