We'll, actually, yes I am. I felt I should, as that is the point really.
So, what are you going to enlighten us with today?
I want to natter about my various interests and thought I would start with something fairly innocuous and mildly uncontroversial. That being my slightly bizarre interest in roads.
Roads... ok... I shall humour you and let you carry on...
Thanks! Firstly let me introduce you to this entire website/forum/wiki about roads, just to prove I am not the only one who is interested in them.
My interest in roads is ingrained from my childhood, and for those who like to blame Lady Thatcher for things, you can probably blame the good lady for this. When I was about 10 or so, there were a lot of new roads being built in West Sussex which came out of "Roads to Prosperity", many involving our dear friend the A27. I thought it was fascinating and from many viewpoints: the engineering, traffic management, why were the roads being built, what was the "big plan" and so on. Eventually I realised (in those heady pre-internet days) that the "big plan" involved building a decent modern trunk route along the south coast. Not a Motorway as some were be-crying it, just something that worked, removed traffic from inappropriate urban streets and generally got people from A to B in a fairly efficient way. This was to include that most-longed-for Mecca of the A27 driver: the vaguely titled "A27 Worthing-Lancing Improvement".
The public exhibition for this new road came to Lancing, and I went along with my dad to have a look at the pretty pictures and models of bits of Worthing that were going to be seriously remodelled. This must have been 1993 I think, the plan being that the whole thing would be built and in use by 1997. Here it was! A new road with tunnels and flyovers and all sorts of exciting things was going to be built right round my home village!
Then came the M3 at Twyford Down, and the A34 Newbury bypass. The former was a complete disaster in road-construction, built in a cutting rather than a tunnel to save money only for the protests this caused to cost more than the tunnel would have. The latter just seemed to irritate a bunch of students who wanted to have a good protest at an already unpopular government. The A27 Worthing - Lancing Improvement got through public inquiry weeks after it had been cancelled. The queues I sat in on my way to and from work today say the rest.
The influence of these events never the less stayed with me. I am still fascinated with road-design, whether it be how to get a junction to work properly, how to make the most of the roads we have, when and how we build new roads that are acceptable to society and the plethora of unfinished plans and dreams. The London Ringways project is probably the biggest example of unfinished plans and these would have completely changed London and its transport network had they been completed. It was also rather unpopular.
Road transport is always going to be controversial it seems, yet with 87% of journeys being made by car it would still seem to be something most of us support. At least until it involves tarmacking the local hill or demolishing your house. 17 years on from those heady plans for the A27 little has happened other than the addition of more traffic. The creation of the South Downs National Park is only going to make solving the problem a greater challenge, but I believe it is still doable, with enough imagination and ingenuity.
Do you actually do anything about this interest you have then?
I do. I contribute to the Sabre wiki, as well as discussing things there on the fora. As some examples I have contributed in part to the page about the A27, created most the page about the Patcham Interchange and waxed lyrically (or wittered on if you prefer) about the joys of the B2036. I too was shocked about how much I knew about the B2036, or even the B2110... at least between Lower Beeding and East Grinstead.
I have also dabbled in photographing roads. I shall leave you with this view from next to the entrance of the Southwick Hill Tunnel.
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