Motorways Quiz

Motorways quiz

Only those with a wacky, inquisitive mind will be able to get these, as they are about the not-so-famous variety !

1. What is strange about the M45 motorway (which joins the M1 at junction 17 near Rugby) ?

2. What is unusual about the M10 leading into St Albans ?

3. What is unique about the M49 ?

4. What is not quite right about the M96 ?

5. What is unusual about the M41 ?

6. What do the M12, M13 and M19 have in common ?

7. A 40-mile motorway was planned to link Stoke-on-Trent and Derby, but the project was cancelled in 1976. What would its number have been ?

8. What is strange about the A2(M) ?

9. What is unusual about the A6(M) ?

10. What was the original A-road number reserved for the M1 before M numbering was started ?


There you go, some of my quizzes so far have been ridiculously easy. This is a really silly one and educated guesses may well be the best way to come up with the goods.

[CraigC]

8. As I drive along a small section of the A2 everyday on my way to work, fell I should have a guess at that. All I can think is that it starts at the London end without a hard shoulder, which suddenly appears to make it the M2, and then dissapears again before Canterbury to go back to the A2(M) again? Thought not.

[Herr von Puebik]

1 No exit to M1 Eastbound No access to M1 westbound
2 No exit into St Albans
3 No access from M5 Southbound to Northbound M49 and no access from M5 Northbound to Southbound M49 if that makes sense

6 They don't exist
7 M38?

[WolfLord]

8.Only a 2 lane motorway

craicc said:

8. As I drive along a small section of the A2 everyday on my way to work, fell I should have a guess at that. All I can think is that it starts at the London end without a hard shoulder, which suddenly appears to make it the M2, and then dissapears again before Canterbury to go back to the A2(M) again? Thought not.

Interesting one, this.
There has never been a motorway built called the A2(M) in England.
However, there was an error in certain editions of atlases, one of which being Bartholomew's 1968/69 edition, in which a stretch of the M2 is enumerated as A2(M). When this section of the A2 (between Junction 2 of the M25 and Junction 1 of the M2) was upgraded, it was to a very high standard. Much higher, in fact, than the older M2 to the east: This led to the rather odd situation of the signposts on the road changing from green to blue with the road getting narrower, not wider!
Furthermore it had been decided to number the Medway Towns bypass as A2(M), but the Daily Telegraph had already gone ahead and printed a swish map in one of their editions, proudly proclaiming the number of the road as M2. It was therefore deemed wisest to go for this. The power of the press !

I think from key words in your answer (eg, disappearing, reappearing; before Canterbury) you've done enough to earn the point.

1. Craig C 1pt

[barbelman]

3 You can only get on it from another motorway
4 It is not open to the public...! (used for fire training at Moreton-in-Marsh)
5 It's not the M41 any more???

Tony

thedriver said:

1 No exit to M1 Eastbound No access to M1 westbound
2 No exit into St Albans
3 No access from M5 Southbound to Northbound M49 and no access from M5 Northbound to Southbound M49 if that makes sense
6 They don't exist
7 M38?

6) spot on, the M12,M13 and M19 have never been built. 1pt
7) sorry, not the one. 0pts
1) 2)and 3) you have caught the essence so 3pts but they need explaining further:
The M45 was built as an escape valve. When the M1 was first built, it ended at junction 18, east of Rugby. There was no other motorway to which to link it to, the nearest one being the only section of the M6 then built - which finished at Preston. So to avoid three lanes of fast traffic suddenly being injected on to lesser roads, the M45 was created as a diversion, to point some of the traffic towards Coventry and the West Midlands.
But nowadays, the M6 serves that purpose more efficiently (motorway straight to the Coventry ring road) so the M45 has a very low traffic usage. it is very much the same now as when it was built in 1959.
The M10 is unusual in that for an important-sounding low number, it is less than 3 miles in length !
Whereas the M49 just provides a short cut and is unique in having no junctions to call its own.

Leaderboard:

1. Herr van Puebik 4pts
2. Craig C 1pt

barbelman said:

3 You can only get on it from another motorway
4 It is not open to the public...! (used for fire training at Moreton-in-Marsh)

Tony

3) Is a well-phrased solution given before I posted the reply to H/V/P and you're dead right about 4) being a "secret" motorway in Gloucestershire. The numbering is strange too, calling it the M96 you'd expect it to be near Edinburgh, in Scotland. 2pts.

(Sorry Wolfman, not quite enough for a point in your answer to 8))
Leaderboard:

1. Herr van Puebik 4pts
2. Barbelman 2pts
3. Craig C 1pt

barbelman said:

5 It's not the M41 any more???
Tony

Correct. It did exist, at Shepherd's Bush, but is now merely part of the A3220. There were great plans for it too, it was supposed to sweep through to the White City and then majestically out of London. 1pt.

1. Herr van Puebik 4pts
2. Barbelman 3pts
3. Craig C 1pt

7,9 and 10 left to get.

Think this one has run its course - only guesses left and that could go on for ever. Here's the missing answers:

7. The 40-mile motorway which was subject to a budgetary cut in 1976 was the M64.
9. The A6(M) exists, but only as a tiny strip of tarmac.
10. Under the original A-road numbering system, the M1 was to be the A50.

Kings of the road :
1. Herr van Puebik 4pts
2. Barbelman 3pts
3. Craig C 1pt