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How good are American roads?

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252 points chmaynard | 4 comments | 20 Nov 24 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 1.75s | source
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kube-system ◴[20 Nov 24 15:42 UTC] No.42194893[source]▶
> Interestingly, I expected cold places to have lower road quality in general due to things like freeze-thaw cycles and the impact of road salting, but there doesn’t seem to be much correlation. Plenty of cold places (North Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota) have good-quality roads

Not sure about those states in particular, but I have anecdotally noticed that some of the places with the harshest winters do some of the least road salting -- because salt is mostly usable for light to moderate snowfall and the people who live in the harshest climates are often better equipped to drive on hard packed snow.

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softfalcon ◴[20 Nov 24 15:47 UTC] No.42194966[source]▶
This is somewhat true where I’m at in Canada. In the city, half the people have proper winter tires, the other half “wing it” with whatever they can afford/put-up-with.

Regularly see accidents all winter long from goofs sliding straight across multiple lanes of traffic or going off into the ditch. Only some of us are prepared.

We don’t salt, only drop sand grit and gravel sparingly. Our roads become ice rinks or snow piles for a decent portion of the winter.

Your comment about us being “better equipped” made me chuckle as I spent this morning watching my neighbours play slip-and-slide in the cul-de-sac cause they opted to not put their winter tires on.

As someone who grew up in the mountains, their behaviour is downright dangerous in my opinion.

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1. bongodongobob ◴[20 Nov 24 17:41 UTC] No.42196364[source]▶
I've lived in WI 40+ years and winter tires are a waste of money. Unless you're in the mountains somewhere or going off-road, they're just an extra thing to buy.
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2. bluGill ◴[20 Nov 24 18:07 UTC] No.42196605[source]▶
Very much so - WI and other northern states know how to clear their roads. While you will need to slow down a little more while it is snowing it doesn't really matter because someone else will not have winter tires and so force you to slow down to that speed even if you have them. And even if you have them they are better than summer tires, but they are not that much better, you still need to slow down on ice.

Winter tires are very important in places where they get bad weather but don't clear the roads. Those are not generally places people live though.

3. AngryData ◴[20 Nov 24 20:54 UTC] No.42198016[source]▶
Ehh, I almost never use winter tires but I still disagree. Some people are simply not good or attentive enough drivers for me to believe they will be fine without winter tires.
4. thworp ◴[21 Nov 24 15:56 UTC] No.42205574[source]▶
Are you driving around with actual summer tires (not all-season or all-weather)? By winter tires do you mean winter tires or studded?

If you do mean summer tires that seems almost unbelievable to me. I have some experience both on the roads as well as skidpans with both.

With actual summer tires on even non-icy light snow cover you:

- have almost no braking

- get nothing but wheelspin on any sort of hill

- start spinning out in corners if you go >10mph.

The worse the winter weather gets, the more stuck you become if there has been no salting for an hour.

Meanwhile with winter tires you can safely go up to 60mph on compacted snow and actually get to a stop within a mile.

Hell, even just the fact that summer tires are hard as rocks in cold temps would make me wanna at least buy all-seasons.

Just how aggressively and how often do they salt in WI, considering the climate?

disclaimer: grew up in a country with mild-ish winters where winter tires are mandatory, never spent much time in the parts of NA that do get winters.