A40(M)

A40(M) Westway

The best known and most notorious of London’s motorways, the Westway had a greater impact than any other because it's the one that got built.

Routes

Western Avenue Extension

The Western Avenue Extension - opened as A40(M) and known as the Westway - was much hated when it opened, but there's no sign of that in the official book published to mark its opening.

Routes

What's new

The road that made no sense

It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.

The forever bottleneck, part 2

The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.

The forever bottleneck, part 1

The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.

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Smart Motorways

Motorways used to be really simple. Now they have electronic signals, variable speed limits, emergency lay-bys, part-time hard shoulders... Just what is so smart about Smart Motorways?