The passing of the Special Roads Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo.
6. c. 32) through Parliament allowed authorities in Great Britain to construct roads that were not automatically rights of way for certain types of user.
The Special Roads Act was first used in the late-1950s to designate the Preston By-pass in Preston, Lancashire, now largely part of the M6 motorway, as a special road.
In addition, a small number of non-motorway special roads are relatively newly built dual-carriageway roads, such as the A1 Dual Carriageway east of Edinburgh and parts of the A720 Edinburgh bypass, or parts of the A55 in North Wales.
The usual speed limit regulations that apply to all-purpose roads do not apply to special roads, so a non-motorway special road must define a speed limit as part of its Statutory Instrument.