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    1. Life
    2. Travel

    These are the worst times for traffic over the bank holiday weekend

    Note to self: Avoid the M25

    Lucy Abbersteen's avatar
    By Lucy Abbersteen
    Published 11 April 2017 In Features

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    Note to self: Avoid the M25

    If you're planning on driving out of London (or anywhere else in the UK for that matter) for Easter weekend, you're going to need to do some serious planning to avoid bank holiday gridlock.

    Because folks, everyone else will have had the same great idea as you and be hitting the road straight after work on Thursday. From 4pm, traffic levels are expected to be 28% higher than usual, according to Metro. Yikes.

    The worst times for traffic will be Thursday 4pm–6pm, Friday 10am-2pm and Monday 12pm-5pm. Better to come back late Sunday night/early Monday morning, then?

    Inrix has shared the expected delays on the top 10 most congested routes as of Thursday:

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    M25 J9-J21 both directions – 90 minutes

    M6 J16-J22 – 50 minutes

    Marie Claire Newsletter

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    M5 (southbound) J14 to Weston-super-Mare – 45 minutes

    M4 (westbound) J2-J13 – 45 minutes

    M25 (anti-clockwise) J4 to the Dartford Tunnel – 40 minutes

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    M8 (eastbound) J16-J8 – 30 minutes

    A34 (northbound) Abingdon to M40 – 30 minutes

    M60/M62 J8 Carrington to J20 Rochdale – 30 minutes

    A303 Andover to Amesbury (westbound) – 30 minutes

    M74 J4-J5 (southbound) – 20 minutes

    http://gph.is/2aK4aGe

    The commuter in you might be thinking: 'It's alright, I'll just get the train!' Ah, if only it were so easy...

    Network Rail are using the four day run to carry out a shed load of engineering work across the country, meaning journeys to London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow and Bath will be a little difficult. You can read more information on networkrail.co.uk.

    If you're planning on staying at home, though? Enjoy feeling smug.

    Lucy Abbersteen
    Lucy Abbersteen
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    Beauty Contributor

    Lucy is a freelance beauty editor and contributor at Marie Claire, and has also written for titles including Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, Glamour and woman&home. She was previously Marie Claire’s junior beauty editor. During her career, she’s covered everything from backstage beauty at fashion week to interviews with famous faces like Drag Race royalty and Little Mix. As for her beauty ethos, she’s a big advocate for not having to spend a fortune on beauty products to get good results. When she’s not got beauty on the brain you’ll probably find her reading or Netflix-ing.

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