Transport is full of terminology. Do you know your Pegasus from your Pelican? Could you point out a refuge or a repeater if you saw one in the wild? Don't worry, if you're lost in jargon our dictionary can help. www.roads.org.uk/dictionary

Concrete roads make people cross. They're noisy and uncomfortable. But they don't have to be like that - a revolutionary treatment can rehabilitate them. One problem: you need a lot of diamonds. www.roads.org.uk/blog/diamond...

What nobody ever tells you about the road to Blackpool is that it's part of the UK's first motorway. Check out our guide to the unexpectedly historic M55. #blackpool www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m55

A suitable sign for the onset of winter. A 'pre-Worboys' direction sign at Chilton Moor, Co. Durham, as seen in Jan 1963, a bitter winter, by Ed Fulton on Flickr. Chilly & atmospheric for a child of the '60s! @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk flic.kr/p/2mJWwxV

What occupies half the M20 and might be related to badgers? Operation Brock, the semi-permanent system to use a motorway as a lorry park. Back when it first appeared we went to take a look. #kent www.roads.org.uk/blog/operati...

Our collection of road sign fonts has been fuelling people's imagination for 20 years. If you haven't downloaded them yet, maybe now's the time to make your own road sign? www.roads.org.uk/fonts

For reasons they never explained, a couple of years ago Lincolnshire County Council split a motorway in half and gave part of it a new number. It didn't need a new number. Meet the A1077(M), the motorway without a purpose. #scunthorpe www.roads.org.uk/blog/surpris...

Westminster's council has spent several years trialling "3D" zebra crossings, in the hope the optical illusion will cause drivers to slow down. The artwork is nice but would you be fooled? We paid a visit to the first one when it had just opened. www.roads.org.uk/blog/3d-zebra

Voiceover: they really weren't. If you want to learn more about traffic lights generally, then may we humbly suggest the SABRE Wiki: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/Traffic...

The front page of the Times said they were the first ever traffic lights on a motorway. We weren't so sure, so in 2017 we went looking... and found that the motorways are home to quite a lot of them. www.roads.org.uk/blog/traffic...

And of course if you want to see James Drake's vision of how Lancashire would have looked, you can look at his masterpiece, the Road Plan for Lancashire, released yesterday on SABRE Maps, with companion pieces on the SABRE Wiki. buff.ly/a0ruuuS

If you ever look at a map of Lancashire and wonder why it has more motorways than anywhere else, the answer is James Drake, a Lancashire man who you might call the father of the UK motorway network. www.roads.org.uk/articles/sir...

You can drive London's North Circular today, but it would have been a different road if sixties planners had their way. Take a look at the plans that would have fitted it in to a city-wide network of motorways. #northcircular www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...

The spoil from the tunnel dig was used to create a nearby RSPB nature reserve, and there's plenty of information about the tunnel construction there. neilturner.me.uk/2025/09/07/o...

Conwy is home to an impressive array of bridges and tunnels, many of them on (or formerly on) the A55. The Conwy Tunnel itself isn't the most glamorous but it's probably the most used. An unusual arch commemorates its opening and frames a view of the town. #conwy

The UK's last long distance motorway isn't without controversy - but for a while one thing it did lack was anywhere to stop for a toilet break. Our guide to the M40 has all you need to know. www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m40

There used to be a lot of temporary flyovers in the UK - but by their nature they disappear eventually. We paid a visit to the rickety Army and Navy Flyover in Chelmsford just before it got its marching orders. #chelmsford www.roads.org.uk/blog/what-go...

There's a lot more flags on English streets than there were a few months ago. Most are St George's Crosses and Union Jacks. So why are Kent County Council putting EU flags on their signs? www.roads.org.uk/blog/red-whi...

Not long now until Christmas. If you've already been asked what you'd like, maybe our list of road themed gifts will help? www.roads.org.uk/blog/gifts-r...

Skelmersdale's link to the motorway network has a strange history, and the book that celebrated its opening reveals some little-known secrets about unrealised plans for the New Town. Take a look in our museum of Opening Booklets. #skelmersdale www.roads.org.uk/opening-book...

The '60s saw the start of construction of the main spine of the UK's motorway network; 15 Nov 1963 & Minister of Transport Ernest Marples, an interesting character in his own right, officially opens the Staffordshire-Cheshire section of the M6. @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk

Our Motorway Database is famous for its strip maps of major roads, but there's more to them than meets the eye. Take a look at our guide to make the most of the colours and symbols that pack so much information into these tiny maps. www.roads.org.uk/motorway/key...

The UK's road numbers all radiate from a central point in London. So if you follow them back to the start, you'll find a central point, right? Er, no. Join us in the search for the hub that never existed. www.roads.org.uk/blog/middle-...

