Now the holidays are in full swing, where I live (near M5 junction) has again become impossible to move, because of cars coming off the (normally slow or blocked) motorway at weekends, and causing queues on all our roads.

Over the last weekend I could not find ANY way to head south, even the smallest of our 'secret' lanes were blocked.
This was not always the case a few years ago, as then, us locals always knew a small lane or two to escape the holiday traffic.

Not any more.

I fear that the Sat Nav is the culprit, as it diverts traffic away from the jammed motorway and down the single track lanes that are showing no traffic, because they do not have sensors like the normal roads. This causes impossible queues as the diverted traffic tries to join or cross the main roads, or simply try to pass each way in the narrow places.

Thankfully, although we were originally heading for the Chard/Honiton area (about 50 miles south) for our day out, we ended up working our way across country, and had an unplanned, but nice, visit to Wells (about 40 miles east).

PS Where do you all park when you reach your South West destination, it must be very crowded!
 FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 79k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

Why think Cornwall is sinking?  Common sense isn't very common.
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IanMetro wrote:

I fear that the Sat Nav is the culprit, as it diverts traffic away from the jammed motorway and down the single track lanes that are showing no traffic,

Or, as I do, get off the blocked roads and use the satnav as a map to navigate your way along other roads. I did just that near Ringwood the other day (got off the A31 at Poulner) and found some nice gravel roads that I didn't know were there.  MY13 Santorini Black SD4 HSE

I don’t know if the sat nav companies have access to the network of road sensors. They don’t need it anyway as unless you turn it off, your sat nav, smartphone or tablet (and everyone else’s) is sending its position, speed and direction of travel back to google, tomtom or whoever. They then put all the data together and realise that there is a bit of road they haven’t used yet and there goes the quiet back road that nobody knew about but the locals.
As for where everyone goes when they get in to Devon and Cornwall, I don’t know. I was in Torbay yesterday and found parking spaces in a couple of car parks that, 20 years ago would have had queues to get in to and an almost empty beach. Unheard of in the school summer holidays!

I think you are right about the 'private' traffic sensors. Locally Trafficmaster recovered their main road cameras some while ago.
I think you will find that the number of government owned sensor and cameras has increased greatly. This includes ANPR cameras on most roads of any size.

As for your empty car parks, its just that they are probably not on the Sat Nav database, and therefore cease to exist. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 79k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

Nope, just checked and the car park at Breakwater Beach is a destination in Apple Maps and it is the main beach for Brixham. If I was a local I’d complain the we’d wasted money on at least two floors of the car park based on what I saw.

BossBob wrote:

your sat nav, smartphone or tablet (and everyone else’s) is sending its position, speed and direction of travel back to google, tomtom or whoever.

Your satnav from Garmin and tomtom don't do this because they're receivers and don't transmit anything at all. Phone nav apps are a different matter. So if you don't want your every move to be tracked.............  MY13 Santorini Black SD4 HSE

IanMetro wrote:

Now the holidays are in full swing, where I live (near M5 junction) has again become impossible to move, because of cars coming off the (normally slow or blocked) motorway at weekends, and causing queues on all our roads.

Over the last weekend I could not find ANY way to head south, even the smallest of our 'secret' lanes were blocked.

PS Where do you all park when you reach your South West destination, it must be very crowded!