Round the bend? How we became a nation of roadies

In the roll call of man-made objects of beauty, the A650 Bingley Relief Road would not seem an automatic candidate for greatness. During its 2.8-mile journey through the Yorkshire town, the A650 crosses three bogs, a railway and a Victorian canal before cutting straight through a landfill site containing 250,000 cubic metres of contaminated waste.

In the roll call of man-made objects of beauty, the A650 Bingley Relief Road would not seem an automatic candidate for greatness. During its 2.8-mile journey through the Yorkshire town, the A650 crosses three bogs, a railway and a Victorian canal before cutting straight through a landfill site containing 250,000 cubic metres of contaminated waste.

Yesterday, however, the A650 in particular, and British roads in general, achieved the recognition that many - from civil engineers to a new cult of roundabout enthusiasts - feel they have long been wrongly denied. The £49.5m Bingley road beat competition from structures such as the refurbished Trafalgar Square, a Scottish viaduct and a cutting-edge public lavatory in Hampshire, to be named Britain's best public "building" for 2004.

The award from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) marks the first time that a road - rather than a more conventional structure with walls and a roof - has received the Better Public Building Award, set up by Tony Blair four years ago. But the accolade for less than three miles of newly laid asphalt through a post-industrial landscape reflects a growing and hitherto unnoticed trend in British society.

For despite spending increasing periods of time examining Tarmac and drain covers at close quarters while sitting in traffic jams, Britons are increasingly fascinated and obsessed by the nation's 4,818 miles of trunk road.

Publishers predicted yesterday that a book entitled Roundabouts of Great Britain, featuring 80 pictures of traffic islands, will become a Christmas best -seller. At the same time, a series of appreciation societies dedicated to all things highway-related, from road signs to motorway junctions, report burgeoning membership numbers.

According to Cabe, the time has come to hand out plaudits when road builders, a favourite target for environmentalists and aesthetes alike, get it right. Paul Finch, chairman of the group and one of the judges, said: "The truth is that a road is going to be used by far more people than most public buildings. As a society we are accepting the need for roads but in a sense civilising the road and car by making them respond to the landscape. The conventional way of thinking of roads is as a scar on the landscape. You can build a road as a brutal intervention but you can also do it by careful consideration. That is what happened with the Bingley road - it showed excellent design and construction."

Quite how the A650 - one of four road projects shortlisted for the award - surpassed the neo-classical frontages of Trafalgar Square, a new medical school in Glasgow or even the new £800m "bagel" headquarters of GCHQ in aesthetic terms was unclear. But where others may see litter-strewn kerbs and dingy underpasses, the new breed of road-lover spots beauty and ingenuity.

The Cabe judges pointed to the fact that the A650 relief road involved the building of 26 separate structures, including a graceful suspension bridge and a low-level bridge to traverse the environmentally sensitive Bingley South Bog. Rather than circumventing a potentially troublesome landfill site, the road was praised for cutting straight through and safely containing the 250,000 cubic metres of waste.

But the judging panel is not the first to use praise rather than expletives to describe the humble highway. A recent rash of books on some of Britain's most famous (or notorious) thoroughfares has proved that where there is bitumen, there is also brass. In the past four years "biographies" of the A40, A1 and M25 have sold 200,000 copies between them while another tome offering advice on how to cheat traffic jams on the M25 has also proved to be popular.

The result has been a eulogising of some of the most frustrating and superficially uninspiring examples of civil engineering on the planet. Iain Sinclair, who wrote an account of a walk around the M25 in London Orbital, said: "The M25 is a circle that goes nowhere. A voyage into reverie, narcolepsy, murder, drug deals, madness ... A grungy hike sustained by greasy-spoon breakfasts, epic skies over the estuary, epiphanies in a fugue of diesel exhaustion."

Publishers, understandably, are seeking to satisfy what they detect as a significant demand for road-related titles. A commissioning editor at one major publishing house said yesterday: "I think there is an inner nerd in many of us to which road books appeal. We have had histories of salt, cod and clocks that have made the best-seller lists so, if it is done well, there is no reason why an account of roads shouldn't work. We're certainly looking for something."

Few, however, could have predicted the "sleeper" success of the title tipped to top many Christmas stockings this year. Kevin Beresford, the owner of a printing firm in Redditch, printed a joke calendar of roundabouts in his home town two years ago. But amusement rapidly turned to infatuation and today, Roundabouts of Great Britain, the result of two years of touring the country photographing traffic islands, has already sold 20,000 copies.

The book, which follows a similar volume of worldwide roundabouts published by a Swiss photographer this March, appeals to something deeply seated in the British psyche, according to its author. Mr Beresford, 52, said: "Roundabouts hit a soft spot in British hearts that, for example, traffic lights never can. They are aesthetically pleasing - they are often planted with floral displays. I think they appeal to our love of gardening and also the fact that we are an island race."

The author, who accompanies his 80 favourite roundabouts with a 10,000-word history, has taken his fascination to extremes by compiling a work on the roundabouts of Milton Keynes and the Costa del Sol. He said: "I must say, sometimes I think I could happily never see a roundabout again. But then after a night's sleep I feel fine. Each roundabout has its individuality. They are oases of calm in a sea of asphalt."

