Road

:''This page is related to transport''; you may be looking for the 2002 in film Bollywood movie ''Road (movie)''. {| align=right | |- | |- | |- |[[Image:PompeiiStreet.jpg|thumb|250px|A Roman road in Pompeii]] |} A road is a strip of land, smoothed or otherwise prepared to allow easier travel, connecting two or more destinations. In the context of railways, a road is a single track, which may be part of a multi-track system or may be an isolated line. In the context of Ship transport, a road is an anchorage. ==Usage and etymology== In original usage, a "road" was simply any pathway fit for riding ("road" is cognate with "ride", e.g.: ships ride at anchor in roads). The word “street,” whose origin is the Latin ''strata'', was kept for paved pathways that had been prepared to ease travel in some way. Thus, many "Roman Roads" have the word "street" in their names. However, modern usage does not usually make this distinction and it is only important since place names often hold the earlier usage in them; these days, roads are also prepared in some way. This includes, at the least, the removal of trees and smoothing of the ground. In some dialects, lower grade roads are called trails and wheel tracks, and it is uncertain where "road" begins and trail ends. Roads are a prerequisite for road transport of goods on wheeled vehicles. The word “road” emphasizes its function of transportation along its length, while a “street” may be considered to have activity and commerce taking place on it (see ''street life''). ==History== Many historical examples exist of road and road-building. Some of the most famous are the Roman roads and the Inca road systems. The oldest engineered road discovered is the Sweet Track causeway in England, dating from the 3800 BC. In ancient times, transport by river was far easier and faster than travel by road, especially considering the cost of road construction and the difference in carrying capacity between carts and river barges. A hybrid of road transport and ship transport is the historic horse-drawn boat. During the industrial revolution, a development of the road was made: the railway. Today, roads are almost exclusively built to enable travel by automobile and other wheeled vehicles. In most countries, road transport is the most utilized way to move goods. Also, in most developed countries, roads are formally divided into lanes to ensure the safe and smooth movement of traffic. Roads situated in cities are often, but not always, called streets or alleys; this reflects the historical fact that when they were first named there were more likely to be unmade roads in open country and paved roads in urban areas. This leads to roads being sometimes named from their destination or direction, while streets may be named from their location. [[image:road.ba.b777.arp.jpg|thumb|right|250px|An unusual road at London Heathrow Airport, England. A British Airways Boeing 777-200 is being towed across a public road on its way to the maintenance hangars]] ==Funding== Road building and maintenance is one of the few areas of economic activity (compare military spending) that remain dominated by the public sector (though often through private sector contractors). Roads (except those on private property not accessible to the general public) are typically paid for by taxes (often raised through levies on fuel), though some public roads are funded by toll roads. ==Driving on the right or the left== Traffic drives, depending on the country, either on the right or on the left side of the road, see Rules of the road. In countries where traffic drives on the right, traffic signs are mostly on the right side of the road, roundabouts (traffic circles) go counter-clockwise, and pedestrians crossing a two-way road should watch out for traffic from the left first. In countries where traffic drives on the left, the reverse is true. Traffic flow and road design in both cases are each other's mirror image. ==Design== Road design consists of two important technical aspects: *geometrical road design *structural road design Besides these two technical sides of the design, environmental issues, planning issues and juridical issues are important. ==Construction== Roads are built by removing vegetation (this may involve deforestation). The soil is tested to see if it will support weight and if not, a layer of soil is removed and replaced. The soil is compacted to form what is known as a "base course". On top of the base course is placed a wearing course which consists of asphalt concrete or concrete. While the main purpose of the wearing course is to prevent moisture from entering the road, for safety reasons this wearing course must be constructed to ensure adequate grip (and skid resistance) with vehicles. Roads are constructed using a variety of heavy equipment. Modern roads, and indeed many ancient ones, such as those built by the Ancient Rome, feature a convex lateral surface known as camber. This is designed to allow water to drain away from the road to its edges. Water is then carried away by gutters to drains placed at intervals. Some roads don't have gutters and water simply drains away to a naturally porous verge, or into ditches. Modern roads that carry high speed traffic also employ camber in curves to aid traffic stability by allowing them to "bank into" the bend to some extent. On the side of the road there may be retroreflectors on pegs, rocks or crash barriers, white toward the direction of the traffic on that side of the road, and red toward the other direction. In the road surface there may be Cat's eye (road)s: retroreflectors that protrude slightly, but which can be driven over without damage. traffic signs are often also made retroreflective. For greater visibility of road signs at daytime, sometimes fluorescence is applied to get very bright colors. == Maintenance == Like all outdoor structures, roads deteriorate over time. They may develop cracks or potholes, or be washed away altogether by floods. Cracks can be filled with various sealants and potholes can be filled with fresh asphalt, but eventually a whole new surface is needed. Most European countries have strict standards for road construction that ensure that most roads can go 40 years or longer between resurfacings. The United States and many other countries have less stringent standards under which most roads last only 20 to 25 years. == Terminology == [[Image:SandRoad.jpg|thumb|350px|right|A sand road in Namibia]] * arterial road * asphalt (also called bitumen) * autobahn * autoroute * autostrasse * bottleneck * boulevard * Cat's eye (road) * chicane * concrete * corduroy#Corduroy road * corniche * cul-de-sac * curb extension * expressway * farm to market * freeway * green lane * hard shoulder * highway * lane * mountain pass * milestone * motorway * Pavement (roads) * Pavement marker (roads) * pedestrian crossing * performance * plank road * public road * public space * ranch road * range road * ridge road * road number * road safety * road junction * roadworks * roundabout intersection * rural route * toll road * traffic calming * traffic circle * traffic sign * winter road ==See also== * Inca road system * List of roads and highways * Public road * Reclaim the Streets * Trade route ==External links== *[http://www.2pass.co.uk/goodluck.htm List of countries where traffic drives on the left, as well as historical background.] *[http://www.travel-library.com/general/driving/drive_which_side.html Which side of the road do they drive on?] Road transport Roads simple:Road

