Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is a large town around 75km (45 miles) north-west of London. It is roughly half way between London and Birmingham.

Due to its access to major highways, it is quite a popular spot for large corporations. Some of the big companies are: Daimler Chrysler, Royal Mail, Argos, Abbey, British Telecom, EDS and Tescos.

I went there for an engagement this week. The train ride takes about 45-50 mins and it is generally pleasant in the morning. The autumn leaves are really beautiful against a countryside backdrop.

Anyway, as I was passing by the train station today, I saw a very interesting town map.

Milton Keynes Central is a planned city. Its infrastructure was built with scalability in mind. First of all, most of the commercial and industrial district is built with a grid square system. Roundabouts junctions were built at almost all intersections since the roads were intended to carry large volumes of traffic.

Look at the roundabouts!

(Source: http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/)

The major grid roads are separated by large grassed areas, which are essentially reserved land for future upgrade should the need to upgrade the single carriageway to dual carriageways arises.

(Source: http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/)

Here is something from the Internet: "When the city was planned, the main roads, forming the sides of the grid squares were given numbers. There were horizontal roads going east-west and vertical ones going north-south. They were known as 'H' roads and "V" roads." (Source: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/urbanis/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=1816) The roads are in fact very square! Just like the roads in Beijing!

Further from the centre, the roads look more like coral reefs, or like the 'Palm' development in Dubai. I suppose this allows for more privacy for families.

Milton Keynes is also home to one of the largest entertainment and business complex in the UK. 'xscape' is a multi-purpose building with restaurants, shops (LOTS of them), bars, health centres, fitness clubs, 24 lane ten pin bowling alley, 16 screen cinema multiplex, rock climbing, airkix, ski slope, conference centre and exhibition centre. Too bad I didn't make it there this week! :(

For those interested, the map of Milton Keynes can be found here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oi=eu_map&q=Milton+Keynes&hl=en

It doesn't show the roundabouts very well, but it is nevertheless a good interactive map.

For more information:

MKWeb
http://www.mkweb.co.uk/home/

xscape
http://www.xscape.co.uk/snow/milton-keynes/