M6 / M5 Traffic

[Blade]

Question for our midlands residents.

I need to head to the south west. Question is what times need avoiding on the m6/m5 around Birmingham.

Cheers for any help offered.

[Kwacky]

6.30am to 8.00 pm

The M5 around Brum and south of Brum is usually slowed down most of the time because of road work. I think it's a 50MPH limit for a few miles.

If you can avoid the usual rush hour then you should be ok. Not sure what day you're travelling but if it's a Friday be aware that a lot of industries in the Black Country still shut down early on a Friday, so aim to be past West Brom by midday

[C00kiemonster]

6.30am to 8.00 pm

The M5 around Brum and south of Brum is usually slowed down most of the time because of road work. I think it's a 50MPH limit for a few miles.

If you can avoid the usual rush hour then you should be ok. Not sure what day you're travelling but if it's a Friday be aware that a lot of industries in the Black Country still shut down early on a Friday, so aim to be past West Brom by midday

What he said ^

If its really bad then you'd have to come off around wolverhampton and use the A449 all the way down towards Bromsgrove of further down to Kidderminster and rejoin the M5 there..

[Blade]

Cheers Kwacky.

We have a holiday booked in Cornwall Saturday to Saturday. But as I know traffic will be mental I booked a hotel south of Bristol on the Friday to break up the journey.

I would probably look at setting off lunch time ish. Stop south of Brum for an early tea and let the Bristol rush hour die away then head for hotel after tea.

Good plan or am I looking at hassle ?

[Kwacky]

I would leave mid morning and do a straight run. Friday afternoon traffic can kick in from midday until about 7pm.

[Blade]

Ok cheers. Maybe a rush mid morning but advice taken Friday afternoon is not good.

[Blade]

6.30am to 8.00 pm

The M5 around Brum and south of Brum is usually slowed down most of the time because of road work. I think it's a 50MPH limit for a few miles.

If you can avoid the usual rush hour then you should be ok. Not sure what day you're travelling but if it's a Friday be aware that a lot of industries in the Black Country still shut down early on a Friday, so aim to be past West Brom by midday

What he said ^

If its really bad then you'd have to come off around wolverhampton and use the A449 all the way down towards Bromsgrove of further down to Kidderminster and rejoin the M5 there..

Cheers Cookie that's now my back up plan.

Fortunately the cars sat nav has real time traffic info so if things looks bad I will take the back up plan route

[Cav]

Cheers Kwacky.

We have a holiday booked in Cornwall Saturday to Saturday. But as I know traffic will be mental I booked a hotel south of Bristol on the Friday to break up the journey.

I would probably look at setting off lunch time ish. Stop south of Brum for an early tea and let the Bristol rush hour die away then head for hotel after tea.

Good plan or am I looking at hassle ?

Bristol rush hour isn't that bad, it's more Avonmouth bridge you need to worry about. There are roadworks at Junction 11 and 12-13 also.

I would aim to get off the road by 1600-1630 although on a Friday it's busy from 1200-1830.

[Kwacky]

I remember when we stayed at nice hotel just south of Bristol. It was the weekend the volcano erupted in Iceland and loads of flights were cancelled. The hotel tripled their prices

[Blade]

Cheers Lad's some very helpful advice.

I take I Friday is a bit worse than other week days.

[Kwacky]

Yep. Mainly for the reason I mentioned - there's a lot of industry around Wolverhampton/Dudley/West Brom so you get loads of workers finishing early. That means the traffic starts to build up from lunchtime.

If you do want to stop off I would go for Worcester. It's a really nice place to visit, loads of places to eat by the river, and it's after the traffic bottleneck.

[Blade]

Cheers Kwacky may give that a try pal.

[Cav]

Otherwise there is an Ibis in Barnwood (Gloucester) that's no more than 5 minutes off the Motorway (J11) if it's just a room you're after. Gloucester Quays isn't that far away if you were after a nice meal out too. TGI's, Nandos, Zizzi, Pizza Express, Ed's Diner and the good old trusty Wetherspoons

[Blade]

I've already booked a Hotel cheers Cav. I travel alot with work so used my loyalty points and got a free night in a Holiday inn.

Cheers for the help though. Appreciate it.

[Cav]

No problem

[DaytonAndy]

We have a holiday booked in Cornwall Saturday to Saturday.

No way, I'm off to Cornwall on Tuesday! Let me know how you get on with traffic/roadworks etc.

[Blade]

Wow what a small world. Will do Andy.

Where you headed ?

[DaytonAndy]

Bodmin. You?

[D6Nutz]

I'm off down to Devon tomorrow, planning on stopping at Burnham on sea for lunch and then off towards tiverton for a week.

The only advice I can give with the m5 is listen to the sat nav if you've got live traffic. We've avoided some serious traffic by using Google navigation.

[Blade]

Cheers Nutz. The cars sat nav has live traffic updates.

Is Google Navigation an App or just a feature in Google maps ? Sounds a good option.