AA Guide to the Motorway - descriptive brochure, 1959 : signs on the motorway and The Motorway Code
"Never before have motorists in Britain had the opportunity of travelling at relatively high speeds for a long period" begins this folder issued by the AA, one of the UK's motorists organisations, in late 1959 when this was issued. One has to say that the London-centric organisation can't have been unaware that the country's first Motorway standard road, the Preston By-pass, part of the M6 had been opened the year before!
Anyhow, this folder describes not just the route of the core section of the M1 that would open to great fanfare on 1 November 1959, but explains what the motorist would encounter and how to use this new style of road with a 'Motorway Code" of driving. It also explains how unaccustomed not just the driver but the vehicle itself may prove to 'long periods of high speed' that would not have been possible before on the UK's trunk road network.
This spread shows the new road signs that motorists would have encountered of a style and design that was totally new to the British streetscape. They were designed by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir who would, on the basis of variations to these designs, go on in 1963 to completely overhaul the UK's road signs as part of the work of the Worboys Committee.
The Motorway Code is also fascinating as it explains, again, to motorists what to anticipate on a type of road and a style of driving that would not have been encountered here before. "If you see a knot of vehicles ahead....". Although statistically motorways are amongst the safest roads in the early years of the UK's network there were some serious accidents caused by speed, weather conditions and car construction standards before such things as fog warning signs and improved standards of design kicked in. Speed limits were to be another thing. The 70mph limit was introduced in 1965 after a series of tragedies, mostly around fog.
AA Guide to the Motorway - descriptive brochure, 1959 : signs on the motorway and The Motorway Code
"Never before have motorists in Britain had the opportunity of travelling at relatively high speeds for a long period" begins this folder issued by the AA, one of the UK's motorists organisations, in late 1959 when this was issued. One has to say that the London-centric organisation can't have been unaware that the country's first Motorway standard road, the Preston By-pass, part of the M6 had been opened the year before!
Anyhow, this folder describes not just the route of the core section of the M1 that would open to great fanfare on 1 November 1959, but explains what the motorist would encounter and how to use this new style of road with a 'Motorway Code" of driving. It also explains how unaccustomed not just the driver but the vehicle itself may prove to 'long periods of high speed' that would not have been possible before on the UK's trunk road network.
This spread shows the new road signs that motorists would have encountered of a style and design that was totally new to the British streetscape. They were designed by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir who would, on the basis of variations to these designs, go on in 1963 to completely overhaul the UK's road signs as part of the work of the Worboys Committee.
The Motorway Code is also fascinating as it explains, again, to motorists what to anticipate on a type of road and a style of driving that would not have been encountered here before. "If you see a knot of vehicles ahead....". Although statistically motorways are amongst the safest roads in the early years of the UK's network there were some serious accidents caused by speed, weather conditions and car construction standards before such things as fog warning signs and improved standards of design kicked in. Speed limits were to be another thing. The 70mph limit was introduced in 1965 after a series of tragedies, mostly around fog.