Inside, Outside, Near Lane, Far Lane, whatever...

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
 
Carol:
> Thankks for the lesson on road classification in the UK, which was not
> at all boring. The A and B classifications make perfect sense, and I
> think that I understand what a "trunk road" is--an important road that
> isn't a freeway, as we would call it, because it's not "fully
> segregated. Would a "trunk road" have traffic lights and
> intersections, then? I think it might correspond with a U.S. highway,
> which has long stretches between towns where the traffic is
> "segregated" by a median, but also stretches with traffic lights when
> it passes through a town. (If you want to bypass the town, you take
> the Interstate.)

Geoff:
Trunk roads can vary quite a lot. At best, the standard is close to that 
of the M and A(M) roads, often with grade-separated interchanges and 
dual carriageways but retaining flat junctions with minor side roads 
and some junctions covered by roundabouts. Some are relatively 
unmodernised, designated as trunk rods because of their importance
in the network.

> Geoff (earlier):
> > In 1959, the first motorways were opened; I believe these would 
> correspond approximately to the US Interstates. They are fully
> segregated dual carriageways - at least four lanes (two each side)
> with a central reservation, <snip>
> 
> Carol:
> Probably. The Interstates are undoubtedly much longer, though, as they
> extend clear across the continental U.S. (or from the Canadian border
> to the Mexican border going north/south). East/west routes have even
> numbers; north/south/routes have odd ones (though, confusingly, I-10,
> which extends from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida,
> has a long (120-mile) north/south stretch between Phoenix and Tucson,
> and I'm sure that other interstates have similar stretches, at least
> in the sparsely populated western states. 

Geoff:
Some years ago, I read a very interesting article in National Geographic 
about the Interstate system which included some of your data.

Geoff (earlier):
> 
> They have grade-separated interchanges, hard shoulders for emergencies
> and dedicated service areas.
 
> Carol:
> "Dedicated service areas"???? I'm getting a headache: UK government
> jargon is as bad as ours in the U.S.

Geoff:
Annemehr has hit it in a separate post. Service areas are quite common 
on main roads especially away from towns and usually include parking, 
fuel, shops, restaurants, fast food outlets, toilets - even showers in 
some case. The older ones tend to be a bit spartan in their appearance 
but many have been refurbished and one or two excellent new ones have 
appeared recently.

I used the word dedicated because these particular service areas are only 
accessible to motorway traffic.

Geoff (earlier): 
> > Many important A roads have been upgraded but do not always have
> full segregation or dual carriageways. <snip>
 
> Carol:
> "Dual carriageways" means two lanes going the same direction, so a
> road with dual carriageways would have four lanes, right?

Geoff:
We would refer to these as four lane dual carriageways. most motorways 
were built to six-lane specifications and one or two very early four-lane 
sections were widened. I did comment in any earlier post that a lot of the 
M25 London Orbital has been widened to eight-lane. Interesting to 
compare with your mileage figures, the M25 is 120 miles long but is 
never more than about 25 miles from the centre of London. 

It has been jokingly nicknamed the London Orbital Car Park by some 
users because of traffic jams at rush hours. However, management 
improvements including variable speed limits have helped a lot. I use 
it reasonably often when we go down to see our daughter and our new 
granddaughter; I have to cover about 35 miles along it and usually 
manage to do this at a steady 70+ mph without too many delays.

> Carol, wondering whether Geoff knows that London Bridge is now 
in Arizona

Geoff:
I do, I do. A bit of a change from getting of a tram when I was a boy 
to reach London Bridge.