Richard J. wrote:

Then they were reclassified as non-motorways precisely so that Mad Ken
could get his grubby mitts on them

Actually it was in order to have a sensible division of responsibilities
between Transport for London and the DfT/Highways Agency. It wouldn't have
made much sense, for example, to have the DfT responsible for a few miles of
isolated motorway in West London on routes which were otherwise being
transferred to TfL. Still, I guess it's more satisfying for you to make
cheap jokes about the previous Mayor.

Hello, Ken.

Why are you posting under a bogus name?

Still, can't blame you, I suppose.

and downgrade the speed limits,

... in the case of ex-A40(M) to the design speed of the road, and improving
the traffic-flow efficiency at peak times too, so what's your problem with
that?

The A40(M) speed limit used to be 50 on the 2-lane stretch and 60 on the
three-lane stretch. What are they now?

The speed limit reductions I was thinking of were mainluy on the former
A102 at Bow and the A102(M) just north of that (now A12) where a
six-lane highway with hard shoulders is limited to 40mph. Oh, and th
southbound continuation heading for Kent has been reduced from a 60
limit to a 50.

Ex-A40(M) is still 6 lanes; don't know about A102(M);

Speed limit curtailed to an unrealistically low 40 (this on a road which
is a motorway in all but name and part of which used to be a motorway).

M41 reduced from 6 to
4 in order, I think, to incorporate the junction for the Westfield Centre
(White City), but this hasn't affected traffic-flow efficiency as the
roundabouts at each end are the limiting factor.

And the hard shoulders?

What local junction needs two strips of land 27' wide and a mile long?

There are now buildings on part of the west side of the former M41,
where the hard shoulder used to be.

See above for the reason. No part of M3 or M40 is within Greater London, by
the way.

I didn't think the M3 was (hence my question mark - the Surrey boundary
is always a mystery to me). The point where the A40 becomes the M40 must
be very close to the Bucks boundary - touch and go.