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How good are American roads?

(www.construction-physics.com)
193 points chmaynard | 8 comments | 20 Nov 24 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.88s | source | bottom
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jameshart ◴[20 Nov 24 15:17 UTC] No.42194610[source]▶
This is a great analysis but it does focus exclusively on ‘roughness’, which is obviously important but isn’t the be-all-end-all of road quality.

One area I notice in particular that roads in the northeast US subjectively feel worse than Europe is in quality of road markings. Constant plow scraping and harsh salting seems to destroy markings.

I think it also shows up in the overall fit and finish of road infrastructure - edging and barriers, signage, lighting, maintenance of medians, how curbs and furniture contribute to junction legibility… and of course bridges.

One major reason is that European countries typically have national road agencies and consistent standards across the country (because, generally, smaller and less federal). US’s patchwork of federal, state and local road maintenance leads to vastly different budgets and department priorities across the network.

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1. js2 ◴[20 Nov 24 17:09 UTC] No.42196027[source]▶
The reflectivity of the road markings in North Carolina—where plows are rarely used—is terrible, to the point that they are almost invisible on a rainy night, even on freshly painted roads. It's the worst of anywhere I've lived or driven in the U.S.

Relatedly, recently my wife mentioned seeing a vehicle with large boxes on each side and wondering what they were. From her description, I tracked down that they are a fleet maintained by a small company that measures road marking reflectivity:

https://www.beckenterprises.com/services/

So who knows, maybe NC is finally doing something about the road markings here.

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2. tdeck ◴[20 Nov 24 17:35 UTC] No.42196302[source]▶
What an interesting niche business! I love that the Software section of their homepage appears to be a screenshot of WordPress template source code.
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3. withinboredom ◴[20 Nov 24 17:46 UTC] No.42196410[source]▶
That’s a stock image when you search for “code” available on almost any stock image provider.
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4. sumtechguy ◴[20 Nov 24 17:49 UTC] No.42196442[source]▶
In NC it really depends on where you live. With some of them looking very nice. While others it looks like it has not been touched in 20 years. I personally think they just have a set timeframe to refresh things and they stick rigidly to that no matter how good or bad they are.
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5. HeyLaughingBoy ◴[20 Nov 24 18:19 UTC] No.42196689[source]▶
Interesting, they're not that far from me. I love these little niche industries that no one's heard of. I guess they have to travel a lot to get enough business though.
6. tdeck ◴[20 Nov 24 18:35 UTC] No.42196831{3}[source]▶
I figured something like that it's just a little bit funny.
7. nkrisc ◴[20 Nov 24 18:41 UTC] No.42196872[source]▶
Ah, very cool, and great timing. I saw one the other day and was wondering what it was measuring (I assumed).
8. js2 ◴[20 Nov 24 20:01 UTC] No.42197552[source]▶
I've driven NC from the mountains to the sea and haven't seen good reflective markings anywhere. Certainly all the road markings in and around Wake county are awful. Even at their best the markings don't compare to say Florida roads.

I think part of the problem is that NC counties don't maintain their own roads:

"North Carolina has the second largest state maintained highway network in the United States because all roads in North Carolina are maintained by either municipalities or the state."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Highway_System

I think NCDOT just doesn't use reflective paint. Maybe it's more expensive. I see folks complain about it frequently.

https://old.reddit.com/r/asheville/comments/18ro7lx/why_does...

https://old.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/12ehtj6/rain_and_r...

A video of 3M reflective paint that is designed to work in both wet and dry conditions (skip to 6:40):

https://youtu.be/4iY8JqHN-kI?t=400

A related issue you may have noticed is the large amount of trash on our roadsides. This is again because roadside trash pickup is maintained by the state and the budget for roadside cleanup has been de/underfunded since 2008.