A new name for a very old website

Something is different. Have you spotted it yet?

Ah yes, that'll be it: four clunky initials have disappeared from the page title and the address of the website. You'll be used to visiting CBRD, but those letters are suddenly absent.

This website started life 17 years ago this month - August 2001, though exactly what day it was is not something I seem to have recorded. Let's say it was today. Back then, I never seriously expected anybody would want to read about roads, so I didn't spend too long giving my website a name. I settled on "Chris's British Roads Directory", a daft mouthful of words that has haunted me ever since. It's not a directory, for a start, and it's never been just about Britain.

The name was abbreviated to "CBRD" very quickly, with its full name in smaller letters underneath where it appeared at the top of pages, and then in about 2005 the wordy version was dropped entirely. Since then it's just been called CBRD, a collection of meaningless letters that don't look good together, don't roll off the tongue if you say them out loud, and which everybody finds difficult to remember. (Out loud, most people call it "CRBD".)

Well, no more: this month is the site's 17th birthday, and if it were a person, it would now finally be old enough to take a driving test. Since I can't buy it some driving lessons, its birthday present is a brand new name.

Welcome to Roads.org.uk

"CBRD" has vanished from view and has been replaced by a name that's also the new web address - Roads.org.uk. You'll see, if you look at the top of your screen, that you've already been redirected to the new address. All the old page addresses still work (and will do for many years), but they'll all seamlessly ping you across here now.

So why is this the new name?

• It lets you know what the site is about. It's about roads in the UK.
• The name is the web address, so there's no confusion about where to find it.
• It may take longer to say but it's much easier to remember and you'll almost certainly get it right first time.
• All the really good web addresses for roads are already taken, but this one unexpectedly became available, so I bought it.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to come clean, I'd have to admit that this is something I've wanted to do - but couldn't settle on a suitable new name - for about the last 16 years.

What's changing?

Just the name - nothing else.

You'll find that references to "CBRD" in the text of pages across the site will steadily disappear, except where it wouldn't make sense to change them. If you've emailed me before, my existing e-mail addresses will continue to work. And at some point soon, the site's Twitter and Facebook names will change to reflect the new name too.

Thank you

If you travelled back in time and told me, in August 2001, that the website I was about to tentatively put online would still be running nearly two decades later, with a readership in the thousands, I don't think I'd have believed you. I'd have told you it was just something I was doing to see if anyone else was interested in my pet subject.

I'd also have asked who on earth you are and why you're wearing all those futuristic clothes.

Nevertheless, here we all are. CBRD - sorry, Roads.org.uk - is only here after all this time because of all the people who take the time to visit, read the articles, post their comments and Road Schemes updates, send me messages and suggest corrections or new ideas. So, if you're here and reading this, then thank you. And if we're all still here in another 17 years I will definitely owe you all a drink.