Crawling along

On a recent Saturday I left my parking spot on Bede House Lane, Newark, at 11.15am.

I checked my car’s built-in computer details on fuel usage. The car was averaging 41mpg over 45.5 gallons.

I turned right on to Barnbygate, right on to Appletongate down to the junction with Queens Road.

Here I turned left and travelled to the traffic lights at Northgate.

I turned left up to the roundabout at Beastmarket Hill and proceeded to the Waitrose carpark, a journey of between 1.5 and two miles.

Throughout this short journey the traffic, which I admit also included myself, crawled the whole way.

There was other traffic blocking the entrance for right turners at the roundabout, and there are pedestrian crossings at the approach and exit from the same roundabout with pedestrians coming in dribs and drabs and not giving traffic time to move.

On arrival at Waitrose my mpg had dropped by 0.1 to 40.9. This small amount, however, is actually applied to the whole of the 45.5 gallons that are part of the average figure.

Traffic, particularly on a Saturday, is almost back to the days before the A1 bypassed the town and it will get worse when the Asda area is finished.

Food for thought where our money goes.