Half A Century Of AA Service On Motorways Video

5December is the 50th anniversary of the first stretch of motorway in the UK andaccording to ; motorways havetransformed the way we travel. On 5 December 1958, the day the 8 mile Prestonbypass opened, the AA was ready to help motorists. Robert Gornall was the AA'sfirst motorway patrol and he was on duty on the Preston by Pass (now the M6)from day one ? he even attended the opening ceremony. Robert recalls that inthose early motorway days, when there was no speed limit or hard shoulder,things were very different when it came to dealing with breakdowns.

Robertsaid: "This was entirely new and when we reached a broken down car wesimply pushed it, bumper to bumper, out of the way to a place of safety wherewe could fix it ? our vehicles were fitted with special rubber bumpers so asnot to cause any damage. And breakdowns came thick and fast because cars justcouldn't cope with the higher speed ? engines just simply blew. The vehicles weused were Ford Escorts and even a soft top Land Rover."

AAPresident Edmund King said: "1958 really was the start of the motorway ageof motoring. Britain's every growing band of motorists increasingly found theywere able to stretch the boundaries of work and leisure when unthinkablejourneys of the past gradually became the norm.

"Perhapswe should now be asking ourselves about the next 50 years ? are we going tocontinue to invest in our motorways to build on their success, or do we wanttraffic to return to those places that the motorways by-passed? Will motorwaysbecome high tech with electronic control of cars to maintain their distance orUSA style multi-lane freeways?

Motorway facts

, the UK's largestmotoring organisation, was already 68 years old when Britain's first motorwayopened in 1958. That milestone however was probably the most significant eventfor Britain's growing population of private motorists.

Motorway music

Therehave even been songs written about motorways, indeed three of the top ten tunesto drive to on the are inspired bymotorways.

Roadto Hell ? Chris Rea (thought to be about the M25)

2468 Motorway ? Tom Robinson Band

Autobahn ? Kraftwerk

Ten key dates in the history of Britishmotorways

1946

Thefirst map was published showing a projected English motorway system in a formthat can be compared to today's reality. The M1, M4 M5 M6 M62 and M18 are allthere, along with a circle that would eventually represent the M25.

December 1958

Theopening of the Preston bypass ? both the first stretch of motorway inBritain, and the first 8.3 miles of the M6.

Althoughmodified over the years into a 4 lane motorway, originally it looked littlelike a modern motorway ? it had turf shoulders, no crash barrier, and bytoday's standards, little traffic.

November 1959

Theopening of the M1, then looked upon as the London-to-BirminghamMotorway.

Its61.5 miles symbolised the start of the motorway age. Although widened, much ofthis motorway, complete with its 1950s bridges is still in use.

December 1965

Theintroduction of the 70mph speed limit on an experimental basis,replacing a truly derestricted road.

5Decemberis the 50th anniversary of the first stretch of motorway in the UK andaccording to - the homeof and - motorwayshave transformed the way we travel.

On5December 1958, the day the 8 mile Preston bypass opened, the AA was ready tohelp motorists. Robert Gornall was the AA's first motorway patrol and he was onduty on the Preston by Pass (now the M6) from day one ? he even attended theopening ceremony. Robert recalls that in those early motorway days, when therewas no speed limit or hard shoulder, things were very different when it came todealing with breakdowns.

Robertsaid: "This was entirely new and when we reached a we simplypushed it, bumper to bumper, out of the way to a place of safety where we couldfix it ? our vehicles were fitted with special rubber bumpers so as not tocause any damage. And breakdowns came thick and fast because cars just couldn'tcope with the higher speed ? engines just simply blew. The vehicles we usedwere Ford Escorts and even a soft top Land Rover."

Motorwayfacts

TheAA, the UK's largest motoring organisation, was already 68 years old whenBritain's first motorway opened in 1958. That milestone however was probablythe most significant event for Britain's growing population of privatemotorists.

Motorwaymusic

Therehave even been songs written about motorways, indeed three of the top ten tunesto drive to on the are inspired bymotorways.

Roadto Hell ? Chris Rea (thought to be about the M25)

2468 Motorway ? Tom Robinson Band

Autobahn ? Kraftwerk

Ten keydates in the history of British motorways

1946

December1958

Theopening of the Preston bypass ? both the firststretch of motorway in Britain, and the first 8.3 miles of theM6.

Althoughmodified over the years into a 4 lane motorway, originally it looked littlelike a modern motorway ? it had turf shoulders, no crash barrier, and bytoday's standards, little traffic.

