Conversion to alpha-numeric route numbering

[booshank]

I know that in the grand scheme of things that it doesn't really matter, but it bugs me that the new system in Australia duplicates between states. And would it have been too much for the major inter-city highways to have the single digit numbers instead of random numbers like M31?

In my highly organised world the single digit numbers would be something along the lines of...

A1/M1 Sydney - Melbourne
A2/M2 Sydney - Adalaide
A3/M3 Sydney - Brisbane - Cairnes
A4 Melbourne - Brisbane
A5/M5 Melbourne - Adalaide
A6/M6 Brisbane - Darwin
A7 Port Augusta (A8) - Tennant Creek (A6) (For Adalaide - Darwin)
A8 Adalaide - Perth
A9 Perth - Katherine (A6) (For Darwin)

I would have then clustered the other Axx roads around their single digit parent road. For example, the coastal route between Sydney and Melbourne might be A10, or the coastal route north of Perth the A90.

Oh well, it's too late now! The opportunity has been missed.

Sabre hosts endless proposals regarding improved road numbering, for the UK. However, these idealistic suggestions are never going to fly because (a) they'd cost too much, (b) they'd be temporarily very disruptive and confusing, (c) they wouldn't actually help the millions of users who don't understand the logic anyway and don't care, (d) gps-navigation systems will render the numbering even less useful, and (e) ... many other reasons!

Lots of the AU numbers are simply historical relics, not actually "random", and have a certain nostalgia value - as in the UK. Ozzies also still rather love road names, even though, to a large degree, they are no longer being officially used or signed. Everyone knows Mel-Syd as The Hume Highway, even though most would also know it's the M31.

I don't like some details in your scheme, but no matter. One of the things that I do like about our AU numbers, but with no rational justification, is the long-distance continuity of some of them. The outstanding example is route 1, which circumnavigates the continent, though not always quite along the edge. Another fabulous one is 87, the Stuart Highway, from Port Augusta all the way to Darwin (a route I regularly drive).

My only experience of Australia is far north Queensland, which I did a road trip around last year. Fantastic place - did a circuit starting in Cairns, then Port Douglas, Daintree, Yungaburra, Undara National Park, Townsville, Innisfail and back to Cairns. Highway names such as the Bruce Highway were much in evidence and it makes it a lot more interesting than the banality of just numbers in my opinion!