You know you're a road geek when...

[fras]

... you purposefully drive "the old road" from A to B because the motorway route (which is 5 times quicker) is "dull".

Guilty! I like to take the B7076 and B7078, instead of the M6 - sorry, A74(M).

Me too !!

[SteveA30]

When I post stuff like just now in the thread above this.....

[Bertiebus]

You know you're a road geek when...
... you know what the difference between primary and trunk roads is, apart from the colour that the signs are supposed to be.

I still have absolutely no idea. It was much easier in the old days when motorways were motorways (blue on the OS map), A roads were A roads (red) and B roads were B roads (brown)...

[Stevie D]

You know you're a road geek when...
... you know what the difference between primary and trunk roads is, apart from the colour that the signs are supposed to be.

Primary routes are those that are signed in green, and marked in green on traditional maps.

Trunk roads are those that are maintained by Highways England rather than by the local council.

All trunk roads are primary routes (or motorways?), but only a small number of primary routes are trunk roads. HE (or HA as they were then) went through a period of divesting themselves of many less important trunk roads in the mid-2000s, ostensibly so that they could focus on the high priority routes – for example, the A63 used to be trunk along its entire length, but in 2005 the section between Howden and Leeds was de-trunked, although it remains primary, but is now the responsibility of the local councils.

[nirs]

...if you have to bite your tongue to halt the running commentary on former temporary termini, poor signage and fascinating road facts as you travel along because your wife has heard it 100 times already.

...you have to buy a new cabinet specifically to store your collection of road improvement public consultation leaflets.

[Simon_GNR]

... you purposefully drive "the old road" from A to B because the motorway route (which is 5 times quicker) is "dull".

Guilty! I like to take the B7076 and B7078, instead of the M6 - sorry, A74(M).

Me too !!

Me too! Today I went to Liverpool for the day and between Manchester and Liverpool took the A580 East Lancs Road - just to see what it is like. For many years I've seen this long, straight dual carriageway on the map and wondered what it was like to drive. Pretty much as expected - nice straight dual carriageway, but no NSL at any point in nearly 30 miles, a few roundabouts and many, many sets of traffic lights. It was a nice sunny morning and the traffic was light, so it was quite a nice drive, but it was a lot slower than the M62 which I took for the journey home. On the other hand, petrol was a lot cheaper at filling stations on the ELR than at motorway service stations.

[nowster]

...if you have to bite your tongue to halt the running commentary on former temporary termini, poor signage and fascinating road facts as you travel along because your wife has heard it 100 times already.

Guilty as charged!

[jonnyf90]

On the other hand, petrol was a lot cheaper at filling stations on the ELR than at motorway service stations.

Anyone who chooses to fill up at an MSA is a complete moron 149.9 for Unleaded at Toddington last week.

Cheers

[Glenn A]

I can remember seeing a John and Yoko Ono promo from 1969 and apart from the psychedelic Rolls Royce, was quite interested to see him driving on the A30 to London and noticing what would be new primary route signs. ( I do remember seeing an episode of Randall and Hopkirk Deceased from the same era and being interested in a pre Worboys sign on an at grade junction with the A20, probably not long before it was replaced).

[SteveA30]

Yep. At 0.13 sign, 1.55 Pied Piper restaurant on the Basingstoke bypass and 2.53 heading east at Hatch, between Basing and Hook. Spring 1969 Also a ! sign features several times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-1OgNqBkVE

[Glenn A]

The Man Who Haunted Itself, from 1970, I recognised the Westway, which had only just opened then, where Roger Moore is sticking to the 40 mph limit with his seatbelt on( an early convert when these weren't worn very often), then when he goes insane and pushes his Rover to its 115 mph limit( another thing I noticed early on), he's on the M4 on the edge of London.

[multiraider2]

You decide that there simply is no reasonable "usual" route home from the holidays and having no other navigator in the car, look up and memorise all the turns on an alternative route home that may make you less stressed.

So this year I'll be driving what I seem to always be diverting partly along in other years and thus this.

Looks a good cross country route avoiding most of the potential holdups.

I have had much practice in using "diversion" routes going NW from Taunton to Bristol coming back from Cornwall, all with limited sucess. I will find one one day........

Well I did that route home, save that the B3162 was closed at Chard and I had to take the unclassified road south of there off the A358 to re-join the planned way. Overall not that much quicker than if I had sat in the jams on the A35 at Bridport and elsewhere or even the usual big hold ups on the M5. But certainly quicker than the A303. Also was stress-free.

[KeithW]

Anyone who chooses to fill up at an MSA is a complete moron 149.9 for Unleaded at Toddington last week.

Cheers

Sometimes you don't have choice, try finding a non MSA filling station open at 2AM on Christmas Morning - been there done that.

