The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6.
The A1, also known as the Great North Road, is the longest numbered road in the United Kingdom, at 410 miles (660 km). It connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The numbering system for A-roads, devised in the early 1920s, was based around patterns of roads radiating from two hubs at London and Edinburgh. The first number in the system, A1, was given to the most important part of that system: the road from London to Edinburgh, joining the two central points of the system and linking the UK's (then) two mainland capital cities. It passes through or near north London, Hatfield, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Peterborough, Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Doncaster, Pontefract, York, Wetherby, Ripon, Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Haddington, Musselburgh, and east Edinburgh.
The A7 is a major road, partly a trunk road, that connects Edinburgh in Central Scotland to Carlisle in North West England. The A7 meets the M6 motorway close to Carlisle, which connects to the English motorway network.
The A90 road is a major north-to-south road in eastern Scotland, running from Edinburgh to Fraserburgh, through Dundee and Aberdeen. Along with the A9 and the A82 it is one of the three major north–south trunk roads connecting the Central Belt to northern destinations. The A90 is not continuous, separated between Dalmeny and Perth by the M90.
The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. They are part of the unsigned international E-road network E05. Although the entire route is colloquially referred to as the M74, for more than half its length, south of Abington, the road is officially the A74(M); see naming confusion below.
The A66 is a major road in Northern England, which in part follows the course of the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Penrith. It runs from east of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire to Workington in Cumbria. The road has been progressively improved with dual carriageway sections, but with stretches of single carriageway road. The road is set to be completely dualled between Scotch Corner and Penrith, with a £1.3 billion scheme being announced in March 2024.
The A14 is a major trunk road in England, running 127 miles (204 km) from Catthorpe Interchange, a major intersection at the southern end of the M6 and junction 19 of the M1 in Leicestershire to the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk. The road forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E24 and E30. It is the busiest shipping lane in East Anglia carrying anything from cars to large amounts of cargo between the UK and Mainland Europe.
The A12 is a major road in Eastern England. It runs north-east/south-west between London and the coastal town of Lowestoft in the north-eastern corner of Suffolk, following a similar route to the Great Eastern Main Line until Ipswich. A section of the road between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth became part of the A47 in 2017. Between the junctions with the M25 and the A14, the A12 forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E30. Unlike most A roads, this section of the A12, together with the A14 and the A55, has junction numbers as if it were a motorway.
The island of Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, has an extensive network of tens of thousands of kilometres of public roads, usually surfaced. These roads have been developed and modernised over centuries, from trackways suitable only for walkers and horses, to surfaced roads including modern motorways. Driving is on the left-hand side of the road. The major routes were established before Irish independence and consequently take little cognisance of the border other than a change of identification number and street furniture. Northern Ireland has had motorways since 1962, and has a well-developed network of primary, secondary and local routes. The Republic started work on its motorway network in the early 1980s; and historically, the road network there was once somewhat less well developed. However, the Celtic Tiger economic boom and an influx of European Union structural funding, saw national roads and regional roads in the Republic come up to international standard quite quickly. In the mid-1990s, for example, the Republic went from having only a few short sections of motorway to a network of motorways, dual carriageways and other improvements on most major routes as part of a National Development Plan. Road construction in Northern Ireland now tends to proceed at a slower pace than in the Republic, although a number of important bypasses and upgrades to dual carriageway have recently been completed or are about to begin.
A trunk road is a major highway with a specific legal classification in some jurisdictions, notably the United Kingdom, Sweden and formerly Ireland. Trunk roads are planned and managed at the national-level, distinguishing them from non-trunk roads which are managed by local authorities. Trunk roads are important routes usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports and other places, which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Many trunk roads have segregated lanes in a dual carriageway, or are of motorway standard.
A routenumber, designation or abbreviation is an identifying numeric designation assigned by a highway authority to a particular stretch of roadway to distinguish it from other routes and, in many cases, also to indicate its classification, general geographical location and/or orientation. The numbers chosen may be used solely for internal administrative purposes; however, in most cases they are also displayed on roadside signage and indicated on maps.
The A167 and A167(M) is a road in North East England. It is partially a trunk road and partially a motorway, where it is commonly referred to as Newcastle Central Motorway. Most of the road’s route was formerly that of the A1, until it was re-routed with the opening of the A1(M) in the 1960s.
The A1081 is a road in the south of England. It starts at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire and runs to High Barnet in Greater London via Harpenden, St Albans and London Colney, a distance of around 20.5 miles (33.0 km). For most of its length, the A1081 follows the route of the original A6.
A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in the UK. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The first section, the Doncaster Bypass, opened in 1961 and is one of the oldest sections of motorway in Britain. Construction of a new section of A1(M) between Leeming and Barton was completed on 29 March 2018, a year later than the anticipated opening in 2017 due to extensive archaeological excavations. Its completion linked the Barton to Washington section with the Darrington to Leeming Bar section, forming the longest A1(M) section overall and reducing the number of sections from five to four.
The M63 motorway was a major road in the United Kingdom. It was completely renumbered, in 1998, to become a substantial part of the M60 motorway which orbits part of Greater Manchester.
The United Kingdom has a well developed and extensive network of roads totalling about 262,300 miles (422,100 km). Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers.
A national primary road is a road classification in Ireland. National primary roads form the major routes between the major urban centres. There are 2649 km of national primary roads. This category of road has the prefix "N" followed by one or two digits. Motorways are prefixed "M" followed by one or two digits.
Highways in Croatia are the main transport network in Croatia. The Croatian classification includes several classes of highways:
This article describes the highway systems available in selected countries.
The A1 road around Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne after arriving from the south as the A1(M) from its origin in London, currently runs from the A1(M) terminus at Birtley. It then swings to the west of both Gateshead and Newcastle via Coal House, Lobley Hill, Metrocentre, Swalwell, Blaydon Bridge, West Denton, Fawdon and Wideopen to Seaton Burn interchange before continuing north towards Edinburgh.
