Wednesday 19 August 2009

E is for...


E-roads

Every country in Europe has its own way of naming their roads. In Great Britain and in Ireland they use the letter M followed by a number for their motorways. Most mainland countries use the letter A followed by a number for their motorways. This of course can lead to some confusion. If you drive from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Rome in Italy, there are a number of motorways you drive on and there are different names and numbers for them. Netherlands: A2-A12, Germany: A3-A67-A5, Switzerland: A2, Italy: A9-A50-A1.

So seeing that we are one Europe, they have decided to make it just that tiny bit easier for us. Instead of having to follow all those different names, we only have to follow one: E35! That will lead you directly to Rome!

There are others as well: Cork in Ireland to Omsk in Russia: follow the E30. Lisburn in Northern Ireland to Seville in Spain: follow the E1. Kaaresuvanto in Finland to Gela on Sicily, Italy: follow the E45.

All E-roads are crossing borders. Sometimes one, sometimes more. And not only in Europe: there are some routes even into central Asia! Some countries use the E-numbering as their primary motorway numbering, like Belgium. The United Kingdom doesn't aknowledge the E-roads at all. Ireland has only recently (2007) started incorporating them in their road-system.

For me as a professional driver, using E-roads makes life easier. As long as you know where you're going that is...

For more E-words, please check out ABC Wednesday and join in the fun!

15 comments:

  1. Oh yes, that would make driving a lot easier...

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  2. It's like the US designation on national highways in the United States to distinguish them from state highways. Yes, it would make a lot of sense, were I on my wat to Rome.

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  3. How interesting! Glad they are beginning to take notice!

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  4. Well that maks sense and must make getting where one wants to go much easier. Very interesting subject for the letter E.

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  5. Of course as you know here in UK we have A, B and M roads! Probably easier to have all E roads, but we do like to be different here! Happy driving. A

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  6. Ah, a new E naming system for cross European highway. The only thing with now internet and ecommerce, the E naming system make us think of the virtual highway only exist in the cyberspace.

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  7. I hate the homogenisation of our cultures. I loathe and detest it. But I can see where it would make sense in this case!

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  8. highways in the US have a logic like that

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  9. Another e- ! I first thought of roads on the internet, but that didn't make any sense at all. Thank you for educating me. Sounds somewhat like the US Interstate system. But we still need a map, or several!

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  10. Well, the e naming has already been in use since 1975, so it isn't that new.

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  11. E-roads make great sense for Europe. In the US, our state roads usually change numbers at the borders, and that can lead to confusion.

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  12. It does make it easier I would think.
    E roads...never knew about them.
    Thanks!
    Sherry

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  13. agree with you about the roadnames. In sweden the most important ones are E-roads and they cross borders both south east and north. we also have as they had in germany for a while numbers on each turn-off so if you have a matching map you always know where you are. Thats one thing I appreciated in germany before we had the same

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  14. That would make life easier, rather than looking for a list of road numbers. We may not have any E roads but we do have an E which is the E2 long distance footpath, which starts in Ireland, runs down the east side of the country and over the channel.

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!