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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

@roads.org.uk

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We write about UK road infrastructure and history! Join us for updates and other stuff from the UK's favourite roads website, www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · Jun 18

Just published: two more historic commemorative books are now online from the opening of Eastern Avenue in 1925 and the M40 in 1991, adding to our growing collection of Opening Booklets. Explore two very different eras of roadbuilding history! #m40 #easternavenue www.roads.org.uk/blog/grand-o...

Grand openings

Our much-loved Opening Booklets section has two new publications for you to explore, and we’re making some overdue changes to make them easier to find and easier to read.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 20h

What do the cryptic numbers and letters posted along English trunk roads mean? They're Driver Location Signs, and they'll come to your aid if you ever need to call for help. www.roads.org.uk/articles/dri...

Driver Location Signs

If you're on the motorway (in England at least) you might have noticed some funny blue signs down the side of the road. What are they for?

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

That’s nice to see! I have a pet theory that length was meant to replace the old road with a new single carriageway, it’s laid out as a single road with cycle tracks either side. Then someone decided to keep the old road open and make it dual, which is why the cycle track makes no sense.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

I think when it was first proposed Boris Johnson, then still the Mayor, had just returned from Boston with a head full of tunnel ideas. There were others too, all now thankfully forgotten.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

Probably for the best!

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

You’ve also got the skew crossing of the underground lines, which the flyover manages quite elegantly but would be a nightmare to tunnel under, especially if it was C&C. It’s sheer fantasy. If you had megabucks for a big project in West London (and nobody has), you could do so much better than this.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

Oh man, I thought that had gone for good. How on earth are they still talking about it? If you remove the flyover you gain almost no usable land - certainly not enough to make a tunnel affordable. Council policy set by click bait headline.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

Back in the 1930s it was easier to go around things than shift too much earth. That's why the A24 takes such a snaking course along the Mole Valley near Mickleham, making one of the UK's most hair-raising dual carriageways. #surrey www.roads.org.uk/photo/mickle...

Photograph of a car travelling around a sharp left-hand bend with several yellow-bordered chevron signs marking the turn

Photograph of a sharp corner on a dual carriageway, with one lane painted out with white stripes and the other carriageway visible in the distance through the trees

A sharp corner on a dual carriageway, with an electronic warning sign in the foreground lit up to show a 50mph speed limit and a speed camera symbol

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 2d

Manchester City Council have lowered the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. Or at least they say they have - but creating a 30 limit on a motorway is, legally, almost impossible. So what is the speed limit now? #manchester www.roads.org.uk/blog/schrodi...

Schrödinger’s speed limit

In 2022, Manchester City Council say they reduced the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. But it’s not clear if they did. It’s not even clear if they can.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 3d

Today it's the UK's busiest motorway, but its designers had no idea the monster they were creating. How did we end up with the western side of the M25? Discover its origins in the difficult history of the North Orbital Road. #m25 www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...

Ringway 4 Western Section

Its planners did not suspect that this length of orbital motorway would one day be the busiest in the UK. In fact, if there's anything wrong with it, it's that it's a bit too useful.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

That was part of a DTp trial of local direction (blue bordered) signs on urban motorways - Leeds and Glasgow were the trial sites. I don’t think it was ever taken further but the trial signs hung around for years.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

Yes, it’s lovely. Glasgow started doing that with their motorway gantries in the 60s and still do but London’s are all gone. I expect the beautiful glossy face might not have weathered terribly well.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

It’s rather nice in its own right, very sleek and ultramodern… but decidedly not at home on a city street.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

Blimey, that’s a monster!

Bryn Buck 🏳️‍🌈💛🤍💜🖤 @showmeasign.online · 4d

Now this is a gantry sign!

When Tottenham Court Road was seen as a major radial route northwards, presumably begging for the Camden Town Bypass to connect to Ringway 1 with...

@roads.org.uk

A massive backlit gantry sign in London approaching the Euston Underpass at the top of Tottenham Court Road.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

They're meant to keep urban roads moving, but do you know when you're allowed to enter the yellow markings and when to keep clear? Our guide unpacks the box to answer your questions. www.roads.org.uk/blog/think-i...

Think inside the box

Yellow box junctions keep crossroads clear and traffic on the move. Not everyone understands the rules, though - do you?

www.roads.org.uk

Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

✨🩷 Skye/Skyler 🩵✨ @ukroadstransport.bsky.social · 5d

Been making these not completely finished but what do you think @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social @showmeasign.online

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 5d

In 1971 the M602 Eccles Bypass was pushed through the suburbs of Greater Manchester, and its builders were delighted with their work. To celebrate they published a book full of praise and fascinating archive pictures of an urban motorway under construction. #m602 www.roads.org.uk/opening-book...

