M25, the London Orbital Motorway

M25, the London Orbital Motorway, is, with over 150 000 vehicles recorded in a single busy day, one of the busiest motorways. It is also the second longest orbital road in Europe, after Berliner Ring, which is 122 miles. M25 has 117 miles (188 kilometers).

M25 motorway passes through seven counties: Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. Technically, it is not an entire orbital motorway, because the Dartford Crossing, between Thurrock and Dartford, is not classified as a motorway, being the A282.

Completed between 1975 and 1986, the total cost for M25 was nearly 1 billion pounds. To build it, were used two million tons of concrete and 3,5 million tons of asphalt. It has 10 606 lights and 2 959 illuminated signs along its length. During its first year, there were a total of 454 accidents on the M25.

In his almost 40 years, M25 – known for its frequent traffic jams – inspired songs („The road to Hell“, by Chris Rea), books („London Orbital“ by Ian Sinclair, published in 2002, based on a year long journey on foot, around the orbital motorway) and jokes („the London Orbital Car Park“ or „the world's biggest car park“).