Motoring Oddities EP7 - Where and how long is England's shortest motorway?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- #maidenhead #motorways #infrastructure
In this episode, I visit Maidenhead in Berkshire to explore an old railway bridge and England's shortest motorway. We'll find out how long it is, why it came to be and why anyone wasted their time with such a small motorway.
Join me in the series you didn't know you needed. We'll be looking at several 'Motoring Oddities' from the smallest, to the largest, to the longest and the highest. It's ultimately pointless but that's half the fun.
Twitter - @Jonshenanigans - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
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Has anyone noticed the deliberate mistake yet...
yup 🫣
You should always leave a blooper in, was very funny. Took me a min to realize though, thought you'd lost the plot for a moment
And of course, after building that wonderful bridge, he went on to free the slaves.
Was that a mistake though? Isn't that IKB pictured on the left when he was trying to flog off the SS Great Eastern to the Union for use on the Mississippi?
@@hackenbush23 Lol, that is Allan Pinkerton, a Scotsman. Famous for creating the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
You missed the best thing about that bridge, or rather that smart arsed bloke who built everything (joking, he's a hero of mine). During and after it was built there were a large number of naysayers who insisted that the bridge couldn't be built or would fall down immediately the scaffold was removed and they held enough sway that the scaffold had to be left. One night, after torrential rains and storms the scaffold was washed away.
The naysayers were quick to say how fortunate it was that the bridge hadn't immediately collapsed, blocking the Thames and causing massive flooding. Brunel's response was that since completion of the arch the scaffold had never supported bridge as he'd ordered his masons to move the scaffold an 1/8th of an inch away from the brickwork. He'd dinner his calculations and knew it would work like so many of the other massive structures he built that are still standing today.
I love the old TV theme music. Wish you were here a classic tune.
Thats was it, I scrolled through the comments trying to find this.. i guessed it was a travel programme... I heard the theme tune from Penny Crayon the other day... that is a deep cut. I haven't heard raggy dolls yet, perhaps it is in an episode I have not watched yet.
I believe that Driverless cars were tested by the Driver Research Laboratory, along the then under construction M4, at Maidenhead, using Citroen DS's and an infrastructure that was (and possibly still is) buried beneath the road surface of the M4. I don't recall with any certainty how I acquired this information or can i speak for its accuracy, but I thought it might be an interesting one for you to possibly follow up. The DS was used because the design of the car, possibly the hydraulics, made modification for Driverless research simpler. I was told this many years ago and my memory of it has faded in time
Any sources or info that can confirm this... it sounds very interesting indeed
I live a few miles from the M898, which I think is now the shortest in Scotland (1 miles/1.6km). It's also the UK's highest numbered motorway!
I reckon these sorts of videos would benefit greatly from lots more maps and diagrams.
And another channel that likes to use _Wish You Were Here_ for an outro!
The A168M at Dishforth is 110metres long. It is signed off the A1M. Shorter than every one of those mentioned in the comments.
TRL (Government Transport Research Lab) is actually at Crowthorne near Bracknell, not Slough! My dad worked there in the 1960's. You are right though that much of their testing took place in Slough, as well as Reading.
I love the picture of Abraham Lincoln to illustrate Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Deliberately using the wrong picture never gets old for me. It's similar to wilful use of inappropriate sound effects. It never stops being funny.
Great video. I've just discovered your channel, and am having a bit of a binge watch. Glad I subscribed - you're very funny, and I learn stuff. Nice one. 👍👍👍
A 'Mars bar' in America is called a 'Milky Way'. Yeah. So what is a 'Milky Way' called, then? Don't go down that rabbit hole. It'll give you a migrane.
And Thunderbirds do come from Slough. The show was made on the same trading estate as the Mars factory.
Gerry Anderson's studios have now been demolished.
Cheers mate!
Oooh the algorithm has pointed me your way. Rightly so too! This is a great channel, congrats on being promoted!
Huh, I've driven down that motorway loads of times but didn't know that. You learn something new every day and all that.
The M4 we know and love!!!!!
Yes thats how we all feel about it.