Have you heard? Our epic Ringways Map was finally published last week, laying out London's unbuilt urban motorways in full detail for the first time ever. Our blog post has all the details: www.roads.org.uk/blog/ringway...

Roads are full of numbers - not just A and B-roads, but junctions, kilometre posts and street lights too. If you're au fait with all of those, perhaps we can introduce you to one for the real nerds. They're called Road Codes. www.roads.org.uk/blog/matrix-...

In the early 70s, South East London came within inches of building a massive four-level motorway interchange. What happened to the Shooters Hill to Falconwood Motorway? #eltham www.roads.org.uk/ringways/sou...

If you liked the Ringways Map, this is for you 👇🏻

It's meant to spare you from a nasty collision, but is the Accident Black Spot sign really helping? We pay a visit to Essex to see the resurrection of a questionable idea from the past. #essex www.roads.org.uk/blog/acciden...

It is a VERY good week for maps 🤩

If you've just arrived via the Ringways Map, hello! 👋 You might like this podcast I recorded for Radio 4 a few years ago, telling the Ringways story and how I came to be writing about it. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

We've spent a lot of time this week talking about unbuilt motorways in London, but Glasgow has plenty of those too - and we've got a whole page exploring the amazing artist's renderings of the futuristic world planners hoped to create. #glasgow www.roads.org.uk/articles/gla...

Blimey, it’s not normally this lively in my weird little niche. Am I going viral? Is this blowing up? Is it time to hire an agent?

I’d always wondered why no one had ever published a full, detailed map of the 1960s plan to turn London into a giant web of US-style urban motorways…. It turns even the politicians and designers didn’t make one at the time. It just didn’t exist. Until now.

Earlier this week I spoke to London Centric about the Ringways Map and all things unbuilt London - they’ve dedicated the whole of their latest edition to the story! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Not just a lost council but also a lost street layout and probably several lost subways too!

One tiny A-road ties together Northern Ireland's motorway network and makes sense of Belfast's streets. Are we wrong to love the small but mighty A12 Westlink? #belfast www.roads.org.uk/motorway/a12...

Our whistlestop history of the UK's road network is sometimes picked up as a learning resource in schools. (More so than our story about a stolen cake, which tells you a lot about priorities in education.) Take a look at our timeline of 20th century highway history. www.roads.org.uk/articles/tim...

Wow! 😮🤩 There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓 itiner-e.org We might have to have a lie-down.

Unstable, unsafe and scheduled for demolition: catch Gateshead’s iconic, never-finished double-deck flyover while you still can. Our photo gallery will show you the sights. #gateshead www.roads.org.uk/photo/gatesh...

Not many roads are named for the shape they make on a map, but the A500 is. Its number takes second place to its affectionate nickname, the Stoke "D" Road. #stoke www.roads.org.uk/motorway/a500

After yesterday's excitement with the Ringways #Map, we'd like to remind people that you can literally layer any other map of London in our collection on top of it via the Map Fader.

It either scares the life out of you or gives you a thrill like nothing else. (For me it's the latter.) No road enthusiast's life is complete without a pilgrimage to Swindon to visit the Magic Roundabout. #swindon www.roads.org.uk/articles/mag...

Earlier today we published the Ringways Map, in collaboration with @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk. We are beyond excited to finally put it online - below is a thread explaining why it's so special, but to see it for yourself just follow the link: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.p... 🧵

More details on our just-published Ringways map from our friends at SABRE who are hosting it ⬇️

New! After eight years of waiting, they're online! See London's unbuilt motorways as even their planners never could in our amazing, immersive Ringways Map, hosted by the amazing SABRE Maps. It *might* be the best thing we've ever done. #ringways

Devon's road signs use all sorts of colours and boxes that you won't see anywhere else in the UK. It's all part of a county-wide system to tell you how wide each road is and save you getting stuck between two hedges. Our guide explains it all. #devon www.roads.org.uk/blog/devon-h...

Arriving this week, after an eight year wait... the Ringways Map. Our Ringways pages will finally be joined by a high resolution map showing the entire city with its urban motorway network. Stand by for fireworks! In the meantime you can revisit our Ringways pages here: www.roads.org.uk/ringways

Clapham Junction station is a sprawling expanse of tracks and platforms, busy day and night. It would only have got busier and more complicated if sixties planners had their way and suspended a two-level, eight-carriageway motorway above it. #clapham www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...

Western Avenue is perhaps the only truly good road in to Central London. But there were plans for it to be higher, wider and faster than it is now. What happened to plans for a double deck road through Acton? www.roads.org.uk/ringways/wes...