London's Motorway

The Tangerine Dream

It's going to be mine now, the orange Skoda Fabia we call The Tangerine Dream. Starting in a few weeks, I'll be using it to commute to my new job.

I thought my first job here might have me commuting by public transport to Central London. Now, in place of commentary on the state of the National Rail and sketches of colorful characters who ride the train, my commuting stories will be about the traffic jams encountered between Junctions 10 and 16 on the M25 to Uxbridge. I'll try to make it seem interesting.

The M25 is the 117-mile London orbital road known around here as 'the world's biggest car park'. In length, it's sort of the Capital Beltway half as much again, or Route 128 times two. For traffic jams, it may be times ten. A couple of weeks ago, traffic was backed up for 28 miles and parts of the road were closed for 24 hours. I've read that sitting in traffic on the M25 inspired Chris Rea to write 'The Road to Hell':

On your journey 'cross the wilderness
From the desert to the well
You have strayed upon the motorway to Hell

I think it's probably a metaphor.