The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its 67-mile (108 km) length, it is classified as a trunk road and therefore managed by Highways England. Almost all of the road has been built to dual carriageway standards or wider. Apart from bypass sections in London, the road travels in a southwest direction and, after Liss, south-southwest.
The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971, and the Welsh element was completed in 1993. On the opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996, the M4 was rerouted over it.
The A1 is the longest numbered road in the UK, at 410 miles (660 km). It connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It passes through or near North London, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Baldock, Letchworth Garden City, Biggleswade, St Neots, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Doncaster, York, Pontefract, Wetherby, Ripon, Darlington, Durham, Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
The A40 is a trunk road which runs between London and Goodwick (Fishguard), Wales, and officially called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road (A40) in all legal documents and Acts. Much of its length within England has been superseded by motorways, such as the M40, and has lost its trunk road status, though it retains it west of Gloucester, including its length within Wales. It is approximately 260 miles (420 km) long. The eastern section from Denham, Buckinghamshire to Wheatley, Oxfordshire is better served by the M40 and its former function of linking London with Cheltenham and Gloucester has been taken by the M4, A419 and A417 via Swindon.
The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England.
The A12 is a major road in 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 M1 motorway is a motorway in Ireland. It forms the large majority of the N1 national primary road connecting Dublin towards Belfast along the east of the island of Ireland. The route heads north via Swords, Drogheda and Dundalk to the Northern Irish border just south of Newry in County Armagh, where it joins the A1 road and further on, the M1 motorway in Northern Ireland. It also forms a significant part of the road connection between Dublin and the Northern Irish cities of Newry, and Lisburn. The route is part of European route E01.
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. 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.
The N8 road is a national primary road in Ireland, connecting Cork with Dublin via the M7. The N8 is further classified by the United Nations as the entirety of the European route E 201, part of the trans-Europe International E-road network. The road is motorway standard from junction 19 on the M7 to the Dunkettle interchange in Cork City and is designated as the M8 motorway. From here the route continues into City city centre and terminates at the N22 road at St. Patrick's Street. The M8 motorway was completed in May 2010, replacing the single carriageway sections of the old N8 and bypassing towns on the main Cork to Dublin road. It is now possible to travel from Cork to Dublin on the M/N8 in about 2 hours 30 minutes. The route commences just south of Portlaoise, and reaches Cork via the midlands and the Golden Vale of Ireland, through Counties Laois, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and Cork.
A dual carriageway or divided highway is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are designed to higher standards with controlled access are generally classed as motorways, freeways, etc., rather than dual carriageways.
The N6 road is a national primary road in Ireland from junction 11 on the M4 motorway at Kinnegad to Galway city. The N6 and N4 form a continuous motorway or dual carriageway from Dublin city centre to Galway City passing in an east–west direction through the midlands of Ireland. Most of the road is motorway standard with the exception of the Athlone bypass and stretches of urban road in Galway City, which are the only sections of the road that remain designated as N6 dual carriageway. There is one toll on the road outside Galway city. Major upgrades to the road were completed in December 2009 completing the first intercity motorway/dual carriageway in Ireland and the New Junctions of M6 are built and will be 164 km.
The N18 road is a national primary road in Ireland, connecting the cities of Limerick and Galway. Ennis and Gort are two major towns on the route, and Shannon Airport is reached via the connecting N19. The west coast route continues on to Sligo as the N17. The section from Limerick to the N19 junction forms part of European route E20, and the entire route is part of the proposed Atlantic Corridor. The section of motorway from Shannon to Claregalway is designated the M18 motorway. The tolled Limerick Tunnel forms part of the route.
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.
The A505 is an A-class road in England. It follows part of the route of the Icknield Way and the corresponding Icknield Way Path and runs from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire to the A11, Cambridgeshire near Abington and Sawston. Being built in the East of England countryside, the majority of the road is flat, and some of the road is raised.
A High-quality dual carriageway (HQDC) is a road category in Ireland. It is defined as an all-purpose dual carriageway road type built to near motorway standards, but without motorway classification or motorway restrictions. High-quality dual carriageways have full grade-separated access and do not have junctions with minor roads. Such roads in the Republic of Ireland have been built as part of the 2000–2006 and 2007–2013 National Development Plans, including interurban routes from Dublin to other cities.
The Milton Keynes grid road system is a network of predominantly national speed limit, fully landscaped routes that form the top layer of the street hierarchy for both private and public transport in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The system is unique in the United Kingdom for its innovative use of street hierarchy principles: the grid roads run in between districts rather than through them. These facilitate higher speed limits due to the absence of buildings close to the roads, although more recently the initial concept has been eroded somewhat by making some of the grid roads 40mph. The grid road system also serves an important purpose of discouraging traffic from travelling through housing districts and reducing traffic noise and pollution from pedestrian areas. Traffic is segregated from pedestrian and leisure cycling traffic, which uses the alternative Milton Keynes redway system. All grid junctions are roundabouts, and the absence of traffic lights enables remarkably free and efficient movement of traffic.
The M6 motorway is a motorway in Ireland, which runs from Dublin to Galway. The M6 extends from its junction with the M4 at Kinnegad all the way west to the outskirts of Galway City, but the Athlone bypass and the approach to Galway city - while of dual carriageway standard - have not been designated motorway and are still signed as N6. The motorway was officially completed and opened to traffic on 18 December 2009, and was the first city-to-city direct major inter-urban route to be completed in Ireland. The M6 and M4, which form the Galway-Dublin route, consist of a grade-separated 2+2 dual carriageway road with a top speed limit of 120 km/h. At approximately 144 km (90 mi), the M6 is the third longest motorway in the state and will be 159 km.
The A44 motorway is a motorway in the Netherlands connecting the A4 with Wassenaar. The route continues as main road N44 towards The Hague, providing an alternative link with Amsterdam for the A4 motorway. The A44 also serves Leiden and the Bollenstreek. The length of the A44 is 21 kilometres (13 mi), the N44 adds another 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) making the total route 28 kilometres (17 mi) long.
In Ireland, the highest category of road is a motorway, indicated by the prefix M followed by a one- or two-digit number. The motorway network predominantly consists of motorway-grade dual carriageways and is largely focused upon Dublin. There are also several three-lane motorways, while Ireland's busiest road, the M50, incorporates four-lane, five-lane, and six-lane stretches.
With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the most dense road networks in the world – much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2019, the World Economic Forum also ranked the quality of Dutch road infrastructure as the best in Europe, and second only to Singapore, out of 141 countries in the world – bypassing even the famous German roads with a 6.4 versus 5.3 score on a 7‑point scale used.
