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Breakdown recovery services
The early motorists, by sheer definition of their car ownership, were wealthy enough to employ a mechanic to ride shotgun for running repairs, although the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), formed in 1897, introduced uniformed patrol staff in 1901 to help its members. The rival Automobile Association (AA) formed in 1905, primarily with the purpose of warning its initial 100 members about speed traps, before developing its services to the touring motorist, including travel guides, maps, hotel ratings and restaurant reviews.
These two firms still dominate the breakdown service/recovery field with their liveried vehicles on call 24 hours a day, although some of their services, such as a truck ride home, are now contracted out. If you've ever been left stranded on a motorway hard shoulder, conked out on a cold morning or spluttered to a halt on a lonely country road, you'll know that signing up to a breakdown recovery service is worth every penny.
The early motorists, by sheer definition of their car ownership, were wealthy enough to employ a mechanic to ride shotgun for running repairs, although the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), formed in 1897, introduced uniformed patrol staff in 1901 to help its members. The rival Automobile Association (AA) formed in 1905, primarily with the purpose of warning its initial 100 members about speed traps, before developing its services to the touring motorist, including travel guides, maps, hotel ratings and restaurant reviews.
These two firms still dominate the breakdown service/recovery field with their liveried vehicles on call 24 hours a day, although some of their services, such as a truck ride home, are now contracted out. If you've ever been left stranded on a motorway hard shoulder, conked out on a cold morning or spluttered to a halt on a lonely country road, you'll know that signing up to a breakdown recovery service is worth every penny.
Caravans
Ah, the joys of the open road... and a long tailback behind someone in an underpowered estate car trying to drag all their home comforts with them.
We've never understood the logic of caravans, especially in an age of cheap air fares and affordable 'boutique' B&Bs (have you seen how much a new caravan costs?), nor why you would want to spend hours travelling very slowly just to stay in a cramped, makeshift plasticky replica of your house (isn't a holiday about going somewhere new or different?) but nearly as long as there have been cars, there have been caravans.
Caravanning boomed in the 50s and 60s, before the cheap package holiday took off; enthusiasts, however, claim that there's a resurgence in interest and recent campaigns have tried to convince us that caravanning is cool. Nope... sorry, we're not buying that one.
However, we will make an exception for camper vans and American RVs, which are a bit like rock star tour buses, and those silver Airstream trailers.
Ah, the joys of the open road... and a long tailback behind someone in an underpowered estate car trying to drag all their home comforts with them.
We've never understood the logic of caravans, especially in an age of cheap air fares and affordable 'boutique' B&Bs (have you seen how much a new caravan costs?), nor why you would want to spend hours travelling very slowly just to stay in a cramped, makeshift plasticky replica of your house (isn't a holiday about going somewhere new or different?) but nearly as long as there have been cars, there have been caravans.
Caravanning boomed in the 50s and 60s, before the cheap package holiday took off; enthusiasts, however, claim that there's a resurgence in interest and recent campaigns have tried to convince us that caravanning is cool. Nope... sorry, we're not buying that one.
However, we will make an exception for camper vans and American RVs, which are a bit like rock star tour buses, and those silver Airstream trailers.
Eurotunnel
How can such a fantastic concept, and an excellent piece of engineering, not be a profitable success?
The Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais links we Brits to the Continent, transporting us there, in our cars, in less than an hour in a relatively hassle-free process. It beats the ferry any day – it cuts hours off the Channel Crossing time, and you don't get seasick.
Proposals for a tunnel under the English Channel date back to 1802 (mining engineer Albert Matthieu and Henri Mottray's 1803 plan) but didn't gather steam until the 1830s, when both England and France were building their railway network and the benefits of a rail tunnel were debated. French mining engineer Thome de Gamond spent 30 years working on seven different designs.
1880 saw the Beaumont & English boring machine begin to dig, but the project faltered; the First World War brought concerns over national security (from both sides). Research resumed in the late 50s and the project relaunched in 1973 by British PM Edward Heath and French president George Pompidou - but abandoned again in 1975, due to the fuel crisis. In the mid-80s, the plan was put out to private tender and the Eurotunnel plan selected in 1986; a joint announcement was made by Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterand. Diggers from each side met in the middle in 1990 and the tunnel opened officially in May 1994.
The ferry firms responded by cutting their prices. Eurotunnel remains expensive – ridiculously so if you turn up on the day without a pre-booked ticket – but really, it has to be the best way to do a booze cruise or set off for a summer holiday.
How can such a fantastic concept, and an excellent piece of engineering, not be a profitable success?
The Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais links we Brits to the Continent, transporting us there, in our cars, in less than an hour in a relatively hassle-free process. It beats the ferry any day – it cuts hours off the Channel Crossing time, and you don't get seasick.
Proposals for a tunnel under the English Channel date back to 1802 (mining engineer Albert Matthieu and Henri Mottray's 1803 plan) but didn't gather steam until the 1830s, when both England and France were building their railway network and the benefits of a rail tunnel were debated. French mining engineer Thome de Gamond spent 30 years working on seven different designs.
1880 saw the Beaumont & English boring machine begin to dig, but the project faltered; the First World War brought concerns over national security (from both sides). Research resumed in the late 50s and the project relaunched in 1973 by British PM Edward Heath and French president George Pompidou - but abandoned again in 1975, due to the fuel crisis. In the mid-80s, the plan was put out to private tender and the Eurotunnel plan selected in 1986; a joint announcement was made by Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterand. Diggers from each side met in the middle in 1990 and the tunnel opened officially in May 1994.
The ferry firms responded by cutting their prices. Eurotunnel remains expensive – ridiculously so if you turn up on the day without a pre-booked ticket – but really, it has to be the best way to do a booze cruise or set off for a summer holiday.
