Continuing with the thread hijack....
The middle of Bristol is a pig to get to for me -- which is why I travel to BristolCon the day before (a journey which still takes four hours**) -- as was Exeter. It's because the main transport routes for most of Dorset -- road
and rail*** -- are geered towards getting to London (with the Midlands coming a distant second).
Obviously, there's nothing to be done about the roads**** (well, nothing has been done about them, and I can't see the situation changing), but I'd prefer a location that was not in the middle of big traffic blackspot... so a smaller town in the South West would be much better for me or, at a push, a meeting place that was on the edge of a larger town/city. (For those who travel by train, somewhere with a railway station near to the meeting place would be best.)
** - I'm setting off even earlier this year, in the vain hope that the traffic will be better.
*** - If only they hadn't closed the Somerset and Dorset line: I live five minutes walk from what used to be a reasonably important station on the line. The site is now a leisure centre and car park.
**** - I can get to Bristol via the M4, but all that means is that I get the pleasure of joining the traffic coming from London, the Midlands, the North and Wales (which, last year, was no fun at all).
