British Motorway Database | Hacker News Reader

British Motorway Database

roads.org.uk

72 pointsscrlk38 comments

Some fantastic and also horrifying footage of the newly opened M1 from 1959.

Watch until the end for the AA man’s brilliant anecdote…

There was also a brilliant documentary series a few years back about the building of the motorways - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007xr62

The conditions in which the trans-Pennine M62 were built were quite something.

> Watch until the end for the AA man’s brilliant anecdote…

> At one point, I threw petrol[gasoline] across the motorway and lit it to try and warn them [of the accident ahead in the fog].

> But still, people still drove through it, and you could hear in the fog, bangs of more people crashing.

> [Comentator]. But nonetheless, a carnival atmosphere prevailed.

These were happier times... When even as people crash, burn, and die, people have a happy outlook on life. What happened?

Hard Times Create Strong Men, Strong Men Create Good Times, Good Times Create Weak Men, Weak Men Create Hard Times.

Generational dynamics...same concept as "the first generation makes it the second generation spends it and the third generation blows it"

A tired cliché with no relation to reality.

Sure, none whatsoever.

seems not very different to today

every time I see a red X over a lane on a motorway gantry (meaning: lane closed) there's people driving in it at full speed

which is why "smart" motorways are so dangerous

Smart motorways/Dumb drivers

There is also a temporary speed limit that 99% of drivers simply can not obey and that is 40 MPH, it's as if there is some external force at play?

Sometimes there are speed limits - with red circles. Most obey that IME

Then there's the advisory limits, without the red circuits, which tend to be ignored

Because they’re enforced by cameras ;-)

I do find it amusing watching people slam their brakes on for school safety zones… at 8pm.

An automatic driving ban for passing under (being generous) the second red cross on a lane would weed out the arseholes. Just enforcing the existing law would help. The cameras and anpr are in place so it should be cheap to implement. But whenever such a thing is suggested motorists claim it's a conspiracy to empty their pockets.

A recent development is that the red x is now enforced with a penalty notice, alas not so severe as necessary to eliminate the behaviour entirely.

This reminds me of a tweet last year of a driver claiming a cyclist with a camera caught his dad using his phone while driving, leading to him being barred from driving and losing his job.

When someone highlighted that the 6 point penalty meant this was at least his 2nd road traffic offence, he replied “yes but that’s not the point.”

I honestly believe some people are incapable of learning and banning them for their offences is really the only answer to make the roads safe.

An automated driving ban for many things would considerably improve road safety.

Problem is that most of the time the signs are wrong.

People are still happy when new motorways open, but they're used to them and expect them to be around, so it's not quite as much of a carnival atmosphere anymore as with the first one.

> Watch until the end for the AA man’s brilliant anecdote…

Re: fog on early motorways - there's an interesting article on roads.org about the development of modern British road signs. A section of that article talks about the early signs that were used to warn of fog: https://www.roads.org.uk/articles/mixed-signals/yellow-peril...

A great photo of the early M1 in that article showing the soft shoulder and no barrier in the central reservation.

I remember as a child being told we were going down the newly opened M1 "which is completely straight". I sat up (unconstrained by seatbelt) behind my dad expecting to be able to see London in the far distance, 80 miles away. Turned out it was not my idea of straight.

If you are interested in some of the history and more usual features of Britain’s motorways, be sure to check out Auto Shenanigans on YouTube[0].

It’s delivered in a very British dry sense of humour, and is definitely more interesting than it sounds!

[0] https://m.youtube.com/c/autoshenanigans

Just brilliant. Thanks for sharing. I grew up going for long walks with my dad between villages along the disused railway and I remember crossing the bridge he mentions in the M1 piece many times. Used to love hearing stories from dad about the M1 as we stood there on it. Great memories. Thank you.

Yeah, Jon uses roads.org.uk for research, plus (I believe)

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ and

https://pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/

- he’s great, new videos most Sundays, I think.

"The Pennine section of the M62 is also home to an enduring urban myth: the house in the middle of the motorway."

I used to pass this location often and it's surprising how many people have told me the story of an angry farmer, wielding a shotgun, refusing to budge.

Looks like Stott Hall Farm over here:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/53.64140/-1.94718

I've driven past this farmhouse a fair few times and also believed the urban myth - quite nice to know the actual reason for it's existence !

I love this intro about the M60 (Stockport to Stockport):

This is a zen motorway, achieving the highest plane of spirituality, adopting the lotus position and humming serenely. Why? Because it is the UK's only circular motorway, with no start and no end. Tarmac in eternity. Not even the mighty M25 manages that.

https://www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m60

It’s a pity it’s not accurate as to do a full loop you have to leave on a slip road and use a roundabout to rejoin (Simister Island).

I love this. Another one with autobahn info:

http://www.autobahnatlas-online.de/index_e.html

Do people know of other countries sites with similar info?

Edit: nevermind, i found it

https://www.roads.org.uk/links

A link to a Dutch motorway fansite is there, but that site is under construction for an update. Current information on Dutch motorways (snelwegen) can be found here:

https://www.wegenwiki.nl/Autosnelweg#Nederlandse_autosnelweg...

Poland

http://ssc.siskom.waw.pl/ <- contstruction

http://ssc.siskom.waw.pl/mapa-nawierzchni/mapa-nawierzchnia.... <- quality of roads

Something I learned to rely on last winter was

https://www.road.is

Also note the possible warnings under "Definitions". Those really are no joke and not what a boring European understands under "bad road conditions".

My father was present, as a boy, at the opening of the Lancaster bypass, which was the first section of motorway constructed in in Britain, followed by the Preston bypass. He was always very careful to remind people how the M6 was the first motorway in Britain and not the M1.

but reading the M1 section

"Sticklers will point out that the Preston Bypass was the first motorway, and they're right. It was part of the M6, but only eight miles long. Opened just a year later, and initially covering 60 miles, the M1 was the first long distance motorway in the UK."

The first sections of motorway... Definitions definitions

I did get the order wrong. Must have been the Preston bypass that was first, which I double checked

Tangentially related (they would technically have been motorways, I believe) but don't miss the Ringways history section on that excellent website: https://www.roads.org.uk/ringways

See also, the SABRE wiki: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki

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