(Living near Manchester I am intrguied by your forgotten motorway. Investigation is called for)
What about the M96. 400 yards long. Has more accidents per mile than any other. Look it up.
The one in the fire service collage… clever lil joke 😉😂
It’s a fake
I live across the road from the Fire Service College.
It’s great - along with the shortest motorway, they’ve got an oil rig, a crashed jumbo jet, a variety of burned out vehicles and every now and then they stage terrorist attacks!
I know it's a death trap
It's 600yds according to a woman who takes photos. It's 1.7 km according to google. As it was an old airfield I would believe the latter. Strictly speaking, rds with the M in brackets are A rds with Mway regulations. Havn't checked them all but Mway spurs tend to be the shortest so the M275- 2 miles, M271- 3 miles.
So much pertinent information. My head is spinning
Fantastic, I've got to go visit that bridge in Maidenhead and try some yodeling 👍
It will sound amazing! Well the echo will, I don't know of your yodelling skills. :D
Ummm pretty sure Abraham Lincoln and Isenbard Kingdom Brunnel are not the same person lol
So true, it was a deliberate mistake to see if anyone noticed. So far... not many.
Similar hat but definitely Abe Lincoln 🎩
Shortest stretch of motorway in the UK is the M96. You can't use it though - it's at the National Firefighting College near Moreton-in-Marsh.
It's an old runway ;-)
On the subject of short unnamed motorways, one of the A14(M) sections is now the A1307(M) due to the A14 being rerouted south of Huntingdon (and that awful viaduct through the centre is gone! Site of many accidents). These short one way sections come about after the last junction before a road merges with a motorway section. Although not signed as a motorway there is always a 'non-motorway traffic" sign at that last junction.
I think the blooper makes the video more organic, I like that
We don't tend to have many good bloopers but they always go in if we have them :D
Talking to everyone mentioning contenders here, This answer depends what you want to define as a motorway. Does the number have to appear on signs? Does it have to be officially a separate motorway, as defined by the Statutory Instrument that created it?
The shortest that is legally a motorway in its own right, and has its own number which is signposted, is the A308(M) as mentioned in this video.
The shortest that is legally a motorway in its own right and has its own number is the A635(M).
I love the short expletives in the storyline 😅
Makes for an interesting watch 👍
I feel an honourable mention should also go the the A601(M), just off J35 of the M6. Part of it was down graded to the B6601 in 2020 leaving a 0.8mile stretch as the A601(M) connecting the M6 to the A6.
Now renumbered the A6070. Interestingly the A601 is the Derby Ring Road, nowhere near this part of Lancashire.
As soon as you put up the first map, I went ooooh old alignment 😄
I did the exact same thing when I saw it for the first time :D
@@AutoShenanigans What was that little motorway that linked the M1 with the M25? It was kinda useful if someone binned their car on entrance to the M25. I'm sure it went by St Albans or something.. ages now, I would not he surprised if it had been declassified.
@@EdgyNumber1 Yeah I grew up in St. Albans.. it's the M10 you are thinking of. It's now been reclassified and is part of the A414. 100mph by the first bridge was always the goal but that was back in the day when our cars were shit.
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.
John Betjeman 1906-1984
Slough is actually a decent place
When I learnt to drive almost 40 years ago, I was taught that Annn (M) roads were not motorways, but A roads built to motorway standards. The M606 in West Yorkshire is an interesting true motorway that is quite short at only 3 miles as it was never completed, ending at the junction with Bradford's outer ring road (very close to this junction is another abandoned for 20+ years, but recently ressurrected stockcar/speedway/rugby stadium, simlar to Coventry Stadium, called Odsal Stadium). The M606 was originally planned to continue on to the city centre and beyond to link to the Aire Valley Trunk road (A650) but that never happened.
"I was taught that Annn (M) roads were not motorways, but A roads built to motorway standards"
I don't think that's correct. Traffic that's prohibited from motorways is also prohibited from A(M) roads. If you look on Google Street View at places where A-roads turn into A(M) roads, you'll see a sign half a mile before the (M) starts that directs "non-motorway traffic" (or "non-m'way traffic") to leave the road at the junction. At the point where the (M) begins, it's signed with the motorway symbol. I'm fairly sure that, in the days when there were big signs listing prohibited traffic on motorways (what happened to those, anyway?), those signs would be placed at the start of the (M) sections, too.
