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...

If you thought that the Ringways were insane, you need to learn about the Underways...

Ah, #MapMonday. So, who's up for some new old #maps? How about some Ordnance Survey One Inch Popular Edition maps from 1938? And for the SABRE Bonus Points round, do you know what's Special about something that's now in this extract's location? buff.ly/7fC4CXO

It's the short urban road with more than one junction that is totally unique in the UK. Belfast simply wouldn't work without the brutal and brilliant A12 Westlink. #belfast www.roads.org.uk/motorway/a12...

It was one of the most hated things ever to appear on the UK's roads. Do you remember the notorious M4 Bus Lane? #m4 #london

And on the subject of traffic signs in Manchester @showmeasign.online this gem from M'cr City Archives. #manchester @sabre-roads.org.uk @roads.org.uk flic.kr/p/HSxARx

From a 1969 film on Irish Plantation towns; a screenshot of Portlaoise with a fine old style Irish traffic direction sign. #ireland @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk

How do you build a motorway? Engineers working on the final section of the M65 documented their progress with hundreds of aerial photographs, taken back when you needed an aeroplane to do it, and their pictures provide the answer in full colour. #preston www.roads.org.uk/m65-construc...

Linking the M27 to Southampton's docks, the M271 is a good road with a bad junction - it's one of two UK motorways that stops halfway along to negotiate a roundabout. #southampton www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m271

Can you imagine Brixton rebuilt in gleaming high rise towers and traversed by a huge motorway in the sky? It was meant to happen. Take a tour of the scarcely believable plans for the South Cross Route motorway. #brixton www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...

Have you ever been to Ilford? And if you have, did you manage to leave, or did the North Circular's Ilford Interchange leave you circling in bewilderment under a mass of flyovers? The meeting of A406 and A118 is in our Bad Junctions list, and for good reason. #ilford www.roads.org.uk/badjunctions...

After the last #MapMonday sidestep into the Irish One Inch series, we're back in Great Britain this week with 10 new Ordnance Survey One Inch Popular Edition #maps from 1937. We're never gonna give this up, never gonna let you down... buff.ly/4G39KC8

An new 'arterial' road of the inter-war period - the Ewell By-Pass road in Surrey seen in a c.1930 Broads Foundry catalogue & using their flush kerb gully covers. Contractors temp tramway still in-situ. @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online ↘️ flic.kr/p/2rr93MW

A couple of years ago, a council in Lincolnshire decided to slice an already small motorway in two and give half of it a new number. We still don't really know why. There are only questions, and no answers, for the weird new A1077(M). #scunthorpe www.roads.org.uk/blog/surpris...

#MapMonday is here again! This week, we bring the OSI One-inch maps of Ireland in Colour from circa 1904, which are now fully georeferenced and freely available. Thanks to @maplibrarian and the team at @AGSLibrary for allowing us to use your originals! buff.ly/oWChPbg

Speed limits divide opinion like nothing else. How did we end up with the limits we've got and who decides to change them? We take a step back and sort the truth from the emotion in our extended article. www.roads.org.uk/articles/limit

Do you have any of these hidden on a DVD somewhere? If so, get in touch! If not, then please share our Maps request far and wide - someone, somewhere will have copies!

It was the UK's last major motorway project, a new link from London to Birmingham. Revisit the optimism (and the slightly naive greenwashing) of 1991's grand opening with the M40's commemorative booklet. www.roads.org.uk/opening-book...

More information about this flavour of the A951 can be found on the SABRE Wiki: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/A951_(A...

Some roads are planned and built, others are planned and cancelled. This one has been planned, cancelled and revived so many times it might hold a world record. Meet the Western Orbital, the West Midlands' zombie motorway. www.roads.org.uk/blog/zombie-...

It's 1964 & the official guide to Droitwich "The Brine Spa" is determined to show how 'up-to-date' the town is with this splendid photo of a road sign for the new M5 motorway junction with the A38 at Rashwood. #roads #signs @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk

A gantry sign.

Today sees some more improvements to SABRE Maps - we've updated and improved the georeferencing on our 1969 #OrdnanceSurvey One Inch maps, so that they appear even more accurately in their right places. buff.ly/p0P5IxD

Halifax is home to one of the UK's most audacious urban roads, Burdock Way. Two soaring viaducts carry it high above a steep-sided valley and a deep trench brings it around the town centre. How did a small town come to have such an enormous road? #halifax www.roads.org.uk/articles/bur...

What's the oldest thing on the motorway network? We have reason to believe it's one unassuming bridge across the M6 in Lancashire, which we visited for its 60th birthday. (It's now 67, and presumably claiming its pension.) #preston www.roads.org.uk/blog/60-year...

So, what do we have for this week's #MapMonday? Well, the next batch of 15 maps from the #OrdnanceSurvey One Inch Popular Edition, adding sheets revised in 1936 to our already large collection. buff.ly/3TyUjFi

This bit of the road network will never fail to interest me.