Road

---- ---- ==A brief History of roads in England== In the early years of the twentieth century the antiquarian Alfred Watkins published a book called �The Old Straight Track� which claimed to have discovered network of prehistoric trackways in Britain. These would have been the earliest roads in England and Watkins� evidence was based on the number of known points between which straight lines would produce a walkable way over mountain passes, fordable rivers, and so on. Many of these �known points� had survived as sites of Churches, which Watkins showed were built on prehistoric meeting places or crossroads, or as mark stones visible as landmarks. The interesting feature of these ways was their directness, many of them being straight lines for miles. The oldest surviving definite routes are the Iron Age tracks such as the Icknield Way and the Ridge Way, which follow ancient trade routes along dry ridges and escarpments, above the wet or thickly wooded valleys, which before Roman Times would have been infested with wolves and bears. Some of these routes offer a straighter and shorter route than modern main roads, such as the Earl�s Way which was used to carry salt from Cheshire to the river Trent and so to the east coast. The first extensive single system of roads in England was the famous network of Roman Roads. They were also the first roads in England to be constructed to produce a durable firm all-weather surface. Since the Roman authority had absolute control over the country the roads were built in straight lines as far as possible, notable examples being the northward stretch north of Lincoln and the east-west stretch to the east of what is now Telford. The roads were designed for marching troops, and in some cases (Blackstone Edge, east of Manchester, a surviving length of original pavement) steep gradients were tolerated for the sake of keeping the shortest distance. Many of the Roman Roads remained in use for centuries after they ceased to be maintained by the Roman authorities. The Anglo-Saxons gave them names such as Watling Street, Ermine Street, and so on, but it is important to remember that these were not the original names. Considerable lengths of Watling Street remain as the routes of modern roads, notably the A5 trunk road. Others have been by-passed by the differing routes needed by industrial Britain. Much of the Fosse Way, for example, once the main South-west to North-East road, is now narrow country lanes. The definitive book on Roman Roads is �Roman Roads in Britain � by Ivan D Margery (2 vols, OUP) published in the 1950s and long out of print. After the Roman road-building period, no new roads were constructed in England until the late eighteenth century. This astonishing gap can be explained by the durability of the Roman Roads (King Harold II used them for his famous forced march in 1066), and by the political and financial instability of England during much of the period, which precluded the orderly planning and building of new roads. As the Industrial period flourished the poor state of English roads prompted the setting up of Turnpike Trusts to raise money locally for the building of new roads and resurfacing of existing ones. Thomas Telford was one of the engineers who made his name in this way. Among his achievements was the North Wales coast road, built to assist journeys to and from Ireland when it became part of the United Kingdom in 1800. Telford designed two suspension bridges over the Conway and the Menai Strait. Other turnpikes were built to link canals, over land unsuitable for canal building. The term �turnpike� referred to the gates positioned at stages along the roads, which were opened to traffic on payment of a toll to pay for the road maintenance. After centuries of free roads, these were extremely unpopular, and even today any proposal to reintroduce toll roads in England is greeted with controversy. With the development of railways, which could transport passengers and freight in a small fraction of the time taken for a road journey, the turnpikes soon fell into disuse and many roads were as bad as they had been at any