Portal:Roads/Did you know

This is a complete archive of Did you knows... for the roads portal. For new additions add them to the bottom of this archives as well as to DYKlisting. Thank you. These are the other two rotating lists, to make three DYK's randomly appearing on the portal: list or another list. Thank you.


 * ...that there is no nationwide numbering system in Canada, but the Trans-Canada Highway (pictured) provides a continuous network through all the provinces?
 * ...that there are no continuous motorway links through London inside the M25 orbital motorway?
 * ...that the entire McMurdo-South Pole highway was successfully traversed in 2006?
 * ...that there are trans-national highways and road networks that span entire continents, including the Pan-American Highway and the continental road networks in Asia, Africa, and Europe?
 * ...that Saskatchewan Highway 39 is one of the nation of Canada's busiest highways, providing ease of transport for $6 billion in trade goods via approximately 100,000 trucks over the year?"
 * ...that 250,000 kilometers (150,000 miles) of roads complement air, pipeline, hiking trail, and waterway travel to provide transportation in Saskatchewan?"
 * ...that the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure employs 1,476 employees diversified amongst 105 communities, maintaining 198,239 kilometers (123,180 mi) of roads and highways?"
 * ...that speed limits on Guam Highway 1 may differ depending on which side of the road you are on?
 * ...that British Columbia provincial highway 2 is a short road from Dawson Creek to the B.C./Alberta border?
 * ... that Pinkie Road, a part of the Global Transportation Hub intermodal port authority facility, will link the Trans Canada Highway 1 and Highway 11 as a part of the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative?
 * ...that the site of the early Viking hill fort of Alaborg, Russia, was turned into a quarry for construction of a highway during the years of Stalinism?
 * ...that completion of the West Coast Highway viaduct — the longest in Singapore — was delayed for more than two years because of the contractor's financial problems?
 * ...that Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg, Prussia?
 * ...that Saskatchewan Highway 58 travels the Missouri Coteau to an important shore bird site on Canada's second largest saline lake?
 * ...that Manitoba Provincial Road 373 became famous after a band from Norway House won an award for an album named after the highway?
 * ... that labourers paving Saskatchewan Highway 641 in 1942 earned 35 cents an hour and a labourer with a tractor-drawn drag earned 50 cents an hour?
 * ... that a 25 ft tall, traditionally-dressed Ukrainian woman offers bread and salt to Saskatchewan Highway 5 travelers at Canora, a town in Saskatchewan, Canada?
 * ... that in a toll dispute between residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras and the Cheras-Kajang Highway concessionaire, a barrier blocking a shunpike was repeatedly torn down and rebuilt?
 * ... that the Northern Woods and Water Route is a 2400 km highway route through northern Canada, from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Winnipeg, Manitoba?
 * ... that a dendrochronological study suggests the Corlea Trackway, a kilometre-long corduroy road in County Longford, Ireland, was built around 148 BC?
 * ...that most of Petroleum Road, a privately owned asphalt road in the Golan Heights, is marked on maps as inaccessible to traffic because of poor road quality?
 * ...that in Upper and Lower Canada, the colonial government used concession roads to define lots which were to be developed?
 * ...that cross-country cyclists are more prone to injury than road cyclists but the injuries sustained by the former are less severe on average?
 * ...that bridges carrying India's Grand Trunk Road over the Barakar River were washed away in 1913 and 1946?
 * ...that day beacons and other navigational aids vary in standard designation worldwide much like driving on the right or left?
 * ... that the Khardungla Pass is the highest motorable road in the world?
 * ...that Gustavus Blin Wright, a pioneer road builder and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada, built the 127 mi-long Old Cariboo Road in 1862–3?
 * ...that the 1957 accident on the Saint-Paul ramps claimed twenty-seven lives, making it among Réunion's deadliest road accidents?
 * ...that the Gough Map, housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, is the oldest surviving road map of Great Britain and is believed to date from sometime between 1355 and 1366?
 * ...that the last male-line descendant of Alexander III of Russia, Count George Brasov, died in a road accident whilst exiled in France at the age of 20?
 * ...that Dogs Trust, a British animal welfare charity, provided AA wardens with pistols to painlessly euthanise animals injured in road accidents?
