page_title: Roads in the United Kingdom
section_title: 1979–1997
hierarchical_section_title: Roads in the United Kingdom / History / 1979–1997
caption_attribution_description: The M3 in the Tywford Down cutting, near Winchester, England. Looking in the direction of Junction 11 from the footbridge.
context_page_description: The United Kingdom has a network of roads, of varied quality and capacity, totalling about 262,300 miles. Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour or by the use of the national speed limit symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers.
  The earliest specifically engineered roads were built during the British Iron Age. The road network was expanded during the Roman occupation. Some of these roads still remain to this day. New roads were added in the Middle Ages and from the 17th century onwards. Whilst control has been transferred between local and central bodies, current management and development of the road network is shared between local authorities, the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and Highways England. Certain aspects of the legal framework remain under the control of the United Kingdom parliament.
context_section_description: The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher from 1979 adopted a pro-roads policy. During this period, numerous road upgrades were built and the M25 motorway was completed. In 1989, it announced a large-scale roads programme (stated to be the largest since the Romans) in the Roads for Prosperity White Paper. It proposed 500 road schemes at a cost of £23 billion and predicted an increase of road traffic of 142% by 2025. It would have involved the doubling of the trunk road capacity with around 150 bypasses being built, caricatured in later years as predict and provide, whereby the government predicted the required capacity in forthcoming years and built roads to match. From 1985 to 1995, the road network expanded by 24,000 miles (38,624 km).
  This road building programme continued into the start of the premiership of John Major. In the early-1990s, the government decided to complete the M3 motorway by building a six-lane road in a cutting through Twyford Down. This attracted the first direct action protests against a major road in the country. Building work was delayed considerably, and anti-roads protesters gained large amounts of publicity. The Newbury bypass saw some of the largest protests against a road in the UK. Proposed originally in the 1980s, the bypass was subject to strong support and opposition. Also in this time frame, the M11 link road protest saw protracted disturbance during the upgrading of a section of the A12 through East London. Costs increased rapidly, the Newbury bypass being 50% over budget and many other schemes showed increases of 100%.
  The Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment had also concluded in 1994 that building new roads simply generated more traffic, and was therefore largely self-defeating. By 1994, following the recession of the early 1990s, a significant number of remaining schemes were cancelled, although the government still intended to continue with others using private financing. The Secretary for state for transport, Dr Brian Mawhinney launched a "Great Debate" about the future direction for transport in the UK and the required level of road building stating that the road network was "broadly complete".
  A major Royal Commission report, "Transport and the Environment", was published in October 1994 to highlight the serious environmental consequences of UK's transport system in response to which the New Scientist commented "Rarely, if ever, can a ministry have emerged so badly from an official report as John MacGregor's old department" in an article titled "Head-on collision over transport: The British government has received its sternest warning yet that its unflagging support for the car is seriously at odds with its own green principles".
  The last new motorway in the United Kingdom (The M3 motorway in Northern Ireland) opened in 1994. In 1996 the total length of motorways reached 2,000 miles (3,200 km).
caption: The M3 motorway cutting at Twyford Down
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