RED ROUTE

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Politics) A proposed expressway (marked by a red line along the edge of the road) designed to ease traffic congestion on certain urban roads and similar in operation to a clearway, except that more severe penalties would be incurred by the driver of any vehicle which stopped or otherwise infringed the rules. Etymology: Formed by compounding: a route marked by a red line. History and Usage: The idea of the red route as a way of easing urban traffic congestion in the UK was devised by a group of Conservative politicians called the red route group in the second half of the eighties. Initially intended to solve some of London's traffic problems, their scheme would place tight restrictions on parking, unloading, stopping, and roadworks on the selected routes and would provide for a special force of traffic wardens to impose the steep fines which anyone infringing these restrictions would incur. The proposals did not meet with unqualified enthusiasm from the general public or the government. Red routes, designed to speed the flow of vehicles of all kinds indiscriminately, could only make things worse. Independent 20 Dec. 1989, p. 18