A58(M)/A64(M) (Leeds Inner Ring Road)

By Stuart Mitchell

This is another inner city motorway, built with the idea of it forming part of a ring road much like the A57M in Manchester and the A167M in Newcastle - this time it's Leeds. Like the Newcastle road and unlike the Manchester road, it tends to tunnel its way under the city. It begins (depending on which way you look at it) as the A64M, coming down from New York Road (that's New York-road, being the newer version of the road, rather being named after the place in the USA)!

The road briefly flies over an Interchange near the new Kremlin-like DSS building, before heading underneath the Vicar Lane junction. Now it's somewhere around this point that the road number changes to A58M; hence, the A64M may qualify as the shortest motorway in the country (AA map data reckons it to be about 0.62km). If you're travelling eastbound, a road disappears behind you on the right, one of the few right-hand exits off motorways, up to the A58. Anyway, continuing westbound, the road goes underground in a mosaic-clad tunnel, underneath a large multi-storey car park, with a very short slip road out of the other side, turning towards the city centre or Kirkstall.

The road shortly loses its motorway status, reverting to the A58 towards Halifax, just past the tall Yorkshire Post building, a well known Leeds landmark.

The whole motorway is marked as a 40mph zone due to its curves and short slip roads, which only allow a very short amount of acceleration to get onto the motorway proper. However, as an inner ring road, it does its job well, and gets you from one side of the city to another in very quick time. (Unless you're in rush hour, of course!)

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