Black and white aerial photograph of a large motorway interchange nearing completion. One arm travels away into the distance where it almost immediately enters the suburbs, passing between houses and factories

Black and white photograph of a motorway nearing completion. It has tarmac carriageways and lighting but no road markings yet. The motorway curves away into the distance through an urban area

Aerial photograph of a motorway under construction in an urban area. Buildings have been cleared to leave a swathe of bare land which is crossed by several new, white concrete bridges

Map showing the location of the M602 Eccles Bypass in Greater Manchester, with other motorways nearby marked as under construction

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 6d

Road geeks love their jargon, but if you're new to the community you might get lost among the references to D4H, D3M and WS2. Not to worry - we can get you up to speed with our guide to these abbreviations. www.roads.org.uk/abbreviations

Abbreviations

How do you describe a road? One way is to use these engineering abbreviations, much loved by the UK's community of road enthusiasts.

www.roads.org.uk

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 7d

We think road numbers are beautiful. Not everyone agrees, but we defy you not to be amazed by this incredbile visualisation of all Great Britain's classified roads. #roadnumbers www.roads.org.uk/blog/colouri...

Colouring by Numbers

A data visualisation of British road numbering produces surprisingly beautiful results.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 8d

Then we gave way to the right, and now look where we are 🤔

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 8d

All roundabouts are the same: you give way to the right when you join. But it wasn't always so. In February 1960 Middlesbrough was the first place to try a new priority to the right rule. The queues vanished immediately, and the new rule stuck. #middlesbrough www.roads.org.uk/articles/rou...

Archive photograph from the early 1960s of a small urban roundabout that has locked up, with a continuous line of cars around the junction and none of the traffic moving

Archive photograph from the early 1960s of the approach to a roundabout. A hand-painted sign reads GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC FROM YOUR RIGHT.

Traffic flow diagram for a roundabout, using arrows in four different colours to show the volume of traffic approaching on each arm and travelling to each of the others in the morning rush hour

Archive photograph of the approach to the Newport Bridge in Middlesbrough, with traffic departing the roundabout in the foreground and travelling up the ramp towards a bridge with tall metal towers

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 9d

Not all motorways have a hard shoulder, and some have even had theirs removed. But fifty years ago engineers were worried we'd need more of them, not less. Whatever happened to the idea of the second hard shoulder? www.roads.org.uk/blog/rise-an...

The rise and fall of the second hard shoulder

One hard shoulder's enough for one carriageway, right? Well...not according to one long-lost design standard.

www.roads.org.uk

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 13d

Today we take electronic signals on motorways for granted, but the first ones were big, bulky and basic, telling drivers on the M5 to watch out for Skid Risk, Accident and Fog. Do you remember them? #m5 www.roads.org.uk/blog/skid-ri...

Skid Risk, Accident, Fog

For the first time, we can share pictures of the pioneering experiment that lit up the Worcestershire countryside with enormous signs 61 years ago.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 14d

We take decent road signs for granted, but there was a time when there was no system of signs fit for the motor age. In 1919 one man set out to create one - and it was years ahead of its time. www.roads.org.uk/articles/cle...

Clear and legible

A century ago, one short memorandum issued by the Ministry of Transport laid the groundwork for a system of standardised, uniform road signs and a great deal more.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 15d

These amazing pictures show the M40 under construction near High Wycombe - and one motorist who didn't look out for the signs when passing through the roadworks. They were sent to us a few years ago by Robert Plato. For more old photos, see our picture gallery: www.roads.org.uk/photo/old-mo...

A car travels on an unfinished motorway. In the distance there are construction workers and plant on the incomplete carriageway of a bridge

A bridge is under construction, with lines of concrete piers and some unfinished steel beams joining them

A car that has crashed into a set of heavy wooden barriers painted with chevrons. The barriers are strewn across the road and the car is badly dented

An almost complete motorway curves into the distance, crossing a flyover

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 16d

It's a long way from St Paul's Cathedral to the windswept west coast of Wales, but the A40 covers the miles to unite them. Join us for a trip from end to end, taking in picturesque towns, dramatic landscapes and more than one traffic jam. www.roads.org.uk/blog/out-lon...

Out of London: A40

The A40 travels more than 260 miles west from St Paul's Cathedral in London. This is what a journey along its whole route, from start to finish, looks like.