United Kingdom A and B roads

This page describes a historic artifact in the history of OpenStreetMap. It does not reflect the current situation, but instead documents the historical concepts, issues, or ideas.

OpenStreetMap has fast-growing coverage of the major roads in Britain - so now's the time to finish the job. When we have a complete A and B road network, people will be able to use OSM data for routing, to make road atlases, and so on.

The aim of this project is to complete all A and B roads in Britain and to tag them consistently. The list on this page is far from complete (especially in relation to B roads), so if you know of a missing road, add it.

How to tag

In the UK, the OSM rule goes like this:

green signed A roads: highway=trunk
black-and-white signed A roads: highway=primary
B roads: highway=secondary

(It might sound confusing if you're used to hearing A roads described differently. Sorry, it's just how we do things round here.)

Hall of fame

Complete - A and B roads

Derbyshire (User:bojo)

Rutland!

Highland (User:Tms13) - also 'C' and 'U' class roads (i.e. all adopted roads)

(others to be checked)

Complete - A roads only

Cambridgeshire, Herefordshire, the Isle of Wight, Leicestershire, Pembrokeshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Missing A and B roads - England

Buckinghamshire

Classifications may need checking on existing roads - especially Stoke Hammond bypass area

Cheshire

Depending on what you mean by Cheshire...

around Warrington (plenty of GPS tracks exist)
around Widnes

Cornwall

I think there are a lot of missing A roads in Cornwall. These are some that have been spotted.

Redruth to Cambourne
A30 past Penzance is marked as trunk, this seems unlikely
A3075 south from Newquay is incomplete.
A roads in Newquay
Gap in the A39 southeast of Padstow
A3082 to Fowey incomplete
A387 Crumplehorn to A374 via Looe incomplete
A39 from Truro to the A30 missing.
Some A roads in Plymouth/Devonport may not be marked as primary.
A388 through Launceston looks very mixed up - there is one section running through the town north to south and two segments floating around unconnected!

Cumbria

Carlisle city centre
A66 Workington to Bridgefoot (junction with A595) [added - but the re-routed two local roads which bridge/are bridged by the A66 have not been corrected]
A593 through broughton in furnace. (Roads mapped but not designated. NPE probably out of date here due to new road)
Designation of A595 between Greenodd and Ulverston needs checking. I think the northern part at Greenodd is green-signed (trunk.)

Do you mean the A595 between Grizebeck and Dalton in Furness? Both green and white signs are in use. Possibly more green signs than white and the white signs are generally just modern versions of fingerposts. Ordnance Survey class the road as primary (trunk in OSM-speak). Our map probably needs changing unless anyone else counts more white signs!

A590 Greenodd to Ulverston is green signed.

A5092 Greenodd to Grizebeck is green signed. --Lakedistrict (talk) 20:58, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

A5086 through Cockermouth. NPE likely to be out of date.

Devon

A358 in Axminster needs checking on the ground (route into Axminster from Chard completed from NPE and connected roughly by TomH 16:50, 30 December 2007 (UTC))
A383 through Newton Abbot (NPE could be out of date due to changes in road layout in town centre, pedestrianisation etc.)

Dorset

A352 between Sherborne and Dorchester (Sherborne end missing, connection to Dorchester confused/missing)
A354 bits missing through Weymouth

East Yorkshire

Believed to be complete

East Sussex

A275 from Sheffield Park to Wych Cross (A22), and from A277 (Brighton Road, Lewes) to A2029 (Offham Road, Lewes)
A269 Ninfield to Bexhill
A23/A273 junction slip roads North of Brighton are incomplete.

Essex

Gwent

A4042 to southern end in Newport (adjacent cycle route mapped though ;) )

Hampshire

A27 is mostly complete from Romsey to Brighton but is missing chunks and decent traces through Cosham

Kent

A2 one way system in Sittingbourne - needs GPS survey

Lancashire

A5085 Preston
A59 Clitheroe - Needs dual-carriageway section sorting between Whalley and Clitheroe.

Lincolnshire

Click Here for the A Road section of the Lincolnshire development page

Merseyside

Monmouthshire

Norfolk

A148 from Fakenham to Holt, and south of Cromer
Main Roads out from Norwich to North East Norfolk (Yet to have name/ref)
A143 between Bungay and Beccles

North Yorkshire

A167 Northallerton to county boundary
A167 south end
A168 Thirsk to Northallerton
A172 south end
A684 Bedale to Northallerton

Northamptonshire

Complete between towns.

Kettering and Wellingborough need attention.

Nottinghamshire

~~A6097~~, A612 from Southwell, etc... see here

Shropshire

Roads in Telford area

Somerset

A359 north east from the A303 across the A371 to the A361 - I've just drawn this in using NPE --Graham C 16:05, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
A371 appears to stop short of the A37/A361/A371 junction south of Shepton Mallett (this area looks very confused)
Around Weston-super-Mare (North Somerset)
Around Langport
A37 at Ilchester

Staffordshire

~~A5148/M6 Toll southbound slip-road~~ There isn't one blackadder 18:01, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Stoke/Newcastle are a mess and need sorting

Suffolk

A143: Pretty sure this should be trunk between Bury St Edmunds and Great Yarmouth? It's currently marked as primary.
A143: Seems to have a random spur to Hundon that only connects it to unclassified roads. Another one that is likely wrong?
A146 seems to end or change status in the middle of nowhere just south of Lowestoft. I seriously doubt this is accurate.

Surrey

A3 Hindhead will need editing once the tunnels open

West Sussex

Believed to be complete.

note: A272 confirmed by WSCC to be designated as a primary route (despite mixed signage) for the entirity of it's length through West Sussex. Map yet to be updated to reflect. Daveemtb 12:06, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Wiltshire

Westbury/Frome area needs work

Missing A and B roads - Scotland

Argyll and Bute

Missing roads

Road along north of Holy Loch (north of Dunoon) to Blairmore. (A880?)
Most of road from Dunoon, along Loch Eck to Strachur. (A815?)
Road from north of the Kyles of Bute to Newton on Loch Fyne. (A886?)

Misclassified roads

Road from St Catherines to Newton along south of Loch Fyne. Is marked unclassified; should be primary?

Mislabelled roads

Road heading north from Dunoon on the Cowal Peninsula is labelled A816. (Should be A815?)

Unlabelled roads

Road along west of Bute. (A866?)

Believed to be a complete list of missing, possibly misclassified, and unlabelled roads in the Argyll and Bute council area.

Highland

Definitive reference: Highland Council - Roads we maintain

All adopted roads in Highland (A, B, C and U class) have been checked during 2012-2015 and have Key:ref filled in.

Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)