As we approach the Holiday Season again, I thought I may try to ease your passage past Bristol.

It is worth noting that there are no realistic alternative routes south other than the M5 between Jn 16 (with M4) and Jn 22 as the roads off are either through Bristol, or small rural roads through villages.

The best alternative to the Motorway Queues is to travel through area outside peak times.


These are
Fridays 1400 - 1900
Saturdays 1000 - 1700
Sundays 1200 - 1600

Other days it is best to miss morning and evening rush hours as the traffic flows into and out of Bristol.

I find that Google Maps (with traffic overlay) handy, and a very good view of view of real time traffic flow (and camera images) can be found on Highways England Mobile App,
and this PC site
https://m.highwaysengland.co.uk/#flow

Also the M4 north of Bristol Jn 19 - 20 gets incredibly busy at the times stated above, but again has no realistic alternative. (worth noting continuing on M4 to Jn 22 will get you onto the M49 link and miss any really bad congestion caused by Regional Shopping Centre queues at M5 Jn 17)

Note that because people tend to travel in middle and outside lanes and end up queueing, it is best often to chose the lefthand lane in the heavy traffic as you will get there quicker in the end.

Happy Holidays! FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

When working, I often volunteered to work the bank holidays. Didn't get paid any more but it was worth it to not to sit in holiday traffic queues, and just added the days to my annual leave total. Plus it was often a bit quieter at work as everybody had off to the seaside. Jules

Don't!  Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Aww The Bristol bridge, made me lots of money over the years getting well paid for sitting in a truck with the radio on, coffee making gear, bags of food ,watching everybody getting stuck and trying to swop lanes and then finding the one that they had been in starts to move  Common sense isn't very common.
_______________________________
2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

I used to travel between Norfolk and Redruth in Cornwall every month, sometimes weekly between 1998 and 2003. I rarely got caught going south as I hit the hill going south late Sunday evening. Many was the time I held a steady ninety up the hill in my Citroen XM diesel, boost gauge in the red, and others were often cruising faster still. One of the other workers in the factory said that in the early sev enties he took eight hours to get between Marizion and Bristol in the Summer.

The XM was a cracking car, 2.1 turbo XUD, don't make them like that anymore. Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

mad you're all mad

You are sitting in a very comfy seat listening to your favourite music, climate control set at 21C, you had a pee at the last services and have a large Costa Coffee. Why are you not happy?

Phone calls from the office " sorry I am driving" the perfect excuse.

Even better you are with family, time for a chat while going nowhere without the TV as a distraction.

For me the M5 near Bristol sounds like a good destination  Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Andy, they found people like you when they excavated Pompeii  11 GS Bali Blue
07 GS FL2. Usually muddy. Gone
Numerous LRs since 1963

Ah yes the Citroen XM. One of the best company cars I ever had (apart from the FL1 at the end). I had three of them. A car way ahead of it's time with a superb ride from it's hydraulic and dynamic suspension. I remember taking the first one in to the little Citroen dealer in Puddletown in Dorset and the service guy saying we haven't seen one of these before and they had to send one of their guys off on a course before they would touch it. That's was when Citroen had all of the good wacky ideas but now part of PSA they just make boring commodity cars. They did do a good job on the 2,2 diesel in the FL2 though. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE