History UsefulNotes / BritishRoads

The system started with 51 and is currently on 73. An example of a registration would be LC 58 RFD, indicating a London-registered car from the second half of 2008/9.

The system started with 51 and is currently on 23. An example of a registration would be LC 58 RFD, indicating a London-registered car from the second half of 2008/9.

There's an ongoing argument about whether the motorway speed limit should be raised to 80 mph. Arguments for: many people already drive that fast anyway (enforcement of the current limit is rather lax), most European speed countries have a motorway speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) or higher, and the 70 mph limit was introduced when ordinary cars couldn't manoeuvre safely above that speed and had much longer braking distances than modern cars. Arguments against: it might encourage drivers who already break the speed limit to drive even faster, i.e. drivers who go at 80 mph when the speed limit is 70 might start driving at 90 mph if the speed limit is raised to 80, and all the European countries with a higher motorway speed limit that the UK also have a higher road accident rate than the UK, suggesting that the UK's lower speed limit is better for road safety. A significant number of senior police officers favour an increase to 80 mph on motorways. Some proponents of the metric system favour a compromise of converting all road signs speed limits into kilometres, and setting the motorway speed limit at 120 km/h (75 mph).

You have to pay an annual tax to own a car (unless you get an certificate stating it's being stored off-road), which is now based on [=CO2=] emissions. If your car is older than three years, it has to have an annual inspection, called an MOT (Ministry of Transport) test, to allow you to drive it. This is often falsely viewed as a redundant acronym, as people assume "T" stands for test. It does not, MOT stands for Ministry of Transport, the organisation that first introduced the tests (this week known as the Department for Transport). The test basically ensures that the vehicle is in a fit state to be on the roads, although has since introduced become much stricter and now includes such as emissions. One interesting point about the MOT is that a vehicle only has to comply to the standards of the time it was first registered, not of the present day, meaning that sufficiently old cars do not need modern frippery like seat belts or indicators. The Government, in a further attempt to [[strike: reduce carbon emissions]] keep the British[[strike: Far Eastern]] car industry in business, briefly introduced a scheme where they'd pay you £2,000 to scrap your car if it was over 10 years old, as long as you traded it in for a brand new car.
It didn't work very well; there was a glut of old cars suddenly being stored to be sold for parts, and Rover still went under because no amount of bribery would have made any of their cars a good investment.

The system started with 51 and is currently on 72. An example of a registration would be LC 58 RFD, indicating a London-registered car from the second half of 2008/9.

The British road network, thematically appropriate for a country that enjoys living in the past, is essentially based on what was laid down by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. The A1, the main north/south artery, almost entirely follows the path of Ermine Street, the main Roman road. As DaveGorman noted, this means that it's very easy to go up and down in Britain but much harder to go from side to side (only three motorways[[note]]the M4 (London to Bristol and then on into Wales, terminating outside Llanelli), M62 (Liverpool to Hull) and M8 (Glasgow to Edinburgh), not coincidentally three of the busiest roads in the country[[/note]] run east/west in any meaningful way), although in Wales it is easier to go side to side, meaning that if you want to get from Cardiff to Bangor it's probably faster to take the M4 into England, head north on the English motorways, and head west at the level of Liverpool. And quite major cities may not be connected to the most developed part of the network, because they were only villages in 120 AD.

You have to pay an annual tax to own a car (unless you get an certificate stating it's being stored off-road), which is now based on [=CO2=] emissions. If your car is older than three years, it has to have an annual inspection, called an MOT (Ministry of Transport) test, to allow you to drive it. This is often falsely viewed as a redundant acronym, as people assume "T" stands for test. It does not, MOT stands for Ministry Of Transport, the organisation that first introduced the tests (this week known as the Department for Transport). The test basically ensures that the vehicle is in a fit state to be on the roads, although has since introduced become much stricter and now includes such as emissions. One interesting point about the MOT is that a vehicle only has to comply to the standards of the time it was first registered, not of the present day, meaning that sufficiently old cars do not need modern frippery like seat belts or indicators. The Government, in a further attempt to [[strike: reduce carbon emissions]] keep the British[[strike: Far Eastern]] car industry in business, briefly introduced a scheme where they'd pay you £2,000 to scrap your car if it was over 10 years old, as long as you traded it in for a brand new car.