Motorways
It's hard to believe, if you have to commute around the M25, that motorways were originally conceived for rapid transit...
The first defining factor of a motorway is its motor-only status: a motorway is not a general right-of-way. The Berlin AVUS (Automobile Verkehrs und Ubungsstrasse) was an early example of a multi-lane highway closed to pedestrians, cyclists, horse-drawn traffic and other non-automotive transport. It was built around south-west Berlin in 1913-21, although it was just 19km in length (today, it's part of the A115).
The 80-mile Milan-Varese 'autostrada' is generally recognised as the first European motorway; a pet project of Mussolini, it opened – complete with tolls – in 1924. Germany instigated an extensive plan for autobahn-building – a key part of Hitler's vision for the country – and the first inter-city autobahns opened between Dusseldorf-Opladen in 1929 and Cologne-Bonn (1932). The Americans had limited-access 'parkways' in New York (Bronx River, 1907, and Long Island, 1908) but these were focused more on recreational driving; the first high-speed freeway or expressway is generally agreed to be the tolled Pennsylvania Turnpike (1940).
Most Brits think that the M1 was the country's first motorway, but that's not strictly true. An experimental road, the Preston Bypass opened 1956, pioneering the motor-only road in the UK: this is now part of the M6 between junction 29 and the M55. There was also the Salford Bypass, now part of the M62.
The six-lane M1 was, however, the first extensive motorway as we know it: designed to carry just 14,000 cars a day (how short-sighted was that?) it opened to much fanfare in 1959. Other motorway landmarks include the opening of the M4 Severn Bridge in 1966, cutting short the 80-mile detour round the Severn Estuary from Bristol to South Wales, and the completion of the M25 London Orbital in 1986. Low points include the destruction of much of Britain's countryside; the protests at Twyford Down, Winchester in 1993 over closing the three-mile gap in the M3 around the start of the South Downs cost so much to police, it would have been cheaper to build a tunnel and keep the Downs intact.
It's hard to believe, if you have to commute around the M25, that motorways were originally conceived for rapid transit...
The first defining factor of a motorway is its motor-only status: a motorway is not a general right-of-way. The Berlin AVUS (Automobile Verkehrs und Ubungsstrasse) was an early example of a multi-lane highway closed to pedestrians, cyclists, horse-drawn traffic and other non-automotive transport. It was built around south-west Berlin in 1913-21, although it was just 19km in length (today, it's part of the A115).
The 80-mile Milan-Varese 'autostrada' is generally recognised as the first European motorway; a pet project of Mussolini, it opened – complete with tolls – in 1924. Germany instigated an extensive plan for autobahn-building – a key part of Hitler's vision for the country – and the first inter-city autobahns opened between Dusseldorf-Opladen in 1929 and Cologne-Bonn (1932). The Americans had limited-access 'parkways' in New York (Bronx River, 1907, and Long Island, 1908) but these were focused more on recreational driving; the first high-speed freeway or expressway is generally agreed to be the tolled Pennsylvania Turnpike (1940).
Most Brits think that the M1 was the country's first motorway, but that's not strictly true. An experimental road, the Preston Bypass opened 1956, pioneering the motor-only road in the UK: this is now part of the M6 between junction 29 and the M55. There was also the Salford Bypass, now part of the M62.
The six-lane M1 was, however, the first extensive motorway as we know it: designed to carry just 14,000 cars a day (how short-sighted was that?) it opened to much fanfare in 1959. Other motorway landmarks include the opening of the M4 Severn Bridge in 1966, cutting short the 80-mile detour round the Severn Estuary from Bristol to South Wales, and the completion of the M25 London Orbital in 1986. Low points include the destruction of much of Britain's countryside; the protests at Twyford Down, Winchester in 1993 over closing the three-mile gap in the M3 around the start of the South Downs cost so much to police, it would have been cheaper to build a tunnel and keep the Downs intact.
Motorway service stations
When the M1 opened (see above), the weekends saw crowds of London families going for a day-trip up to Watford Gap. The tea and sandwiches may not have been to Cordon Bleu standards, but the cafe at the Gap was Britain's first motorway service station.
An essential part of motorway travel, whether to take a break from hours at the wheel, grab a cup of coffee or simply have a pee, the only problem is that there aren't enough of them on many routes. People moan about the food and say that it's not as good as that at equivalent French gastro-truckstops, with justification, but if you want to make a proper lunch-stop, then there's a decent country pub serving real meals within five minutes of most motorway junctions anyway.
Service stations everywhere in the world are for those Twilight Zone trips late at night, when it's all going a bit weird after four hours at the wheel and all you crave is the toilet, another packet of fags, a double Americano and a chocolate-chip muffin.
And have you ever noticed the dizzying, phenomenally extensive selection of porno mags on offer at autobahn services in Germany? Scary stuff.
When the M1 opened (see above), the weekends saw crowds of London families going for a day-trip up to Watford Gap. The tea and sandwiches may not have been to Cordon Bleu standards, but the cafe at the Gap was Britain's first motorway service station.
An essential part of motorway travel, whether to take a break from hours at the wheel, grab a cup of coffee or simply have a pee, the only problem is that there aren't enough of them on many routes. People moan about the food and say that it's not as good as that at equivalent French gastro-truckstops, with justification, but if you want to make a proper lunch-stop, then there's a decent country pub serving real meals within five minutes of most motorway junctions anyway.
Service stations everywhere in the world are for those Twilight Zone trips late at night, when it's all going a bit weird after four hours at the wheel and all you crave is the toilet, another packet of fags, a double Americano and a chocolate-chip muffin.
And have you ever noticed the dizzying, phenomenally extensive selection of porno mags on offer at autobahn services in Germany? Scary stuff.
