A new quirk in the history of British infrastructure has presented itself. Say hello to the ghost motorway. And like most ghosts, it has a message for us. 🧵 - ThreadSky

roadscholar.bsky.social • 14 days ago

A new quirk in the history of British infrastructure has presented itself. Say hello to the ghost motorway.

And like most ghosts, it has a message for us. 🧵

Comments

annettesjl.bsky.social•14 days ago

This is so interesting. Thank you for sharing. It leaves me reflecting on the plans & investment in making existing motorways smart & the reduced commitment to that now. Is the lack of new building because of this?

robbyred.bsky.social•14 days ago

We don’t build motorways but a hell of lot of motorway-like A roads which are cheaper because built to lower standards and less controversial

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

you are certainly right that a lot of modern A roads would almost get called motorways in other countries. And the main difference (access to residences/fields) isn’t worth the extra cost.

But we still don’t build many of them by European standards.

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

A while ago, @bswud.bsky.social re-posted a factoid from an old white paper I wrote – since 1990, France has built more miles of motorway than the whole UK network – 2,700.

And at the time of writing, we’d built 300 miles. 46 since the year 2000.

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

It’s a nice stat, but I was conscious it was over 10 years old. As a public service, I thought I’d do an update.

So I went to the relevant DfT table and looked for the new length of motorway.

82 miles more. But then I saw something weird.

Can you spot it?

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

The length of motorway keeps changing

Weird, because we don’t open new motorways often

In fact, we’ve only had (I think) three in that time – the last bit of A1(M) to Newcastle, the missing bit of the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the M90/Queensferry Crossing

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

That adds up to about 24 miles.

So where did the other 58 come from?

Well, there’s a note in the table explaining why.

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

There’s a famous mapmaking story: Louis XIV of France commissioned an ultra-accurate map of his kingdom. The surveyors did their job, and came back

The king looked at his kingdom – much smaller than expected – and remarked ‘you have cost me more land than all my enemies!’

https://youtu.be/yTyX_EJQOIU?si=7rPPWqRJAeFg7T78

roadscholar.bsky.social•14 days ago

The reverse has happened here. Every year, the Ordnance Survey makes its maps a bit more accurate.

That means more wiggle in the roads, and wiggles make the road a tiny bit longer.

That process has added 58 miles to our network. Compared to 24 from building.

sciencenotopinion.bsky.social•13 days ago

You say "It is hard to overestimate the vibe shift against car travel and in favour of cycling and public transport in this generation of policy wonks...". But we're not building railways either, certainly not motorway railways

dawnshredder.bsky.social•14 days ago

Isn't this a good thing? More conservation of archeological sites and landscape?

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