Life decisions

[kingandy]

I am currently trying to decide whether to move into bacony's spare room or remain chez stsquad. It is a tricky decision.

To this end I spent the night at Katy's place, in order to check out the commute. My findings suggest that though the drive is perhaps technically more direct, it does go through Stockport and the traffic in Stockport in the morning does not move above 10mph. (Luckily I set off half an hour earlier than usual, so was only five minutes late for work.) However, I think I could speed things up by driving past Stockport on the M60 and proceeding down the A34 as usual.

Here is a summary of the pros of each:

Katy	Alex
House is finished	Gigant-o-vision
Lower rent	Commute does not go through Stockport
Meals thrown in	Does not require effort of moving
Quieter road	Superfast broadband[1]
Cheap, regular, punctual buses	Trams run late into the night
Katy	Alex

Thus my dilemma. I'm not sure on the relative dimensions of the rooms - Katy's is wider than Alex's but not so long, but I think I'd have a little more effective space (if only because there's a chunk of dead space in my room at Alex's filled with stuff I've been meaning to throw out for a while now).

I'm leaning towards the move, but remain very much torn.

[1] Also IMAP access to Alex's email server, which is unavailable from outside the house network - it's Webmail or nothing.

Comments

M60 Stockport

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

You cannot speed things up by going on the M60 past Stockport. It is a car park. Every morning. They always tell me so on the trafic updates. And they have lowered the speed limit to 50mph, and are enforcing it with digital cameras.

Re: M60 Stockport

[kingandy]

Hmm, perhaps this warrants another look.

This morning it appeared that the cars continuing along the M60 were going at around 40mph when I came off. I had assumed that this speed continued, and concluded that even at this speed it would be better than the slow crawl I was doing past Stockport town centre. (I didn't join the A6 until after the centre, but all the same it was not much faster than walking.)

Re: M60 Stockport

[paradoxrealm]

TBH, you might be better looking at running through Reddish and then out on to the A6 or A34...

Re: M60 Stockport

[blufive.livejournal.com]

The Belmont Bridge (over the railway line) on the A6 is closed right now, and will be for a few months yet. Which makes that whole area a right PITA to drive through right now.

Re: M60 Stockport

[blufive.livejournal.com]

oops, correction - only partially closed right now - they only close it completely for July and August...

Re: M60 Stockport

[kingandy]

On that note, why is it that Stockport appears actively hostile to drivers? Even in the normal order of things it's a nightmare to get anywhere, with signs appearing too late or not at all (finding the station when driving from Manchester has given me rage more than once). The closing of the bridge, however, has been dealt with not, as one would expect, through introduction of "diversion" signs and a proposed alternate route, but instead a series of large signs saying "BRIDGE CLOSED - PLEASE FIND ALTERNATE ROUTE". Screw you, motorists, you're on your own.

Re: M60 Stockport

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

Dude, no-one in my house drives, and we know exactly which route to take to avoid it all.

It's not rocket science.

Re: M60 Stockport

[kingandy]

My point was not that it bewilders or confuses me personally, only that it seems that it would be exceedingly, almost intentionally, unhelpful to a stranger to our fair city.

Re: M60 Stockport

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Well presumably it's assuming that everyone has shat-nav?

not really M60 Stockport, more observation on roadworks

[ephrael.livejournal.com]

They did the PLEASE FIND ALTERNATE ROUTE thing on my run to work a few weeks ago.

I have to say I did the cheeky sod cyclist thing and ride round them, but it was a sod of a diversion to fond in a car, especially as there was another set round the corner that added 4 miles and a dual carrigeway to what should be about 40 feet of road.

Re: M60 Stockport

[blufive.livejournal.com]

The corner at J25 has a permanent 50Mph limit clockwise, but otherwise normal motorway limits should apply, apart from...

The primary reason for the car-park-ness at peak times at the moment is the roadworks between J1-J4* on the M60, which impose a _40_mph limit (and, I think, narrow lanes, no hard shoulder and other such shenanigans). Once you're actually in the roadworks, things seem to move fairly smoothly, but the approaches from each direction tend to be pretty horrific, particularly at peak times.

The roadworks have been there for months, but they're due to finish in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how much better it will get when they go away. It could hardly get much worse.

*I think. Starts at J1, not sure about the end, cause I travel to/from J1 each day...

Re: M60 Stockport

[kingandy]

"the approaches from each direction tend to be pretty horrific, particularly at peak times."

Yeah, at the moment from Stretford I nudge the tail end of it (anticlockwise) just before I come off onto the A34. I usually have a bit of a giggle about that.