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What is CBRD?

CBRD stands for Chris's British Road Directory - a home for all manner of information on the roads of mainland Britain. It was set up in August 2001 when I started thinking that there were no other sites on the internet that did this and that one was needed, to satisfy my own interests if nothing else.

While researching the site, and having one last look around before putting this site up, I stumbled across the original SABRE website and realised I was not alone. I found myself emailing SABRE's author, Brad, with those infamous words "I thought I was the only one" which have since been uttered by the majority of people who have joined in the community since.

However, SABRE didn't cover everything I thought needed to be done so I put my own site online anyway, and before long found that there were a surprising number of people who wanted to read about this stuff.

What does CBRD do?

CBRD is here to provide information and entertainment - fun stuff and some serious research and information, presented in a bright, friendly and digestible way.

On the way, CBRD has helped out all sorts of people over the years.

• There have been numerous press enquiries, from publications such as The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, FHM and 'Local Transport Today' to organizations like BBC Local Radio.
• Both enquiries and information have come from the roads "industry", from contracting companies and local government to the RAC. The AA published material from the British Roads FAQ in some of its 2006 maps.
• The site has helped out a Japanese highway research project and made a contribution to Turkish road safety.
• It's on the BBC's internal list of useful web resources and used as an information source for some radio travel reports.
• According to one source, CBRD is widely read in the Transport Research Laboratory, and has been used and quoted in academic research and consultants' reports several times.

To cap it off, the Highways Agency and Department for Transport have been known to refer some queries here when they couldn't provide the answers themselves.

CBRD regularly provides research for homeworks and historical investigations, and has regular visitors from Belgium, Germany, Poland, Finland, Australia, and the USA, among other places.

It is the biggest UK roads website on the internet, and the most frequently updated.

Who is this Chris person?

Chris is 27 and from Leeds, now living in South London. The Daily Telegraph describes him as "not at all geeky".

He passed his driving test in December 2006 on the first attempt, having run the biggest website on the subject of British roads for the previous five years. A few years later he finally got a car.

He is employed by a certain organisation noted for its work in British Broadcasting, and spends his days messing about in radio studios with foreigners. He's not sure how he manages to get paid for enjoying himself in this way.

He writes about himself in the third person.

You can read more about Chris on his personal website, www.chris5156.com if you're into that sort of thing.

And finally...

A word of thanks to everyone who visits the site. Since August 2001, CBRD has picked up a number of regular visitors and contributors (the number of whom never fails to astound me). Whether you drop by every Saturday without fail to see the new update or you just came here once, by accident, to find out what HATO stands for, thank you for taking an interest and giving me a reason to carry on.

With thanks to Mark Kendrick for the stunning photography on this page.

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