@@beeble2003 fair enough.
Brilliant stuff !!!
Fantastic. Cheers for uploading.
Thanks for watching!
Abraham Lincoln was such an interesting UK presidential engineer. His greatest accomplishment, in my humble opinion, must surely be the Great Eastern pizza expressway viaduct.
The M181 in LIncolnshire is probably the shortest usable motorway with a proper 'M' number rather than an upgraded A road with an (M) suffix.
And it's been shortened to put a roundabout in the middle!
That clap at 1:26 reminds me of and old dance track I can remember! 🤔
The M41 in Shepherd's Bush, London, is 1/2 mile long... and all elevated.
The A41(M) around Tring WAS the shortest at half a mile.
it is not all elevated
Not a motorway anymore, part of the A3220
The M41 hasn't existed for over 20 years...
The shortest signposted motorway is the A1058(M), it can be easily measured in centimetres!
100% agree, I’m certain the blue signs are still there on the northbound slip road. I never ever used the Camden street slip road that’s been closed for decades, so I couldn’t tell you if it had the signs as well. If these chaps find themselves travelling this far north, the A167(M) and A1058 are definitely worth having a look at.
@@TheMarkBell The Camden Street slip road was signed for A167(M) however the sign was either removed or stolen during lockdown. Shame! :(
Mars bars are sold in America, but they are sold under the brand Milky Way, strangely enough what we know as a Milky way in the UK is branded as a 3 musketeers bars in the USA.
I use the A308M regularly, its a quick route to the west of Windsor, with cars full of Children heading for Legoland.
Actually, they do sell Mars Bars in the USA. Over here they are renamed Milky Way. The UK Milky Way is known in the US as a 3 Musketeers... Nope, no idea why!
That's fair... It's a balancing act, we could talk for hours on each subject but I fear people will get bored and switch off.
Great review, of many numbers, think I stick with the Mars bar. 'Nice' cheers Bob
Interesting. They don't sell Mars bars in Japan either and, Citroen used to build cars in Slough.
Another great and informative video
Thanks bro!
We do have the Mars bar here in the US but it’s called the Milky Way bar. The UK Milky Way bars are called Three Musketeer bar
The A66(M) is another very short motorway. Probably just over a mile, linking the A1(M) to the A66 Darlington bypass.
In North America, engineers use the phrase "ramp freeway" to describe a short limited access highway that allows access to a major limited access highway. Being "ramps", they are never numbered or named, even if they have an interchange or two in the middle of the short freeway. Instead directional signage will say something like "TO I-__" whatever road the ramp freeway connects to.
However, the design of the A308(M) that brings all traffic to a near halt before allowing it onto a limited access highway is stunning. Any route with enough traffic to justify a multilane limited access highway, by definition, justifies a directional interchange, or at least a cloverleaf, especially here where land was available. As a result, this kind of design is rare in the States. However, look at the junction of I-5 and CA-78 in Oceanside, CA, where a decision to leave a popular steakhouse standing apparently motivated decision-makers to force All traffic on EB 78 to turn left through a signalized intersection to go south to San Diego.
Hmm... That weird intersection doesn't look like if that steak house was the cause - as the missing cloverleaf would be where the big parking for car pooling is.
So it looks more like people owning the adjacent homes were the cause?
Using a cloverleaf would create a major weaving section problem with traffic from SB I-5 to WB CA 78. At any event, this is one of the oldest sections of I-5 in the area; it began as a bypass of US 101 around Oceanside in 1953 or so.
You should come to Southampton to marvel at my local "motorway", the M271. You won't be able to drive the massive 2.3 mile length in one go however, as at junction... oh hang on the junctions aren't numbered... at the second junction you have to stop on the motorway because of a traffic light controlled roundabout. Then, as you go past the third junction (Junction 1, because for some reason they numbered one of the four junctions), the speed limit drops to 50 before going over the narrowing yellow bands designed to make you slow down before you hit a block of flats built exactly where you would put a slip road onto the connecting dual carriageway. Perfection.
