That's a good point actually, but I would extend the A102 northwards rather than the A12 southwards. The A12 really should never have been extended west of its original start at the Green Man Roundabout.

The Eastway section from Green Man to Hackney Wick should have become the re-routed A11 , which originally used to run through Stratford, rather than becoming an extension the A12. After all, I would have thought most of this traffic is travelling to or from the M11 rather than the A12 at Brentwood. (Personally I would go the whole hog and renumber the A11 all the way to Hinxton where it restarts after multiplexing with the M11).

I wish Sabristi were in charge of road numbering. Everything could be settled on these forums once and for all.

Even the M74/A74(M)...or maybe not!

The 'A12' was extended through to the A13 to maximise traffic using the new link and to create some consistency for the A12 route signing. Traffic was to be reduced using the A118 and through Ilford by signing longer distance traffic via either the A12 or A13. Since 'Multiplex' is a figment of imagination signing the route in from the A406 as the A11 would not have 'completed' the link as some over enthusiastic member once tried to make out; to do so would have been left with going from A12, A11, A102 along the route. Since the significant driver of the link road was to get traffic to and from Docklands rather than in and out of the City the use of a single number was preferred.

The mystery to me is why the job was only half done, ie why the whole route down to Kidbroke was not renumbered A12, leaving a short bit of A102 through the tunnel?

Because then the A102 (OK, ignoring the bit in Hackney) provides a link to Docklands from the south and renumbering the whole lot as A12 would have the Blackwall Tunnel, East Cross Route and Eastern Avenue upgrade seen as a route from the A2/A20 to the M11/A12, which I guess was to be dissuaded.

Maybe but it never stopped me using it for that purpose.

After all that was one of the main reasons for building the east cross route in the first place

Actually, you would have gone via Dartford or the East London River Crossing - Ringway 1 was about local dispersion, rather than through traffic.

Plus without the ELRC or the third bore at Blackwell, Blackwall suffers enough that you want to try and divert traffic via Dartford (a tricky thing) if either end of the journey is beyond the M25.

I would disagree with that, I went from Streatham to the M11 regularly a few years back and using Dartford to get to the M11 would be madness. It was either Blackwall or back roads to Tower Bridge if a Sunday (and that was before the A12 was completed!).

I suspect shifting traffic from the A2 to Dartford is now a little more feasible as there are direct slips and you don't spend 15 minutes or so on a congested roundabout and will be easier still once the M25 roadworks are finished.

I suspect the amount of people who would be put off going that way by a bit of it being A102 instead of A12 are not statistically significant as the vast majority would either work the route out for themselves on a map or use satnav.

Knowing one or two people in the area I am pretty sure some will use it just to make a point even if it takes longer (the point being they don't want to pay a toll tax on a tunnel/ bridge that was promised to be free once the construction costs were paid)

Someone out there must be listening. Just driven down the M25 spir to J4 and noticed a new marker sign on the spur just before the mainline M25 roundabout that states as below

M25
SPUR M
1.1

They looked very new, Couldn't see anything similar on the J5 spur yet.

I mentioned them in this thread a month ago. I also think they might have been there before mid-to-late-Feb, but I can't say that for certain.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Sabre Road Number Wiki is effectively the defacto road numbering index.

Anything been done about the B38 yet?