Road Network
The Edinburgh City Bypass (A720) skirts the southern fringes of the city. The road was constructed between 1981 and 1990 and opened to motorists in sections. The road is one of the main trunk roads in east central Scotland linking vitally important routes such as the M8, the main route west to Glasgow, the A1 the primary route south to from Scotland to England, and the M9 to Stirling. The City Bypass is linked by the A902 to the A90 leading north out of the city.
Edinburgh itself is the hub of the A-road numbering system within Scotland, and many radial routes lead in and out of the city. Routes radiating from Edinburgh are as follows (in a clockwise direction):
- A1 - to Berwick-upon-Tweed and over the border into England.
- A68 - to Jedburgh then over the border into England as far as Darlington.
- A7 - to Galashiels and Hawick.
- A701 - to Peebles.
- A702 - to Carlisle (via A74(M)).
- A70 - to Lanark.
- A71 - to Kilmarnock.
- A8 - to Glasgow (via M8) and Stirling (via M9).
- A90 - to Forth Road Bridge, for access to Fife, Perth, Dundee and northwards.
Construction on the Forth Replacement Crossing, adjacent to the Forth Road Bridge, began in 2011, and the new route is due to open in 2016. In order to alleviate traffic congestion in many areas, park and ride facilities have been provided at several points on the periphery of the city.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Edinburgh
Famous quotes containing the words road and/or network:
“Such were the first rude beginnings of a town. They spoke of the practicability of a winter road to the Moosehead Carry, which would not cost much, and would connect them with steam and staging and all the busy world. I almost doubted if the lake would be there,—the self-same lake,—preserve its form and identity, when the shores should be cleared and settled; as if these lakes and streams which explorers report never awaited the advent of the citizen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)