The British road network, thematically appropriate for a country that enjoys living in the past, is essentially based on what was laid down by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. The A1, the main north/south artery, almost entirely follows the path of Ermine Street, the main Roman road. As DaveGorman noted, this means that it's very easy to go up and down in Britain but much harder to go from side to side (only three motorways[[note]]the M4 (Bristol to London), M62 (Liverpool to Hull) and M8 (Glasgow to Edinburgh), not coincidentally three of the busiest roads in the country[[/note]] run east/west in any meaningful way), although in Wales it is easier to go side to side, meaning that if you want to get from Cardiff to Bangor it's probably faster to take the M4 into England, head north on the English motorways, and head west at the level of Liverpool. And quite major cities may not be connected to the most developed part of the network, because they were only villages in 120 AD.

The British road network, thematically appropriate for a country that enjoys living in the past, is essentially based on what was laid down by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. The A1, the main north/south artery, almost entirely follows the path of Ermine Street, the main Roman road. As DaveGorman noted, this means that it's very easy to go up and down in Britain but much harder to go from side to side (only three motorways[[note]]the M4, M62 and M8, not coincidentally three of the busiest roads in the country[[/note]] run east/west in any meaningful way), although in Wales it is easier to go side to side, meaning that if you want to get from Cardiff to Bangor it's probably faster to take the M4 into England, head north on the English motorways, and head west at the level of Liverpool. And quite major cities may not be connected to the most developed part of the network, because they were only villages in 120 AD.

The UK has undergone a number of different registration systems in the automobile history. If you know this system, you can understand a lot about a character. The only person who doesn't need a numberplate is UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen.

Two letter region code - Year number (if registered between 1 March and 31 August) or Year Number plus 50 (if registered between 1 September and 28/29 February) - Three random letters (provided they are not rude).

The system started with 51 and is currently on 22. An example of a registration would be LC 58 RFD, indicating a London-registered car from the second half of 2008/9.

Probably the biggest difference between British roads and those in the majority of the world (except for Japan, Indonesia, Ireland, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Suriname, Hong Kong, Macau, the US Virgin Islands and most Commonwealth nations, such as India, Australia, South Africa etc), is that Britons drive on the left almost everywhere - the only exception is the short road outside the Savoy Hotel. This is [[strike: probably]] said to be a hangover from the days of highwaymen, as riding on the left makes it easier for a right-handed person to draw a sword or fire a pistol if some ruffian in the middle of the road tries to waylay them. Interestingly as most people are right-eye dominant it lets modern motorcar uses see oncoming traffic better, resulting in very very slightly lower head on collisions than right-hand drive nations.

There's an ongoing argument about whether the motorway speed limit should be raised to 80 mph. Arguments for: many people already drive that fast anyway (enforcement of the current limit is rather lax), most European speed countries have a motorway speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) or higher, and the 70 mph limit was introduced when ordinary cars couldn't manoeuvre safely above that speed and had much longer braking distances than modern cars. Arguments against: it might encourage drivers who already break the speed limit to drive even faster, i.e. drivers who go at 80 mph when the speed limit is 70 might start driving at 90 mph if the speed limit is raised to 80, and all the European countries with a higher motorway speed limit that the UK also have a higher road accident rate than the UK, suggesting that the UK's lower speed limit is better for road safety. A significant number of senior police officers favour an increase to 80 mph on motorways. Some proponents of the metric system favour a comprimise of converting all road signs speed limits into kilometres, and setting the motorway speed limit at 120 km/h (75 mph).

-> '''American guest''': Awful journey - we couldn't find the freeway, had to use this quaint little backstreet called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M5_motorway M5]]
-> '''Basil Fawlty''': Yes, I'm sorry if it wasn't wide enough for you - [[DeadpanSnarker a lot of the English cars have]] ''[[TakeThat steering wheels]]''.

The British road network, thematically appropriate for a country that enjoys living in the past, is essentially based on what was laid down by the Romans nearly two thousand years ago. The A1, the main north/south artery, almost entirely follows the path of Ermine Street, the main Roman road. As DaveGorman noted, this means that it's very easy to go up and down in Britain but much harder to go from side to side (only about two motorways[[note]]the M4 and the M62, not coincidentally two of the busiest roads in the country[[/note]] run east/west in any meaningful way), although in Wales it is easier to go side to side, meaning that if you want to get from Cardiff to Bangor it's probably faster to take the M4 into England, head north on the English motorways, and head west at the level of Liverpool. And quite major cities may not be connected to the most developed part of the network, because they were only villages in 120 AD.

The system started with 51 and is currently on 71. An example of a registration would be LC 58 RFD, indicating a London-registered car from the second half of 2008/9.