Yeah driving out of Southampton is a nightmare only leavened by the fact that one is leaving Southampton.
In the last few years they remodelled that junction by the flats and it is now much better. Previously it could be absolutely terrifying!
Have they fixed the Fairham roundabout one way bridge yet?
@@capcompass9298 Do you mean Fareham, and the westbound only viaduct carrying the A27 over the A32 junction? But what this has to do with motorways, I don't know!
Congratulations are in order, for being able to summarise the chaotic history of this stretch of road so succinctly. I'm trying to write it myself at the moment. It's almost like the motorway engineers just changed their minds on a whim every 10 minutes. "Let's build it here, LOL" "No wait let's build it here LMAO"
I checked my notifications at 3:44 and swear you were calling my attention as you knew I wasn't watching
Mars bars in the US are called Milky way bars, only for US consumption and was invented in 1923. The milky way that we know, is sold worldwide without the caramel topping on the nougat, and in American is referred to as the 3 musketeers bar.
Ooops should have read all the comments before posting, apologies.
I always wondered why that junction was called 8/9.
Interesting...🤔🚂🚂🚂
The deliberate mistake was Abe Lincoln instead of Brunel.
Isambard Lincoln Brunell
great video
Many thanks for watching!
There is also the A1077(M) at 0.8m (1.3km). Though while they may be motorways, they aren't M roads, the shortest M motorway surely must be the M181 at around 1.5m (2.4km) long?
I second that mention of the M181, and it must be one of the most pointless motorways in England now.
The A635M is still shown on Google maps
just like your mum
I always thought it was the A64M.
we had the M10 in Hertfordshire which was 3 miles long which ran from hemel hempstead and st albans. Opened in 1959 and was closed in 2009
The Tring bypass, A41(M) from the 1970’s to early 1990’s when it was 1.5 miles long. The rest, running from the M25 past the Langleys, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted was only completed in the mid-1990’s, and the A41(M) was downgraded from a motorway to a trunk road.
The M10 is my old stomping ground and I remember it well. It's still there just renumbered as the A414.
@@keithorbell8946 i was not on about the tring bypass, that is at the bottom of my garden. The M10 ran from the m1 juction 8 to St Albans which is now the A414
@@bill53uk I know, but the Tring bypass, which I could see from my bedroom window when I was growing up, was shorter and had motorway status, and was also in Hertfordshire, starting at the roundabout at the top of Tring Hill above Aston Clinton and finishing at the bottom of Oddy Hill, Wigginton.
@@keithorbell8946 I also can see the a414 from my sons bedroom window. we watched them remove the soil by lorry loads. I can remember when they had a slip road to come off of the said tring part. just up the hill from the cowroast
0.30 why is there a picture of Abraham Washington pop up when you said Brunel
with that hard shoulder they could make it a Smart Motorway
I bet there's a lot more footage from under the Sounding Arch........? 😉
The M96 is the U.Ks shortest motorway and is used by the emergency services as training for motorway crashes. Mars bars are sold in the States as Milky Way.
yes it is i trained on it 400m long if remember correctly
1:30 Wait till r/sounding finds out about this one
😐😳
Brunel eh? That was a picture of Abraham Lincoln!
New to your posts and loving them........
If you ever feel the need to do a 'pubs on the M60' in a classic uber (oops I mean a Toyota Avensis) the car is here, the drinks are on me and it would make a funny video 🤣
Our "transport manager" says this is the best idea yet.
@@AutoShenanigans Let's get it sorted mate, and a date in the diary.......
My Twitter name is in my TH-cam user name for you to make contact. I can sort out accommodation (at my expense)
No I am not being generous or flash, but it's cheaper to offer to pay for a nice hotel, than the cost of your fuel just to get up here 😂😂
On our route around the glamourous "M60 ring road" one of the many sights too behold is a motorway junction that enters on the right hand lane and a little diversions to see a bridge that took longer than the San Francisco Bridge to build (yes all three meters of it).
