The A2_ Roads

Here's a slightly bent roadsign on Purley Way near Thornton Heath:

It's just one of the countless signs that can be found between Kennington and Brighton, excluding a section where they turn blue on the M23, that make up my least favourite main road. I use it too often, just to always get stuck in traffic.

One obvious question is why this road is called the A23, and the answer comes down to some standardising that has its roots in the early 20th century. Initially, they wanted two main categories for roads - Class I and Class II - and this continues through the system of A and B roads. They flirted with the idea of T and L roads, for "trunk" and "link" routes, but these no longer exist. 

The first digit of these roads, meanwhile, are defined through a series of nine zones. 1, for example, takes up most of Eastern England, whereas 9 is entirely in Eastern Scotland. And 2 is the zone that covers London and Southeastern England - hence the A23's designation.

That's the main information bit. Now comes the main part of the blogpost. It's only human to set oneself random challenges to complete, with bonus points if you post yourself doing it online. So, in a weak attempt to go viral, I wanted to answer the question of how many A2_ roads I've ever been on.

• A2 - I have often been in New Cross, usually heading to Millwall matches, and I've also waited at a bus stop there, so this is a yes.
• A20 - I have passed through before.
• A21 - I have been on it and have passed through, including on my Bromley trips which I blogged about a while ago.
• A22 - Walked its small opening section to Purley station a while back, otherwise I've passed through towards Caterham.
• A23 - read opening sentence.
• A24 - blogged a few times already, especially the one which opens with me discussing the road itself. 
• A25 - I think I may have been at Reigate before, as part of a school trip, and the A25 passes through it. However, I'll only tick it off for certain once I blog about Reigate (or nearby places) eventually.
• A26 - The first proper blip - A25 onwards, the roads don't enter London, with this road instead remaining in East Sussex and Kent.
• A27 - Travelled along it when heading to Chichester and back.
  
• A28 - Possibly ticked off on a trip I made to Canterbury a while ago.
• A29 - The only non-major road of the sequence, and I reckon I've never been on it.

I could continue beyond this point but the list is extremely lengthy and I doubt I'd get a greater proportion of greens. Regardless, five out of eleven isn't too bad considering half of them aren't in London, most roads in London aren't main roads, and of those that are, only six are A2_ roads. I reckon I can turn many of the yellows green in no time - give me a train ticket and a couple blogpost ideas.

Perhaps it's counterintuitive, but the 2a blog isn't one for the A2_ roads.