Mr Beresford is far from alone in being enthralled by road infrastructure. As a founder member of the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society, which has recruited 30 like-minded devotees since it was set up this summer, he is part of a burgeoning community of interest groups. A perusal of the internet will uncover sites dedicated to listing and picturing all British roads, ranking the worst motorway junctions, discussing typefaces on road signs and campaigning against driving over, rather than around, mini-roundabouts.

Among the larger groups is Sabre (Society for All British Road Enthusiasts), which boasts 400 members. Entries on the group's online forum yesterday included discussions on whether the Highways Agency issues fictitious road numbers for use in television dramas and proof that the A14 is a "real motorway".

But while some may snigger at such pedantry, others point out that the sophistication and complexity of Britain's road network merits such interest. Brian Ferne, a senior research fellow at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), said: "Road-building is vastly more complex than it was, for example, when the M1 was built.To many it may look like we just lay down concrete and asphalt but there is a vast amount of assessment and technology being used."

The average road contains up to five layers of material designed to ensure that, apart from replacing the top covering of bitumen and aggregate, other repairs are unlikely to be required. Experts at TRL have perfected techniques that microscopically analyse chippings in road surfaces to ensure "high-friction" materials are used at busy junctions.

According to one of the most august motoring institutions of all, Britons are right to be increasingly obsessed by their roundabouts, road toppings and relief roads. Kevin Delaney, spokesman for the RAC Foundation, said: "People so often have their lives blighted by roads. So if we are entering an age where we are interested in user-friendly, neighbour-friendly roads that minimise their impact on the environment then that is to be applauded. After all, we've been using them since the Romans and we could not survive without them."

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The Magic Roundabout

The "magic roundabout" at Swindon is a modern travellers' tale that, like the old yarns about headless men, seems laughably unfeasible unless you've seen it with your own eyes. Officially named the County Ground roundabout, this is a fiendish series of five mini-roundabouts, built in September 1972, to ease the flow of traffic converging from five directions. Swindonians swear it works.

The biggest interchange

Spaghetti Junction, at Gravelly Hill, north of Birmingham on the Midland link motorway section of the M6, is the most complicated British interchange. It consists of 18 routes (including three motorways) on six levels.

The secret exit

According to M4 conspiracy theorists, as you pass junction 13 on the westbound carriageway, there are a set of sliproads signposted "Works Access Only". Nothing unusual in that, but the signs have red borders, implying a military exit. Apparently, this is the back entrance to RAF Welford, an RAF/USAF military installation used for storing munitions. Some protest groups insist nuclear weapons were stored here instead of Greenham Common, but this has never been confirmed.

The most lanes

The M61 at Linnyshaw Moss, Worsley, Greater Manchester, has 17 side by side.

The busiest motorway

No prizes for the right answer, which is, of course, the M25, specifically between junctions 14 and 15 (the M4 to the A3113) which carries 165,000 vehicles per day.

The steepest road

Chimney Bank on the Rosedale Abbey to Hutton-le-Hole road in North Yorkshire, is a one-in-three climb. Notorious among the cycling fraternity, apparently.

The first toll motorway

The M6 toll is a new 27-mile motorway, north and east of Birmingham which bypasses the busiest section of the M6, between junctions 4 and 11. It costs £2 for cars and £1 between 11pm and 6am.

The best road reads

Roundabouts of Great Britain, by Kevin Beresford (New Holland Publishers, 2004); Andreas Zust: Roundabouts, by Andreas Zust (Patrick Frey, Switzerland, 2004); London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25, by Iain Sinclair, et al (Granta Books, 2002); A1: Portrait of a Road by Nigel Richardson, et al (HarperCollins Illustrated, 2000); Leadville: A Biography of the A40, by Edward Platt (Picador, 2000);

The best view

The section of the M6 along the Lake District is probably the only motorway in Britain where being distracted by the view is a hazard, particularly at Shap. Turn off at junction 39 if it all gets too much.

The high points

The M62, which crosses the Pennines, is officially Britain's highest motorway and Saddleworth Moor, in the heart of Bronte country, is the highest point. The highest road is the A93 from Spittal of Glenshee to Braemar, which reaches 665m (2,182ft) at Cairnwell Pass.

The finest food

Britain's best motorway service station is arguably Tebay Services, just north of Junction 38 on the M6. It is run by Westmoreland Limited, the only small local company in England to have both built and operated a motorway service station. As you would expect from an independent company with local roots, the food is great - anything from steak and kidney to cumberland sausage and even faggots, plus calorific examples of farmhouse-style baking. Not for those on the Atkins diet.

The joy of C-roads

Generally supposed not to exist; but for those who know where to look (eg, Lincolnshire), they are much prized.

The right type

With a few highly regarded exceptions, all British road signs use the same font: Transport Medium or Transport Heavy. Both were developed by the graphic artists Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. Connoisseurs like spotting Helvetica or Univers (North Yorkshire) and Arial (Wales). You can download copies of all UK road-sign fonts at www.allan-online.co.uk

With thanks to Chris Marshall (www.cbrd.co.uk) and Guinness World Records