Here in Manchester you can comically post how all 10 borough councils of Manchester, repeatedly and systematically mess everything up daily, weekly and monthly.
Looking forward to it...... lets make this happen.
That bit of the M4 was originally Maidenhead bypass A4M - check out London to Bath with George Eyles - th-cam.com/video/Qp-Sv_lXWvU/w-d-xo.html - shows some original footage including an early example of outside lane hogging by Sunbeam Rapier. That bit of M4 was originally 2 lane later widened to 3 lane so no hard shoulder under the bridges. I remember travelling from Bristol to London in my parents car during the mid seventies and that section around Maidenhead still had the really old early 60s signage. Some other comments refer to the road research lab at Slough reminded me of an article I read in a classic car mag years ago about some testing they did along a stretch of the M4 around Slough before it was opened to the public. The work related to an early form of autonomous driving using wires embedded in the road surface. I think one of the cars used was a Citroen ID19 - not sure but the cars may still exist at Science Museum store at Wroughton near Swindon.
M12 in craigavon is short and a roundabout on it. 😆
If you do come up to Scotland to see the A8(M) you could also look at the pedestrian crossing on the M80.
Sounds right up our street.
Do you mean the M876? If not, i didn't realise there was one on the M80
Sorry, yes, it’s the M876 at the J2 westbound on slip.
A635(M) is still open i believe but is a closed each year for a few days for works
thats abrahm lincoln
The old M41 before it was downrated was very short
Your videos remind me of the Billy Bragg song “A14” which is a parody of Bobby Fuller’s “Route 66”
A13, Trunk Road to the Sea is the song you're thinking of!
Lot of nostalgia for me here. I grew up outside Maidenhead in the 90s and early 00s. I've been under that bridge dozens of times and shouted at the arch many times for my childish amusement. My drive to school took me near the Mars factory and the smell was biblical. I can confirm however that both towns are utterly anonymous. When The Office came out, I remember thinking that its pisstaking of Slough was entirely accurate.
I did spend a fair while shouting profanities for my own childish amusement. But that's awesome... I didn't know you were of Maidenhead "heritage" or just outside of at least. The office was absolute fried gold.
@@AutoShenanigans I was born in Slough's hospital. Despite that I survived. (psst, I'm now making videos again too :P)
Oh dear, not something you brag about I suppose :D Oh cool... we'll totally have to do something. that said, I still haven't done that other thing we talked about ages ago... time and money... I have neither.
What is that song?? The Tim Traveller uses it as well 😂😂
It was the theme tune to "Wish You Were Here". 80s/90s travel show.
The Carnival by Gordon Giltrap.
I LOVE these info tidbits in your videos.
And I like your videos so much that I watch them on Chrome and not Brave (which has an auto, ad blocker) - just so you get that teeny tiny bit of ad money from me watching.
Cheers.
☮
They do sell Mars bars in America, but they call them Milky Ways
Could add the very short section (and only part built) of the M12 next to the southern end of the M11
We talk a little about the M12 in an upcoming episode... where is the built part.. I didn't know they'd built any of it!
Thought I would be clever and put forward M96 as UK shortest motorway. Then when I checked it’s longer than this one.
lol I live in Maidenhead and still trying to figure out what they did with the Motorway. I knew it took a different route but trying to figure out what connected to where was always the issue.
I always thought that a short section of the old motorway route is used as motorway maintenance depot.
FYI A64(M) in Leeds is a motorway with a right hand exit
It's also shorter and longer than this one, depending on your direction
I miss the M10
It's still there, but it was better in the M10 days. It was a place of many a 45bhp car race.
Great video, thanks. A map would have been useful.
Isn't it the coast road in Newcastle? I believe its still signposted on the turnoff.
The A41(M) around Tring WAS the shortest at half a mile.
I never realised isambard was so tall.
Why was a picture of Abraham Lincoln flashed up when talking about Isambard Kingdom Brunel? And why was a picture of a Zebra crossing being installed at Westminster flashed up when talking about the first Zebra crossing being installed in Slough?
Superbly passive aggressive at times! Ha ha!
