4 ms·

we have the best roads in the world. go to any other country, you will not find 4, 5, 6+ lane freeways that are free, have excellent signage, interconnect witho

we have the best roads in the world. go to any other country, you will not find 4, 5, 6+ lane freeways that are free, have excellent signage, interconnect without stoplights or city streets, that extend for thousands of miles. i can drive to any region in the country for free on uninterrupted highway. if i drive to go skiing, i know the roads will be plowed, i can even check on the status before i drive. our roads have dividers in the middle, we have shoulders on the side, we have lines and botts dots between lanes. many larger freeways in cities now have lights. this country has modern infrastructure

twblalock 10y ago
The quality of our roads is quite low compared to those in Europe.
- vvanders 10y ago
  Was just coming here to post that, there was an article recently about the new MB E-Class'(I think) lane keeping that wouldn't work on the majority of US roads since it was trained on better European roads.
  - twblalock 10y ago
    The road builders there know how to paint straight lines and place the reflectors on the lines, unlike ours, who seem to have been drunk on the job.
- adventured 10y ago
  > The quality of our roads is quite low compared to those in Europe. That's incorrect. You mean a select few countries in Europe (Germany, Sweden and Switzerland != Europe). You're very clearly ignoring that Europe also consists of Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, Poland etc. 3/4 of Europe has a lower living standard than the poorest US states do and they have terrible infrastructure to go along with it. Greek and Italian infrastructure is piss poor as well. The Eurozone for example is now spending significantly less on infrastructure than the US (how long will those roads hold up as infrastructure spending continues to decline?): "Infrastructure spending in the euro zone has dropped to an average of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 3.4 percent of GDP for the U.S. and 3.6 percent for Japan." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-11-27/europe-has-squandered-its-savings-now-is-the-time-to-invest https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-11-27/europe-ha... And: "The dilapidated state of infrastructure in Belgium, home to the European Union’s main institutions, has become emblematic of a lack of investment that blights the whole continent and, according to the EU itself, is creating 'lasting bottlenecks that undermine productivity growth.'" "Anyone taking even a short trip to Brussels would see evidence of this. Due to lack of maintenance over the last 20 years, all the city’s major tunnels have been closed on public safety grounds, creating the biggest traffic jams the city has ever experienced." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-11/europe-needs-new-rules-for-investment-spending https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-11/europe-ne...
yequalsx 10y ago
With low internet speeds, lack of underground power lines, lack of public transportation, lack of walkable neighborhoods, and roads that have a lot more potholes/bumps than roads in other rich countries this makes me think we don't have modern infrastructure. We do have 6+ lane highways but....
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  Well, they have six lanes but since it's accepted here to overtake on the right we all the time have a few slew cars blocking the road for everyone else our you end up constantly changing lanes to make your way through. I always like to compare it to having extremely good cables but using a terrible network protocol. Freeways I Europe have fewer lanes but you can go much faster if you want because shore cars are pretty reliably on the right and fast cars in the left.
igk 10y ago
German here, what did you just say?!/s
- undersuit 10y ago
  They said thousands of miles, not hundreds of kilometers.
blocktuw 10y ago
The problem with roads is induced demand. The increasing trend towards urban density requires moving more people around increasingly denser urban areas. Freeways were great in the 50s and 60s but have proven their limitations in sprawled, urbanized areas like Atlanta, DC, and Southern California. Rail moves more people over time than freeways in urban areas, but with less flexibility for destinations. Urban planning should prioritize building transit-oriented development around these rail corridors allowing for more people to live within a reasonable commute time to jobs. Freeways should not continue to be built and expanded in urban areas. Wrong tool for the job.
ajmurmann 10y ago
Have you ever been to another first world country?
- glup 10y ago
  ha, that's exactly what I thought. People think US infrastructure is good... then they go to Germany / Japan / France / Switzerland etc. In these countries, 6 lanes of empty highway is an expensive, inefficient eyesore, not modern infrastructure.
  - twblalock 10y ago
    I've also noticed a trend in which people who have not travelled internationally are far more opposed to public transit than people who have. A lot of America's deficiencies in infrastructure and public services can be attributed to the fact that many Americans don't know how much better those things can be.
GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
I've lived all over the country, have driven it end-to-end several times and up-and-down even more, and I can assure you that many of these things are not anywhere close to universal.

