Originally Posted by
Ohrly
How many miles of perfectly straight motorway does the UK actually possess? Was this planned for in the construction of our motorways?
The UK came relatively late to Motorways, and benefitted from the experience in other countries that lengthy straight sections tended to have a higher accident rate, and thus a series of gentle curves is part of the design where practical.
There are a considerable range of objects that would impinge on any runway use, not least that the current specification for the centre divider has moved on to a concrete wall several feet high, which many will have noticed are being progressively fitted across the network, and because the wall is impervious there are substantial drainage channels and covers either side.. Likewise information and routing signs have developed from being at the side of the road to being cantilevered out over it, to overcome being shielded from outer lane traffic by platoons of high trucks.
There are quite a range of countries which say they have this approach at given points, which when I look at them seem quite impractical to change over. About the only chance of doing it effectively would be incorporating such provision in the initial design - and of course we don't design or build new motorways in the UK any more.