M6 north of Birmingham info reqd

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,
Looking for someone who uses the M6 around Birmingham early evening going east. I live in Quinton and go to a singing group, at Sheldon, Wednesday evening. With the chaos caused by installation of the 'Sprint' buses' long term road works down the Coventry Road, I have taken to using the southern route. Down the M5, I am a few minutes away from it, onto the M42 coming off at the NEC and a short trip back down the Coventry Road, A45 and into Sheldon. It's probably twice as far but no sitting in traffic and takes about the same time as the more direct route. As about half of that journey has no lighting it can be challenging when the weather closes in. The road works are scheduled to be finished in time for the Commonwealth Games but...
So tried the M42/M6/M5 going home last night about 9pm. Traffic ok and motorway lighting all the way, nice.
Question is what is the traffic like going M5/M6/M42 to NEC at around 6:30pm? If it's stop/start I am better off going the southern route and returning via the northern route.
I can look at the motorway cameras to get a feel but the experience of a regular user is more useful.

Cheers,
Ray.

[airbus330]

Can't give you a specific answer, but over 8 years of commuting SW England to Manchester and many times diverting via Brum to see my son, the section of Mway from the NEC to the M42/M6 intersection is usually congested at rush hour times in both directions. The problem is that it moves but is running at maximum capacity, so any incident or breakdown quickly results in hold ups. I usually went west bound on the m6, but observed that the eastbound was generally moving ok.

[raybarrow]

Hi Airbus330,
My logic is that in the morning the M6 from the North into Birmingham is more or less a standstill, whereas going North out of the city is busy but moving ok.
Reverse that at 'going home' time would suggest more or less a standstill going North out of the city and busy but moving in the direction I would want to go.
Was is that saying "All plans fall apart on first contact with the enemy"!

Ray.

[airbus330]

Hi Airbus330,
My logic is that in the morning the M6 from the North into Birmingham is more or less a standstill, whereas going North out of the city is busy but moving ok.
Reverse that at 'going home' time would suggest more or less a standstill going North out of the city and busy but moving in the direction I would want to go.
Was is that saying "All plans fall apart on first contact with the enemy"!

Ray.

"no battle plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy,” often attributed to Colin Powell, but also to Field Marshal Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke.
Pretty much sums up any motorway journey planned in the UK. As I said I did the commute up and down to Manchester for quite a few years and it was really very random. My southbound journey normally hit Brum at around 9am and generally it was running fine, but could be upset by the smallest roadwork or shunt, of which there were many. I tried many convoluted get arounds down the Toll road, across the Welsh Border,round the back of Wolverhampton, even on one misguided day via Coventry, and the take away was that in most instances unless the M/way was actually shut, it was best to stick with the most direct route. So many people have satnav which offers live traffic info and instant re-routes to avoid, I think it just transferred the hold ups onto smaller roads.One of the oddest things was that when I started doing this journey, I'd leave after dinner around 7pm and could normally do South Manch in 3 1/2 hrs as the commercial traffic died away. By 2019 when I stopped, I could never do the route in less than 4 and often longer. Sheer volume increased together with lower speed limits, average speed camera. Was very glad to stop. One of the (very few) joys of covid lockdown was driving on deserted roads, an experience from the 1980's revisited. Good luck and judicious use of Google Maps route planning with live traffic on, for each trip before you start it, is probably your best bet.