I though Leeds had the shortest isn't it the inner ring road A64(M) or something?
It was, but the A8M is less then 300 metres long
Im curious why you are wearing a tea cosy on your head?
2:07 this is not true they do sell a Mars bar in the USofA it is marketed as a Milky Way and the Mars bar in the US is a British style Milky Way !! The more you know
6:00 lol
Surely the a64(M) must be a candidate for shortest motorway.
A64(m) 0.5mi... odd that its not mentioned at least. But size isnt everything :)
You should do a video on the M96. The Motorway that isn't open to the public.
He already did :)
Loving the background music from BBC Holiday.
Also does the M21 in kent count as a short signposted motorway?
M21 ?? Perhaps you mean the M26?
It's The Carnival by Gordon Giltrap....An absolute banger of a tune and reminds me of childhood. The M26... it counts as far as I'm concerned.
It the bit of the A21 where it meets the m25 in Kent, north of sevenoaks. Not sure if it’s signposted as the m21 or if it’s just a super long section of m25 feeder/slip road??? I investigated an accident there and never knew what to call it!
I think it probably is more properly the A 21 (m), it certainly is not signposted as a motorway but has all blue signs.
@@nitrosilvia erm the M21 does not exist...
👍
Chopped ✌️
🤣🤣
They had to rename the motorway because the roadsign was longer than the road itself.
What about the M601in Lancaster and the B6601 which comes under motorway regulations
Cant actually find that one.. Post a link?
The shortest is located in scunthorpe in Lincolnshire called the M181 and it is very short with no junction and ends, on a roundabout and the other one opposite is the A1077(M) And is, the second shortest and they are located right together and fun fact the M181 was a one big motorway but it got split up into two separate ones the M181 and A1077(M)
A50(M) in Manchester centre
The A64(M)? Granted I think its westbound carriageway is shorter than the A308(M) but its eastbound carriageway is longer... Glad the algorithm led me here!
It was a contender but that longer carriageway meant we discounted it. Thanks for watching, pleased to have you here! :)
The Mars bar is available for purchase, as the Mars bar, in the U.S., on the internet.
More of a Milk Way than a Mars Bar.
i always thought that an axx(m) road was still an a-road but that it was an a-road that met motorway construction standards. dunno where i got that from, obviously i'm wrong!
In a way you're not but also you could argue it another way. You're right that marked as an A road that is what they are but the basic specification for a motorway was that it had a one or more passing lane, central reservation (either space or a separator), and a hard shoulder. Going on the latter these could then be defined as a motorway. That is very simple though and it could be argued either way and we'd have to take in that some AXXX(M) roads don't fully align as take the A38(M), that has a tidal flow system so the lane spacing would be insufficient as a central reservation, and so on.
@@euroswilliams7303 i would say i was wrong. the A1 is a good example. it has 4 sections that are motorways, and the rest is A-road. calling it A1 (m) at those points makes sense.... the road is still the A1, at the beginning and end, and having the road switch from A1 to Mx to A1 to My to A1 etc would be really confusing. so yeah.... motorways need an M in the name, not necessarily at the beginning. only if the whole road is M standard does it get an M at the beginning.... that makes sense too. i was wrong, but good to learn something 😁
I believe the difference is that L drivers can use Axx(M) roads but not Mxx motorways. Axx(m) roads are built to M-way specifications.
@@richardg3ziy635 didn't think of learners, although if a learner could drive the length of the A1, for example, that would mean the a1M is NOT a motorway. what does the highway code say?
@@fyshfysh No they are motorways so learners would only be able to drive on there when accompanied by an ADI. This applies to all motorways now by the way an approved driving instructor can supervise a learner on those too now but only an ADI learners being supervised by someone that is not a qualified instructor still can't. The rules changed a few years back I believe probably not a bad thing except for not taking the advantage to make it a requirement for the test, arguably a qualified driver should have training on all types of roads.
Mars Bars are actually Milky Ways in the US… just a different name… but not like our milky ways lol
I think the Northern section of the M271 in Southampton is shorter.
Yeh but that's only part of the motorway...