time since the Romans left. Eventually, the economic health of the country recovered to the state where county councils were prosperous enough to afford substantial improvements to roads. Many of the solidly-constructed stone bridges over rivers extant today, date from this period , the later part of the nineteenth century. The use of tar and stone chippings was also developed to provide smoother, more durable surfaces. After the First World War thousands of war-surplus lorries and vans were released onto the civil market and for the first time many businesses, large and small, could afford to own and operate motor vehicles. The private car market also expanded from its very small base before the war. This expansion in motor traffic prompted new roads on new routes, for example the Kingston By-Pass in Surrey, taking the Portsmouth Road (now the A3) away from Kingston-on-Thames, and the Liverpool to East Lancashire Road (now the A570) linking Liverpool and Manchester. These were the first �Dual carriageway� roads in England, where traffic in opposing directions was separated by a central barrier or �reservation�. Between then and the present day many existing trunk and main roads have been enlarged to dual carriageway, and several completely new roads were built in the 1950s, such as the A556 Northwich by-pass in Cheshire, linking Manchester with North Wales. During the 1930s all but minor roads in the UK were numbered in zones. Trunk and main roads were given numbers of one, two, or three digits, in descending order of importance preceded by the letter �A� (A1 being the old �Great North Road�) and subsidiary roads by four-digit numbers preceded by �B�. The first digit of each road number was 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 depending in which zone the road originated . The zones were numbered clockwise from the A1, zone 1 extending to the Dover Road (A2) and zone 2 to the Portsmouth road, zone3, and so on. During the 1950s the number of cars in England increased far beyond predictions, and the existing road system became congested. �Traffic Jams� became common subjects of conversation and complaint. At this stage the old main roads still ran through the crowded centres of market towns with their mediaeval street-plans, along streets which are mostly pedestrianised today In 1959 the biggest new-road building phase since the first century AD began with the Preston by-Pass, the first stretch of the M6 and the first stretch of �motorway� built in Britain. The network of �motorways� had been planned for many years but it was only now that finance was available. The first extensive length of motorway was the stretch of the M1 between Rugby and St. Albans, a road which eventually extended from north-west London to Leeds. During the 1960s many new motorways were built at considerable speed, though much controversy since has suggested that the methods of construction were deliberately rushed at the expense of durability, and the following generation of motorway drivers had to become accustomed to frequent disruption for carriageway repairs. At the end of the twentieth century the roads of England were facing overcrowding from increased motor traffic. As space for completely new roads is exhausted, the proposed solutions indicate further widening of existing roads, and the introduction of tolls to encourage drivers to reduce their use of cars. ---- ---- I've moved the above ''==A brief History of roads in England=='' for the following reasons. Firstly I'm concerned that it might be copied from somewhere. It's a long entry from an anon user with no real history. Secondly it is titled ''A brief History of roads in England'' and yet sometimes talks about roads in the UK and other times about England, it's inconsistent. Thirdly I think that such a long discussion of roads in England is out of context for an article about roads in general and that maybe it should be in an article of it's own. It is also is a bit much for an article to go into such detail about the UK when the article doesn't do so about roads in other countries. User:Mintguy 01:47 Dec 10, 2002 (UTC)