[ais523]

You know you're a road geek when...
... you know what the difference between primary and trunk roads is, apart from the colour that the signs are supposed to be.

Primary routes are those that are signed in green, and marked in green on traditional maps.

Trunk roads are those that are maintained by Highways England rather than by the local council.

All trunk roads are primary routes (or motorways?), but only a small number of primary routes are trunk roads. HE (or HA as they were then) went through a period of divesting themselves of many less important trunk roads in the mid-2000s, ostensibly so that they could focus on the high priority routes – for example, the A63 used to be trunk along its entire length, but in 2005 the section between Howden and Leeds was de-trunked, although it remains primary, but is now the responsibility of the local councils.

Not all trunk roads are primary routes or motorways. Highways England maintain a small number of lower-classification roads. For example, the bridge over the M54 at junction 2 is not primary (because its only purpose is to serve a business park, you don't need it to get between the motorway and the A449), but maintained by Highways England for reasons which are obvious when you look at it on a map. (The bridge is classified as a non-primary A-road, part of the A4510.)

However, for the most part, HIghways England only want to be responsible for the most important roads, and so they tend to restrict themselves to the more important motorways and the more important primary routes.

[Fenlander]

...if you have to bite your tongue to halt the running commentary on former temporary termini, poor signage and fascinating road facts as you travel along because your wife has heard it 100 times already.

Stayed in the Lake District last week, on the way up my wife commented “isn’t this where we saw that illegal green traffic cone last year”.
Coming back I took us over the Humber Bridge, first time ever for my wife & kids, then folllwed by another diversion via Grimsby to do the A16 home, which we broke out of to have tea at Skegness.
Breakfast in Keswick, over the Humber Bridge and tea in Skegness, not a bad day at all.
Guilty as charged!

[jonnyf90]

Anyone who chooses to fill up at an MSA is a complete moron 149.9 for Unleaded at Toddington last week.

Cheers

Sometimes you don't have choice, try finding a non MSA filling station open at 2AM on Christmas Morning - been there done that.

Unless you’re driving more miles than your tank’s capacity surely you’d’ve prepped beforehand?
Christmas doesn’t just appear and cause surprise...
Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

[Johnathan404]

Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

In London maybe, but not in the outside world.

I had an unexpected 4am run to Gatwick when the bus didn't turn up. I know for a fact the local supermarket - one of the most profitable in Hampshire - doesn't serve fuel until 6am. I can vaguely remember where the other supermarkets are along the way but have no idea what their opening times are and didn't have any time to waste visiting closed petrol stations. A stop at the first TRSA was the pretty obvious choice.

Equally I was surprised that none of the supermarkets in Pembroke Dock are open for fuel (including an ASDA with pay-at-pump) when the ferry unloads at 2am. They would do very well, but admittedly the rest of the night would be dead.

[RichardA626]

Anyone who chooses to fill up at an MSA is a complete moron 149.9 for Unleaded at Toddington last week.

Cheers

Sometimes you don't have choice, try finding a non MSA filling station open at 2AM on Christmas Morning - been there done that.

Unless you’re driving more miles than your tank’s capacity surely you’d’ve prepped beforehand?
Christmas doesn’t just appear and cause surprise...
Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

I was once caught out when I went to fill up at the Morrisons at Bredbury late one Saturday night.

The pumps were still turned up & took my card, but the fillers were locked down, so I couldn't fill up.

[jonnyf90]

Most supermarket filling stations have 24H pay-at-pump even if the shop is closed.

In London maybe, but not in the outside world.

I had an unexpected 4am run to Gatwick when the bus didn't turn up. I know for a fact the local supermarket - one of the most profitable in Hampshire - doesn't serve fuel until 6am. I can vaguely remember where the other supermarkets are along the way but have no idea what their opening times are and didn't have any time to waste visiting closed petrol stations. A stop at the first TRSA was the pretty obvious choice.

Equally I was surprised that none of the supermarkets in Pembroke Dock are open for fuel (including an ASDA with pay-at-pump) when the ferry unloads at 2am. They would do very well, but admittedly the rest of the night would be dead.

You're from Portsmouth? The Asda in Fratton has 24H fuel, so does the services at Farlington AFAIK. It's about time the rest of the country caught up

[Johnathan404]

You're from Portsmouth? The Asda in Fratton has 24H fuel, so does the services at Farlington AFAIK. It's about time the rest of the country caught up

ASDA Fratton Bridge would have added about 15 minutes to my route, plus the fear of getting lost as I don't go that way very often, plus the risk that it might not be open as I've only been there about twice in my life and couldn't remember the opening hours. Not good when you're already late for your flight!

I did use the Shell at Farlington services, which is an official A27 TRSA and was the closest on-route place I could think of.