An item of street furniture tucked away in Cork, Ireland, & in need of some TLC. It's many years since a railway passed this way, the Cork Bandon & Sth Coast closing in 1961 & track formation now the N27 Link Rd. #signs #cork #ireland @roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online flic.kr/p/2rkYPoY

Come and visit our enormous map collection to see the world's largest free georeferenced collection of 20th and 21st century mapping at "road map" scales!

The Washington that is 6 miles from Sunderland & 3 miles from Birtley. A pre-1965 British traffic sign 'standard' for place names - this, with spoil heaps, was a town that was to be designated as a New Town in 1964. @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk

This #MapMonday we've got one brand new release, the OS Two Inch Map of Jersey adding onto the last set of #OS One Inch maps from 1934. You can compare it to the 1960 edition we also have on SABRE Maps, and see quite a few changes on the island. buff.ly/Gu2uf7Z

On this day, 18 July 1934, the new Liverpool - East Lancashire Road, the A580, opened linking Merseyside with Manchester. One of the UK's first purpose built arterial roads it's seen here slicing across country. @roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online @sabre-roads.org.uk #lancashire ↘️ flic.kr/p/2p19eds

One of the parts of SABRE Maps that we like the most is our Map Fader functionality, where you can fade in a modern OpenStreetMap map onto any of our historic #map layers so you can easily compare then and now, like the now-abandoned section of M4 here. buff.ly/wiHXf0c

Five years ago we were meant to get a new motorway, kick starting a new era of "expressway" upgrades criss-crossing the country. But then it all went quiet. What happened to the A14's missing M? #a14 www.roads.org.uk/blog/missing-m

It's another #MapMonday, so it's time to release the next batch of OSGB One Inch Popular Edition #maps, with 13 sheets from 1934 now being added to our huge freely available collection. What will you find? buff.ly/Tk9bpsZ

Click on any location on any map on SABRE Maps, and you'll be told its latitude and longitude, and the OSGB National Grid and/or Irish Grid reference. And if you click Enable Markers first, you even get a nice marker where you clicked! buff.ly/wiHXf0c

Take a tour on the totally unique motorway with reversible lanes and no central barrier in our retro video of the A38(M) Aston Expressway. #birmingham youtu.be/YHc7_N1KhAg?...

Road signs in the UK use just ten colours, and they all have specific meanings... except one. How many do you know? www.roads.org.uk/road-signs/r...

Have you tried the "Search" function on SABRE Maps? It will look for articles from the SABRE Wiki, mark its location, overlay an OSM trace for any road, give you options for other similar named items. Use Show Pictures to search our photo galleries! buff.ly/wiHXf0c

Roundabouts might be one of the defining features of the British road network. A few years ago we published a special centenary article to celebrate 100 years of driving in circles. #roundabouts www.roads.org.uk/articles/rou...

Jan 1973 RAC guide "Know your Motorways" - info & advice on motorway driving, signs & safety inc. the new "warning signals". A map showing the extent of the then network. @showmeasign.online @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk @roads.org.uk #roads #infrastructure flic.kr/p/2rd8Qke

Here's the huge interchange at M74 J6 near Hamilton. It's an enormous free-flowing junction for a local road which makes it almost unique in the UK. Some of you will have seen them before, but most of you won't - they're from a secret page somewhere on our website. (And we're not telling you where!)

The Medway Bridge on the M.2 motorway : booklet issued detailing the construction of the first Medway Viaduct that opened in 1963 & that subsequently has been modernised & joined by two other spans, one additional motorway, the other for HS1. @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk ↘️ flic.kr/p/2rcXwLZ

From a 1960s BBC film on Glasgow's housing redevelopment; a typical Glasgow road scene followed by the arrival at the burgh boundary of East Kilbride New Town, one of the city's various overspill towns across Scotland. @pastglasgow.co.uk @c20society.bsky.social #housing @municipaldreams.bsky.social

youtu.be/8_ymjLVWqXY Only a short one today.

It's one thing to carve up your city with towering flyovers. It's a whole different problem to put things back together when you get rid of them. A couple of years ago Liverpool did just that - come and see the change for yourself. #liverpool www.roads.org.uk/blog/churchi...

Today's #MapMonday update features 14 #OrdnanceSurvey One Inch Popular Edition #maps from 1933. Besides obvious changes like railway station closures or new bypasses, you can spot smaller changes, such as those here in Albrighton near Wolverhampton. buff.ly/zrLZ0rX

How do you build a motorway? We've got an amazing collection of 466 photos of the M65 to show you exactly how it's done from green fields to white lines. #preston #blackburn #m65 www.roads.org.uk/m65-construc...

You don't get traffic lights on motorways. Er... except when you do. The papers made a big fuss about some signals on the M62 a few years back - was it really such a big new thing? www.roads.org.uk/blog/traffic...