twblalock 10y ago

The quality of our roads is quite low compared to those in Europe.

vvanders 10y ago
Was just coming here to post that, there was an article recently about the new MB E-Class'(I think) lane keeping that wouldn't work on the majority of US roads since it was trained on better European roads.
- twblalock 10y ago
  The road builders there know how to paint straight lines and place the reflectors on the lines, unlike ours, who seem to have been drunk on the job.
adventured 10y ago
> The quality of our roads is quite low compared to those in Europe. That's incorrect. You mean a select few countries in Europe (Germany, Sweden and Switzerland != Europe). You're very clearly ignoring that Europe also consists of Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, Poland etc. 3/4 of Europe has a lower living standard than the poorest US states do and they have terrible infrastructure to go along with it. Greek and Italian infrastructure is piss poor as well. The Eurozone for example is now spending significantly less on infrastructure than the US (how long will those roads hold up as infrastructure spending continues to decline?): "Infrastructure spending in the euro zone has dropped to an average of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 3.4 percent of GDP for the U.S. and 3.6 percent for Japan." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-11-27/europe-has-squandered-its-savings-now-is-the-time-to-invest https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-11-27/europe-ha... And: "The dilapidated state of infrastructure in Belgium, home to the European Union’s main institutions, has become emblematic of a lack of investment that blights the whole continent and, according to the EU itself, is creating 'lasting bottlenecks that undermine productivity growth.'" "Anyone taking even a short trip to Brussels would see evidence of this. Due to lack of maintenance over the last 20 years, all the city’s major tunnels have been closed on public safety grounds, creating the biggest traffic jams the city has ever experienced." https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-11/europe-needs-new-rules-for-investment-spending https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-11/europe-ne...

yequalsx 10y ago

With low internet speeds, lack of underground power lines, lack of public transportation, lack of walkable neighborhoods, and roads that have a lot more potholes/bumps than roads in other rich countries this makes me think we don't have modern infrastructure. We do have 6+ lane highways but....

ajmurmann 10y ago
Well, they have six lanes but since it's accepted here to overtake on the right we all the time have a few slew cars blocking the road for everyone else our you end up constantly changing lanes to make your way through. I always like to compare it to having extremely good cables but using a terrible network protocol. Freeways I Europe have fewer lanes but you can go much faster if you want because shore cars are pretty reliably on the right and fast cars in the left.

igk 10y ago

German here, what did you just say?!/s

undersuit 10y ago
They said thousands of miles, not hundreds of kilometers.

blocktuw 10y ago

The problem with roads is induced demand. The increasing trend towards urban density requires moving more people around increasingly denser urban areas. Freeways were great in the 50s and 60s but have proven their limitations in sprawled, urbanized areas like Atlanta, DC, and Southern California. Rail moves more people over time than freeways in urban areas, but with less flexibility for destinations. Urban planning should prioritize building transit-oriented development around these rail corridors allowing for more people to live within a reasonable commute time to jobs. Freeways should not continue to be built and expanded in urban areas. Wrong tool for the job.

ajmurmann 10y ago

Have you ever been to another first world country?

glup 10y ago
ha, that's exactly what I thought. People think US infrastructure is good... then they go to Germany / Japan / France / Switzerland etc. In these countries, 6 lanes of empty highway is an expensive, inefficient eyesore, not modern infrastructure.
- twblalock 10y ago
  I've also noticed a trend in which people who have not travelled internationally are far more opposed to public transit than people who have. A lot of America's deficiencies in infrastructure and public services can be attributed to the fact that many Americans don't know how much better those things can be.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago

I've lived all over the country, have driven it end-to-end several times and up-and-down even more, and I can assure you that many of these things are not anywhere close to universal.