"Preston is man made bottleneck." Readers have their say on Preston's road network mayhem

During Monday morning's rush hour the motorway between junction 31 at Samlesbury and 32 at Broughton was closed in both direction, causing major traffic problems all that morning.

Officers later confirmed that they were responding to a call about a concern for a person's safety, which prompted the decision to close the M6.

All police could do was apologise for the inconvenience and thank travellers for their patience.

What is to blame? Can anything be done? Do we need to rethink how we travel across the region? Here is what you had to say:

"Don't think so. As soon as anything happens in the M6 from Leyland to Broughton, Preston grinds to a halt. Also, more houses are being built but where are the schools, doctors, dentists etc to cope with more houses?"Anne Freeman

"And if they close Chorley Hospital..... Getting to RPH would/could be a matter of life and death if these hold ups continue to be a problem."Linda Bonney Watson

"Preston is man made bottleneck."Lee Smart

"Instead of building more houses, we need to widen A roads to be able to handle 2-3 lanes of traffic, and widen the motorways to always be able to handle 4-5 lanes. Nice big wide spread out road, like they have in America."Scott Goldsworthy

"Road network is fine. Its the standard of driving that isn't fine. Car drivers are in too much of a rush to get that 1 or 2 cars ahead of everyone else which in turn causes the crashes or traffic."Adam Wright

"This country is hundreds of years old and massively overcrowded."So LCC are largely stuck with existing infrastructure, but have the task of trying to move more and more traffic around as the amount of traffic increases year on year."James Baron

"Need to trunk the A6 especially from Broughton. Also we desperately need a crossing from Ashton to Penwortham to take some of the traffic off the bypass bridge."Pauline Thomas

"Absolutely not! Who even puts a ring road through a town center?? Totally illogical planning, removed filters off dangerous junctions, created a shared space disaster that has killed off town center trade and are now doing the same to the village hamlets such as Broughton which they've killed off, and now have their sights on Penwortham."Antoni Squires UW

"How many nos would you like. It was the first motorway to be built, hopefully they have learnt from their mistakes."Dorothy Norcross

"Er, no! But we'll just carry on building even more houses and keep our head in the sand."Eleanor Cline

"Why don't you improve the bus network then people can leave their cars at home? On second thoughts most people are too lazy to walk to a bus stop."Bob Enef Entwistle

"Does the question really need asking? LCC traffic planning dept needs a clear out and fresh ideas brought to the table. Preston is one of few cities without a viable ring road and not enough crossings over the Ribble. Both bridges to the west deliver traffic to near enough the same points on the network due to bus lanes and one way systems. LCC build a bypass then propose closing part of the network elsewhere to encourage drivers to use the bypass, if a road shortens journeys no-one needs to be encouraged to use it. The piecemeal fixes need to stop and traffic problems viewed as a city wide problem with some joined up and logical solutions being made with viable and reliable public transport alternatives for workers and shoppers alike."Rob Randell