In terms of road numbering, Milton Keynes is unique. It is the only town in the UK which features its own numbering system, the H and V roads. There are still the usual A and B roads, with some of these roads additionally possessing H and V designations.

However, this is not just the only unique roads feature that the town is known for. The town also has a network of main arterial routes that criss-cross the town. The Milton Keynes Grid Road System, as it is officially known, is based on a "street hierarchy" system, a feature rare to the UK.

This unique system was devised in the 1960s as part of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation's master vision for the creation of a "new city", and would allow for the fast movement and quick distribution of traffic around the urban area, catering for both local and through traffic.

The geography of Milton Keynes – the railway line, Watling Street, Grand Union Canal, M1 motorway – sets up a very strong north-south axis. If you've got to build a city between (them) it is very natural to take a pen and draw the rungs of a ladder. Ten miles by six is the size of this city – 22,000 acres. Do you lay it out like an American city, rigid orthogonal from side to side? Being more sensitive in 1966-7, the designers decided that the grid concept should apply but should be a lazy grid following the flow of land, its valleys, its ebbs and flows. That would be nicer to look at, more economical and efficient to build, and would sit more beautifully as a landscape intervention.
Professor David Lock, Chief Town Planner for Milton Keynes

 

The numbering system

As mentioned above, Milton Keynes is unique in having its own road numbering system, referred to as the "H" and "V" roads. The designations are not official, but were introduced by the town planners when the town was being constructed, to list the important roads in order (for example, V6 being the sixth north to south grid road).Once the town was built, the H and V designations should have been consigned to town planning history, yet they are still in use today and often feature on maps of Milton Keynes.

H Roads
All of the Grid Roads running west to east are given a "H" (horizontal) designation. There are ten "H" roads altogether, and are numbered in ascending order from north to south. All of the "H" roads have official names, each ending in "way".

Here is a list of all of the "H" roads:
H1 Ridgeway
H2 Millers Way
H3 Monks Way
H4 Dansteed Way
H5 Portway
H6 Childs Way
H7 Chaffron Way
H8 Standing Way
H9 Groveway
H10 Bletcham Way

V Roads
Also, each of the Grid Roads running north to south are given a "V" (vertical) designation. There are eleven of these roads in all, again being numbered in ascending order, but this time from west to east. Again, all of the "V" roads have official names, but this time they all end with "Street".

Here is a list of all of the "V" roads:
V1 Snelshall Street
V2 Tattenhoe Street
V3 Fulmer Street
V4 Watling Street
V5 Great Monks Street
V6 Grafton Street
V7 Saxon Street
V8 Marlborough Street
V9 Overstreet
V10 Brickhill Street
V11 Tongwell Street

 

Grid road characteristics

The grid roads were designed and built to allow fast access through Milton Keynes, especially for through traffic. The majority of the grid roads operate to National Speed Limit, as traffic can move safely due to the absence of residential frontage and the large amount of landscaping and trees lining each road.

The grid system was designed so that each H and V road would be no more than 1km apart from the next, meaning that no resident would be too far from local bus services. However, this meant that each "grid square" became its own little community, with most being given their own name.

There are no pavements and pedestrian crossings on the grid roads, as pedestrians and cyclists are kept off them via a series of "Redways", which run parallel to the grid roads, but safely tucked out of the way. Where the Redways need to cross the grid roads, underpasses, subways and bridges are provided at each intersection.

All grid road junctions are roundabouts, thus allowing traffic to flow freely and removing the obstacle of congestion that may otherwise be caused by traffic lights, without the need to build large complex grade-separated junctions.

 

Street hierarchy

Another unique feature of Milton Keynes is that the town adopted the use of "street hierarchy", a system common in North America since the 1960s.The way street hierarchy works is by removing through traffic from the local residential areas. It works by arranging the way roads connect to each other through a hierarchical system, so that local cul-de-sacs don't connect directly onto the grid roads.

Usually, in other towns, the main roads are connected to many side streets, cul-de-sacs and even alleyways. However, in Milton Keynes, this is not the case. Instead, all of these residential streets feed into a "collector road", which weaves its way through the neighbourhood before connecting with the grid road at either end.

In turn, the grid roads connect each of these neighbourhoods by running between them, not through them. In total, there are about 100 neighbourhoods in Milton Keynes, each neighbourhood being situated in one "grid square" (i.e. bounded on each side by a grid road).

 

Facts

A few little facts about the H and V Roads:
- H1 is the shortest of all the grid roads
- H1 is also in two parts, it should cross the A5, but the connecting bridge was never built
- H7 is the longest of all the grid roads, yet none of it is dual carriageway
- V4 is called Watling Street as it runs along the Roman Road for its entire length
- V7 has a 40mph section between H7 and H9 as it passes through the main shopping area