November1959

Theopening of the M1,then looked upon as the London-to-Birmingham Motorway.

Its61.5miles symbolised the start of the motorway age. Although widened, much of thismotorway, complete with its 1950s bridges is still in use.

December1965

Theintroduction of the 70mphspeed limit on an experimental basis, replacing a trulyderestricted road.

Thelimit was made permanent in 1967 and led to a 20 per cent reduction incasualties on the growing motorway network.

October1986

TheM25 was completed andofficially opened.

Thefirst pieces of the London Orbital Motorway were completed in September 1975andthe whole ring was formally opened in October 1986.

Priorto the M25 there had been many plans for motorway "boxes" aroundLondon.

January1991

TheM40 was opened, marking thecompletion of the last major link of the English motorway system.

May 1995

Thevariable speed limiton the M25 was introduced allowing speed limits to be automatically adjusted tomatch traffic flows. This helped significantly to increase the traffic capacityof the road and reduced holdups on what had become known as the world's largestcar park.

October2000

Thecompletion of the M60made Manchester Britain's third city to be encircled by motorways.

December2003

TheM6Toll ? Britain's first tolledmotorway is opened, relieving congestion on the M6 to the northeast of Birmingham.

TheM6remained open as an alternative.

September2006

Alongseries of modifications to the M42 was completed with automated traffic controlnot only allowing variable speed limits but also allowing hard shoulder running in peaktimes ? two measures which reduce peak hour congestion, and are likely tospread to the rest of the network.

Wherethe AA sees the future of motorways

Capacity

TheGovernment has committed to a 6 year ?6bn investment programme to improvestrategic roads.

However,it's not all good news. Some new capacity on motorways will be achieved byusing the hard shoulder at busy times, and also perhaps by introducing 'paylanes'. AA members through the AA/Populus Panel tell us that:

? 50% support hardshoulder running at busy times32% oppose (and of those 17% strongly oppose)

? 53% oppose new pay lanes (33% strongly oppose)

? 58% oppose paying a toll to use a car share lane when alone (38% strongly oppose)

TheAA says that motorway widening would represent good value for money by reducingcongestion and may be more 'sustainable' than temporary fixes like using thehard shoulder.

Thereshould be no need for major new motorways across green fields as Britain'smotorway needs were accurately defined and largely addressed over a 50 yearperiod.

Roadworks

Britain's in terms of theirsafety and conduct compared with many other European countries. However, delaysstill frustrate drivers and whilst safety is achieved by having strict speedlimits the AA says these should be variable so that the limit matches the conditionsat any given time. It's ludicrous for example to have a 50mph limit when theworkers have gone home.

Incidents

TheGovernment has set journey time reliability targets for the worst performingstrategic roads.

In2008however the Highways Agency failed to meet the target, meaning that journeytime reliability got worse on two thirds of the routes under scrutiny.

TheAA believes that the Highways Agency must get slicker at managing theunexpected and ensure that all key sections of motorways have properly managedand signed contingency diversion routes.

Creakingjunctions

Sooften the performance of a motorway is hindered by a weak road link or junctionon a local authority road adjacent to the motorway.

Highwayauthorities now have a network management duty under the Traffic ManagementAct2004. If a motorway is seizing up due to inadequate local roads somethingmust be done.

Information

Variablemessage signs are now an intrinsic part of the UK motorway scene and they are vitaltools to keep drivers informed.

Thequality of information has improved but there is no room for complacency. Trafficmessages must be truly real-time for drivers to keep their faith in them.

Some messages still leave drivers wondering ? andwhilst the AA welcomes messages being spread back much further from anyincident we also point out that long distance travellers don't have localknowledge so care is needed explaining where distant incidents are so that themessage can be understood by all.

Services

TheUK's have improved standardsmarkedly in recent years. However, prices can be high and at busy times theycan be overcrowded.

TheAA welcomes the government's intention to allow smaller rest area type facilitiesbut urges caution where safety and security are concerned. It will be better tohave a filling station with basic supplies and parking than an unmanned restarea which could become a haven for crime.

Safety

UKmotorways are amongst the safest in Europe if not the world and they should remainso.

Somedrivers are nervous about using motorways but in reality they are at far more riskdriving on some of the roads they may use to avoid them.

Permiletravelled a driver on a rural road faces three times the motorway risk of afatal accident. A driver on an urban road faces eight times the risk.

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