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

R

RA | RB | RC | RD | RE | RF | RG | RH | RI | RJ | RK | RL | RM | RN | RO | RP | RS | RT | RU | RW | RX | RY | RZ |

Words begining with Road:

Road
Road
Road,_Jim_Cartwright
Road-in-the-sky
Road-in-the-sky
Road-rule_enforcement_camera
Road-runner
Road-stub
Road-stub
Road-switcher
Roadable_aircraft
Roadable_aircraft
Roadblock
Roadcollective
Roadcone
Roaders
Roaders
Roadfan
Roadgeek
Roadgeek
Roadhouse
Roadhouses
Roadhouse_(band)
Roadie
Roadkill
Roadkill
RoadKillian
RoadKillian
Roadkill_(movie)
Roadkill_(wrestler)
Roadking
Roadmap
Roadmap_For_Peace
Roadmap_for_peace
Roadmarks
Roadmaster
Roadmr
Roadmr
Roadrailer
Roadrailer
Roadrailer/to_do
Roadrunner
Roadrunner
Roadrunner
Roadrunner
Roadrunner3000
Roadrunner3000
Roadrunners
Roadrunner_(cocktail)
Roadrunner_cartoon
Roadrunner_Records
Roads
Roads
RoadShow
Roadshow
Roadshow's
Roadshow_theatrical_release
Roadside_attraction
Roadside_attractions
Roadside_bomb
Roadside_memorial
Roadside_memorials
Roadside_Monument
Roadside_Picnic
Roadster
Roadster
Roadswitcher
Roads_and_Expressways_in_Poland
Roads_and_Expressways_in_Poland
Roads_and_Expressways_in_Romania
Roads_and_expressways_in_Romania
Roads_and_Expressways_in_South_Korea
Roads_and_Expressways_in_South_Korea
Roads_and_expressways_in_South_Korea
Roads_and_expressways_in_South_Korea
Roads_and_Expressways_of_Beijing
Roads_and_Expressways_of_Tianjin
Roads_and_Highways
Roads_and_highways_of_the_United_States
Roads_and_Traffic_Authority
Roads_by_country
Roads_in_Australia
Roads_in_British_Columbia
Roads_in_Durham_Region
Roads_in_Gabon
Roads_in_Ireland
Roads_in_Ireland
Roads_in_Ireland
Roads_in_Peel_Region
Roads_in_Romania
Roads_in_Senegal
Roads_in_Singapore
Roads_in_Switzerland
Roads_in_the_Netherlands
Roads_in_the_United_States
Roads_in_Trinidad_and_Tobago
Roads_in_York_Region
Roads_of_Iceland
Roads_Of_Pune
Roads_of_Pune
Roads_of_Pune
Roads_signs_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland
Roads_to_Resources_Program
Roadwarrior
Roadwarrior
Roadwarrior52
Roadwar_2000
Roadway
Roadway_Package_Service
Roadway_Package_System
Roadway_Services
Roadworks
Roadworms:_The_Berlin_Sessions
Road_&_Track
Road_&_Track_Ten_Best
Road_(movie)
Road_(play)
Road_accident
Road_accidents
Road_accident_statistics_on_a_model-by-model_basis
Road_Agent
Road_agent
Road_America
Road_and_Track
Road_Apples
Road_Apples
Road_Atlanta
Road_bicycle
Road_bicycle
Road_bicycle_race
Road_bicycle_racer
Road_bicycle_racing
Road_bicycle_racing
Road_bike
Road_block
Road_bridge
Road_case
Road_case
Road_cases
Road_cases
Road_charging
Road_cone
Road_cones
Road_congestion
Road_construction
Road_crew
Road_cycling
Road_Cycling_season_2005
Road_Dogg
Road_fan
Road_Fauna
Road_Fauna
Road_fauna
Road_fauna
Road_Fighter
Road_from_Varangians_to_Greeks
Road_from_Varangians_to_Greeks
Road_Gang
Road_geek
Road_Gornji_Milanovac-Donji_Banjani
Road_hockey
Road_holding
Road_House
Road_House_(1948_film)
Road_house_(1948_film)
Road_House_(1989_film)
Road_House_(1989_film)
Road_House_(film)
Road_House_(film)
Road_junction
Road_junction
Road_junction_types
Road_Map
Road_map
Road_Map_for_Peace
Road_map_for_peace
Road_map_for_peace
Road_map_to_peace
Road_movie
Road_movie
Road_movies
Road_movies
Road_number
Road_of_Life
Road_pricing
Road_pricing
Road_Race
Road_racing
Road_racing
Road_Rage
Road_rage
Road_rally
Road_rally
Road_Rash
Road_Rash_3D
Road_Rovers
Road_Rules
Road_Runner
Road_Runner
Road_runner
Road_Runner_(game)
Road_Runner_(game)
Road_Runner_cartoon
Road_Runner_cartoon
Road_Runner_cartoons
Road_running
Road_running
Road_Safety
Road_safety
Road_safety
Road_salt
Road_shoulder
Road_sign
Road_signs
Road_signs_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland
Road_stubs
Road_switcher
Road_system
Road_tax
Road_Tested
Road_Tested
Road_toll
Road_Town
Road_to_Avonlea
Road_to_Bali
Road_to_Bali
Road_to_Hong_Kong
Road_To_Morocco
Road_to_Morocco
Road_to_Perdition
Road_to_perdition
Road_to_reality
Road_To_Ruin
Road_to_Ruin
Road_to_Ruin
Road_to_Serfdom
Road_to_the_Isles
Road_to_the_Isles
Road_to_United_Cyprus
Road_traffic_engineering
Road_Traffic_Safety_Law_of_mainland_China
Road_Traffic_Safety_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China
Road_Traffic_Safety_Law_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China
Road_Train
Road_train
Road_train
Road_Transport
Road_Transport
Road_transport
Road_transport
Road_transport
Road_transportation
Road_transport_in_Hong_Kong
Road_transport_in_Singapore
Road_transport_in_Switzerland
Road_transport_in_the_Netherlands
Road_transport_in_the_United_Kingdom
Road_Trip
Road_vehicle
Road_Waffles
Road_waffles
Road_waffles
Road_Warrior
Road_Warriors
Road_Warrior_Hawk
Road_Wild
Road_Work