Japfest traffic warning.

Post by **Gayno** » Sat May 10, 2014 9:53 pm

Was no traffic issues for us coming from M4 J18 either. Well, those who followed the signed route to Japfest. There were still many other queuing to go the normal way past Badminton and getting caught up with the horse traffic.

Sam, from what I've read there were a couple of accidents in the surrounding area which is what caused the hold ups you got stuck in. Can't blame this on the organisers. If the accidents hadn't happened, you'd have been in much sooner.

The "S" express · Post by **honda-hardy** » Sun May 11, 2014 12:09 am

I've just read that there was a fatal on the a46.

Bludge · Post by **Bludge** » Sun May 11, 2014 9:02 am

wurlycorner wrote:That sounds absolutely ridiculous and is exactly why I really can't be arsed with this for a 1 day show!

Hope you all had fun though.

Massive thanks to @Ash.Z @Bludge @CARRisma and @K30DPC for your combined efforts getting stuff to me - fantastic stuff guys

Happy to help mate.

honda-hardy wrote:I've just read that there was a fatal on the a46.

Makes me feel a bit bad about whinging about the traffic now.

Did you ever get that fiver back??

The "S" express · Post by **honda-hardy** » Sun May 11, 2014 2:11 pm

no mate.

for those that dont know, a mate in my car decided that he would get out and walk so i gave him his fiver back. but told him if we beat him then he owes it me back. 45 mins after he left, we still had not moved. finally we moved enough for me to decide on changing our rout. and what a decision that was. we beat him in. also never even heard if he had actually got in.

Bludge · Post by **Bludge** » Sun May 11, 2014 10:10 pm

haha, we were a fair way from the public entrance from what i can remember when we left, would have been quite a trek!

The "S" express · Post by **honda-hardy** » Sun May 11, 2014 11:13 pm

4 miles from combe.

Post by **Donald** » Mon May 12, 2014 12:08 am

honda-hardy wrote:we beat him in. also never even heard if he had actually got in.

So you say you beat him in, but you never heard if he actually got in? So how do you know you beat him?

If he had 45 mins head start and and set himself at a decent pace he could well have beat you

4 miles is doable in an hour or less at a brisk walk.

Post by **SPYDOR** » Mon May 12, 2014 12:15 am

I read that accident happened at about 08:55 so it wasn't responsible for the massive queues that had already spiralled out of control by 07:30.

When I was queuing to get in they were only processing about 1 car every 20 seconds at the main gate, which just astounds me. The company who organises the parking for the JapFest just haven't got a clue.

Yes, Castle Combe has poor road access compared to bigger circuits and yes, the JapFest is a huge event but they just aren't planning the traffic flow properly. I don't know if it is down to incompetent planning and co-ordination or a lack of money allocated to it.

They have 2-3 entrances on the main road, so should be using them properly to spread the load and not just jam the main entrance past breaking point. They could be allowing cars into 2 of the entrances on the main road, then splitting each queue into 2-3 lines for processing, or using several more staff to check multiple cars at the same time, not just 1 at a time in 1 or 2 lines. Enlarging a couple of the main openings and laying a little extra tarmac to widen pathways wouldn't be out of the question either, especially as they host an event of this size.

These things are all about redundancy so everything doesn't just grind to a halt when 1 part of the chain stops. If they did this properly there would at least be a constant smooth flow of traffic.

Sorry for the rant but Castle Combe is practically on my doorstep and I've been going to JapFest for many years now. The event keeps getting bigger every year but the traffic situation only gets worse and it angers me that it always seems a bit of an afterthought with no real improvements despite all the problems and huge delays.

Post by **Gayno** » Mon May 12, 2014 12:24 am

To be honest, I think this seems to be more of an issue coming from the Chippenham side of the circuit.

I've always come from M4 J18. Last year saw a massive improvement with the introduction of the pass system, rather than tickets, as now the gate marshalls just wave you in. Perhaps the 20 seconds processing you mentioned, was being done properly so was the marshall at fault, not the system.

This year, with the horse show thing, they had setup a signed route to the circuit which took you well away from Badminton, a section of which they'd had changed to a one way system. From leaving the M4 at J18, LLL and I didn't stop moving until we were 200m from the circuit, even then we were only waiting for a couple of minutes before we reached the junction for our gate.

From my point of view, it has improved, vastly.

Post by **SPYDOR** » Mon May 12, 2014 9:21 am

Thanks for your input; at least they managed to improve 1 part of it!

The passes saved a little time but you didn't experience any problems because we were at Gate B, which was almost clear coming in from the North side. I was only waiting 2-3 minutes to get in at that entrance, once I was past the massive queue to the main gate, which is where all the problems stem from. There appeared to be hundreds of cars queuing to get in from the North side but thousands queuing to get in from the South.

The point is queuing is all very well as long as it is actually moving all the time. The organisers should be taking a good long look into why people were sitting in stationary traffic, for lengthy periods of time only a mile from the circuit; as it is not only the problems for us but also the disruption to the A420 and the main Chippenham bypass, which is already a very busy road!

It's not like Top Gear are there every year either, so they can't just blame them for the traffic!