 * ...that the Transport typeface was created for use on British road signs (pictured) following the introduction of the motorway network? [[Image:Road.sign.arp.750pix.jpg|A road sign with the Transport typeface|right|100px]]
 * ...that a table bridge is a moveable bridge (pictured) that looks like an ordinary road when closed but appears monstrous when open, while a similarly appearing submersible bridge vanishes when open? (Pont levant Notre Dame)
 * ...that cyclist Gerald Ciolek became the youngest ever German National Cycling Champion, aged just 18 in 2005?
 * ...that 24 Royal Marines cadets aged 10 to 13 were killed when a double-decker bus ploughed into their marching column in the 1951 Gillingham bus disaster, setting a new British record of fatalities in a road accident?
 * ...that Maes Titianus penetrated farther along the Silk Road than any other Westerner in Antiquity, reaching the Stone Tower of Tashkurgan in the Pamirs?
 * ...that Rapides-des-Joachims, Quebec has no paved road connection with the rest of Quebec?
 * ...that The New 7th Storey Hotel, a budget hotel catering to backpackers in Singapore, is actually nine storeys high and was the tallest building in the Beach Road area in the 1950s?
 * ...that the Glasgow Inner Ring Road was only half complete when it was abandoned in 1980, leaving several incomplete junctions, one of which ends abruptly in mid-air?
 * ...that John Vesey, a 16th-century bishop of Exeter, had a fordkeeper's cottage built along Plants Brook to help provide security for travelers on the Wylde Green Road?
 * ...that road maintenance depots have been used as fronts to disguise entrances to military installations?
 * ...that road slipperiness causes over 53,000 accidents a year in the United Kingdom alone?
 * ...that there is more variation in the design of direction signs (example pictured) internationally than in any other class of road sign?
 * ...that the current Northam Bridge in Southampton, England was the first major road bridge to be built using prestressed concrete in the United Kingdom?
 * ...that Horseferry Road takes its name from a horse-ferry from The Embankment to Lambeth Stairs, once one of the most important Thames crossings in London, and which was owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury?
 * ...that Mooney Mooney Bridge (pictured) is the highest road bridge in the southern hemisphere?
 * ...that famous tenor Antonio Giuglini used to jaywalk through traffic on London's Brompton Road while flying his kite?
 * ...that, as well as being used to clear snow, winter service vehicles (pictured) can be used to repair roads which have melted in hot weather?
 * ...that the four corners of the main crossroads in the historic town of Ross in Tasmania are known as Temptation, Recreation, Salvation and Damnation?
 * ...that a road in Charlcombe, Somerset, England is closed for two months every spring to allow frogs and toads to cross safely?
 * ...that the Battle of Dombås was a German attempt during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign at using Fallschirmjägers to cut rail and road links in central Norway?
 * ...that a proposed strategic road link through Bangladesh and its capital Dhaka will reduce the travel distance between the Indian cities of Agartala and Kolkata from 1,700 km to 400 km?
 * ...that La Salle Road in Hong Kong is named after French educator Jean-Baptiste de la Salle?
 * ... that the 2008 Irish flash floods submerged one of the busiest roads in Northern Ireland under six metres of water?
 * ... that Hubert Shirley-Smith wrote the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on bridges?
 * ... that the King road drag, a road grader widely used across North America for grading dirt roads in the early 20th century, was invented by D. Ward King?
 * ... that India and Pakistan have expanded cross-border road and rail transport links, including across the disputed region of Kashmir?
 * ... that the Royal Road leading into Wawel Castle (pictured) through the medieval Old Town, goes by way of the only defensive gate still standing after the modernization of Kraków?
 * ... that in building Arthur De Wint Foote's Foote's Crossing Road, Italian stonemasons constructed high embankment walls above the Middle Yuba River?
 * ... that British Columbia's Disaster Response Route network, while mostly consisting of roads, also includes marine routes?
 * ... that from 1945 until 1978, cars in Okinawa Prefecture drove on the right side of the road until a switch to left-hand drive as part of the 730 Conversion Plan, to match the rest of Japan?
 * ... that construction of Mughal Road in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir was opposed because it impeded the movement of the Markhor goat?