alternatehistory.com

The UK was rather late to the motorway game, opening its' first controlled-access highway in 1959. By comparison, Germany opened its' first in 1932, the United States opened its' first in 1927, and Italy the world's first in 1924.

This needn't have been, though. The Northern and Western Motorway Company proposed in 1923 to build a tolled motorway (technically a light railway, thanks to some oddities of British law) from Coventry to Manchester, ultimately with extensions to London and Liverpool. The proposal was aimed primarily at long-distance goods traffic, and failed largely because motor transport companies believed that improvements on the railways would be more cost-effective for long distance transport.

More information here: http://pathetic.org.uk/features/northern_and_western_motorway/

What if the motor transport companies had supported the idea, and swung the government of the day to support it, giving Britain motorways 30 years ahead of schedule?
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