51–60 of 62 posts
I'm trying to think if there are any iconic roads in Britain, the way that Route 66 is in America. Ireland has the N17 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-WdYOeJLk ). The M1 is pretty famous - it runs up and down the country like a spinal column - but I can't think of any songs. The M25, which goes round London, is known for its traffic jams and gave Orbital their name ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-hSgL1R74 )…
I'm trying to think if there are any iconic roads in Britain, the way that Route 66 is in America. Ireland has the N17 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-WdYOeJLk ). The M1 is pretty famous - it runs up and down the country like a spinal column - but I can't think of any songs. The M25, which goes round London, is known for its traffic jams and gave Orbital their name ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-hSgL1R74 )…
Britain's longest road, the A1. Very scenic in places, and can be wild in winter. The BBC even made a series about it [0]. Apropos of the Wikipedia article and out of general interest, any HN'ers closer to the zone 2 roadsign shown than me? (just off the A281 at Partridge Green). [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08qhgf3/episodes/guide
The radial numbering can be a useful ‘signpost’. As an anti-invasion tactic during World War II, a civil defence measure was to remove many road signs. That’d stop those nazis in their tracks. So to this day, I find the UK a difficult country to navigate by signs alone as they are often absent at important local junctions. In many other parts of the world, you can trace your way from a major destination by signs at f…
This is the opposite of my experience. I often navigate by road signs alone in the UK. Maybe your experience is from a particular part of the UK where this depletion has happened, but I thought things like direction signage were centrally managed.
Before I set out somewhere, I look at a map and scrawl on a piece of paper a list of the roads and junctions I need to use and after a brief familiarisaiton with the route visually, I rely thereafter solely on road signs.
Britain's got great (and beautiful) signage, in my opinion.
Probably the most useful numbering scheme in the UK is the postcodes. It is very accurate and simple to use. For example, if you are looking for any house you can just use the postcode instead of the actual house's address, and 99% of the times you will arrive very close to the house by using the GPS based navigation [1]. It is also very easy to remember and I still remember my former school's postcode despite have n…
Post codes are sometimes totally unique for an address; they're always unique in combination with the street (or flat) number. E.g. a short form address (useful for scribbling a return address on the back of an envelope/parcel for example) could be '123/AB4 5CD' instead of '123 St George Crescent // Upper Bockingbrook // Froimington // Froimingtonshire // AB4 5CD'.
While are are not on the topic, anyone want to help me petition our senators to get all U.S. Interstate exits to be numbered by their mile marker rather than sequentially? Know that exit 32 is at mile marker 32 provides me so much more information than knowing that exit 8 is immediately after exit 7, which could be 1/4 mile past it or 40 miles past it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_19#Signage
Of course, this doesn't come without some controversy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the opposite of my experience. I often navigate by road signs alone in the UK. Maybe your experience is from a particular part of the UK where this depletion has happened, but I thought things like direction signage were centrally managed.
Are you native to the UK? (I.e. do you have a good knowledge of the cities and areas you are driving to and passing by?) Is there a system you are using to navigate / prepare when driving to areas that are new to you? Particularly off motorways?
Some examples:
1. I want to go to a show at a popular venue (arena or theatre sized) in an area I know. If I know vaguely where it is, I’ll drive into the city centre and probably meet a one way system and follow the signs for the venue.
2. I want to visit a National Trust property. Head for a major road that runs past it and there will be brown signs that give you the best route to it.
3. Travelling somewhere and decide there is a problem with traffic / the weather and look for a detour. Signs are often perfect for choosing the best roads to head for another waypoint and then the best way from there to where you were originally heading.
I’m not some kind of crazy person who will only navigate by signs - I check things out on maps and put sat nav on, but I know the limitations of all and often the signs send me on the best route.
The people who figure these out and keep them updated are amazing at their job.
I'm trying to think if there are any iconic roads in Britain, the way that Route 66 is in America. Ireland has the N17 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-WdYOeJLk ). The M1 is pretty famous - it runs up and down the country like a spinal column - but I can't think of any songs. The M25, which goes round London, is known for its traffic jams and gave Orbital their name ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-hSgL1R74 )…
I'm trying to think if there are any iconic roads in Britain, the way that Route 66 is in America. Ireland has the N17 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-WdYOeJLk ). The M1 is pretty famous - it runs up and down the country like a spinal column - but I can't think of any songs. The M25, which goes round London, is known for its traffic jams and gave Orbital their name ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-hSgL1R74 )…
How about the A303 ( https://youtu.be/I5g8qlIDUVI )
I'm trying to think if there are any iconic roads in Britain, the way that Route 66 is in America. Ireland has the N17 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-WdYOeJLk ). The M1 is pretty famous - it runs up and down the country like a spinal column - but I can't think of any songs. The M25, which goes round London, is known for its traffic jams and gave Orbital their name ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-hSgL1R74 )…
Look back a little, and before the M1 we had the Great North Road https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_North_Road_(Great_Britai... , which I think comes much closer to "iconic" status. And yes, it appears in songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH1buq3Ks0I