Roads may not sound like the most exciting thing but these new CITY Road Plates 60304 offer up different possibilities to add some visual interest to your LEGO scenes.
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-60304.jpg)
Adding buildings
To attach things to the road plates, there are a couple of 1×4 row of studs that is offset by 1 plate from the ground. I modified the Surfer Beach House 31118 pretty easily so that it would attach to the road plates.
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-1x4-connection-864x576.jpg?_t=1622716395)
Median strips
I also picked up a great idea from New Elementary to create a flower median strip rather than use the printed tiles to divide the lanes. Here’s how that looks all put together:
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-surf-shop-864x576.jpg?_t=1622715566)
Don’t like flowers and want something more utilitarian for a more urban environment? Here’s the LEGO Store 40305 and part of 123 Sesame Street 21324 with Tiago Catarino’s lane dividers and sidewalks:
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-lego-hoopers-864x576.jpg?_t=1622717719)
Photo examples and challenges
Being able to dress up the roads with dividers is pretty cool. After having made them nice and pretty though, I wanted to take them through the paces of a photoshoot and see where else they might shine.
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-leading-lines-864x576.jpg?_t=1622717964)
And shine they did. The most glaring fault of these new road plates is that they are polished and smooth — unlike the old plates that are textured — so they reflect everything. It’s almost as if the roads were wet.
A much smaller issue is that because the road is shorter and more modular by design, if I wanted to do motion blur shots, I would need to keep the distance travelled pretty short. Otherwise, I’d hit one of the slots for the 2×4 tiles and it would cause jitter in the trail.
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-scooter-trail-864x576.jpg?_t=1622716633)
Those are a couple of downsides. The upside, of course, is that you can build on the roads so they don’t have to be used for just vehicles. You can turn a road into a pedestrian street or restaurant terrace by changing up the dark bluish gray 2×4 tiles for plates and adding little tables:
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-terrace-2-864x576.jpg?_t=1622717339)
If you can build, you can destroy too! Potholes and construction workers standing around them are an everyday sight in the city!
![](http://brickcentral.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/road-plates-pothole-864x576.jpg)
I can imagine some pretty cool Apocalego scenes or superhero fight scenes created using broken roads.
The verdict
The new road plates allow for a lot more in terms of decorating your set than the old plates do, but they come at the cost of glare and disjointedness.
Through the lens, I think these road shots work better from a slightly higher angle than minifig eye-level because there are fewer distracting reflections.
I think my main use for them will be as pedestrian-only streets with outdoor seating or inside a car garage rather than as lanes for vehicular traffic.
CITY Road Plates 60304 are available everywhere for $19.99/19,99€. You can also find new road plate sections in select CITY sets like Skate Park 60290, Family House 60291, Shopping Street 60306, and Town Center 60292.