Greetings from Lancashire, England!

[BrynM65]

Hi all,

Just been reading some of the threads on here and thought it would be worth joining. Let me introduce myself a little:

My name is Bryn, and I am a 22 year old from Blackburn, Lancashire, England. I've been a frequent poster on the main UK roads website - SABRE - for nearly 10 years and have been fascinated by roads, signs, etc, from a very early age.

In September 2009 I started work at a Highways Authority in West Yorkshire as a Traffic Engineer, in charge of road signs, road markings, and legal orders (i.e. prohibiting or allowing parking etc). As a result my interest in sign design has, as you would expect, somewhat increased, and I find myself looking across the water and wondering how you do things.

I've only been to the States once - in Feb 2006 when I, along with a number of high school friends, went on a school trip to New York. Therefore my first ever roads experience of the USA was the Van Wyck Expressway at lunch time. It certainly was an interesting experience - I love the absolute sheer scale of American interchanges (although I have to be blunt that I don't find any freeways over there remotely sympathetic to their surroundings - I love the optimism of the 1950s and how it hasn't quite worked out!).

Hopefully will be able to join in with discussions and learn a few things (and maybe answer questions about the UK).

~Bryn.

[njroadhorse]

Greetings Bryn! I have only been to England once, and for the most part I was on the M4, M25, M20, and M5.  I must say I was impressed with what I saw on the motorways, though you would probably refute me. Looking forward to see you around the forum!

[BigMattFromTexas]

Welcome to the forum, from BigMatt!
(BigMattFromTexas on youtube)
BigMatt

[BrynM65]

Greetings Bryn! I have only been to England once, and for the most part I was on the M4, M25, M20, and M5.  I must say I was impressed with what I saw on the motorways, though you would probably refute me.

I dare say the first thing that will have hit you is how we are so reliant on a skeletal network in this country - it only takes one pile-up and you can cripple an entire part of the UK.

A notorious example was back in 2004 when the (then) four lane A74 was closed for nearly 24 hours following a pile-up on a bridge over a railway line as emergency vehicles couldn't get through and there was no alternative route for emergency vehicles to access the scene. Thankfully, today, the same length of road now forms the final 10 miles of the M6, is six lanes, and has a parallel two-lane service road. In a nice twist of British planning that gave us roadgeeks a warm glow, the extended section of the M6 opened exactly fifty years to the day that the first section did.

As for the roads you went on - I'm not sure when, but if you saw the M25 since it was widened around Heathrow from eight lanes to ten (and twelve between the Terminal 5 exit and M4 stack), it's quite a heavy duty bit of road. Unfortunately the M4 past Slough isn't as good, being a narrow six lane corridor (widened from four lanes by eating into the shoulders about 10 years after it opened).

As my name suggests, I live a mile away from two interchanges with the M65 - which has a fantastic history, as it was originally planned to slam straight through the centre of my hometown (on a 70mph ROW no less - how many urban freeways in the USA have speeds higher than 65?) with massive viaducts and tunnels because it was cheaper to buy derelict slum property than it was to construct across farmland. Unfortunately, there was a massive local backlash and the rural option was chosen, and only constructed as four lanes instead of the needed six. Luckily, though, every structure on the 1997 section is designed for widening - this does not happen often in the UK.

[Ian]

Welcome aboard!