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How good are American roads?

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193 points chmaynard | 8 comments | 20 Nov 24 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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rconti ◴[20 Nov 24 17:52 UTC] No.42196461[source]▶
> Interestingly, in all cases urban roads are worse quality than rural roads, presumably because they see higher traffic than rural roads.

There's more infrastructure under urban roads. Crews come in to fix some utility, shred a section of a lane, patch it poorly with dissimilar materials, and leave.

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bluGill ◴[20 Nov 24 17:59 UTC] No.42196522[source]▶
Rural roads are often unpaved. The local authority has to come by regularly with a grade to redo things or they become unusable quickly. Overall this is by far the cheapest way to have a road, but it doesn't scale to high use and city folks demand something that makes less dust. Rural roads also includes minimum maintance roads which demand 4wd (real 4wd, many SUVs will have trouble) when the weather is nice and a winch is a must when things get rainy or snowy.

Though given his definition of quality I expect he is actually ignoring all the real rural roads and only talking about major roads which while they get less traffic than urban roads are maintained to similar standards.

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1. rwiggins ◴[20 Nov 24 18:18 UTC] No.42196685[source]▶
Maybe area-dependent? I grew up in an extraordinarily rural area in Tennessee. Most roads were paved (asphalt). Even ones out in the middle of nowhere.

The conditions of some of the remote roads might not have been great, mind you... and some seemed "thinner" almost, maybe paved a long time ago?

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2. nemomarx ◴[20 Nov 24 18:32 UTC] No.42196803[source]▶
I think it's a snow thing - asphalt seems to wear down really fast in rural PA, probably from freezing at nights and snow and ice, so you can't do paving as cheaply out in the mountains or so on. The county dumps gravel down once a year and let's passing traffic wear it smoother over time, but it sucks to drive on fresh.
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3. wnc3141 ◴[20 Nov 24 18:58 UTC] No.42197037[source]▶
Of course there are political factors. I have always heard that in Wisconsin many rural roads were paved to better serve dairy farmers beginning in the 1890s - and continued through the WPA program. While in Minnesota, similar rural roads remained unpaved.

Best link I could find to substantiate such a claim

https://www.uwlax.edu/currents/biking-in-the-driftless-regio....

Of course in contemporary times the high maintenance cost has many Wisconsin towns/counties considering returning to gravel.

https://www.wpr.org/economy/taxes/small-wisconsin-towns-pave...

4. shkkmo ◴[20 Nov 24 19:53 UTC] No.42197477[source]▶
Absolutely. The freeze thaw cycle is brutal on asphalt in many ways. Surface cracks expand, frost heaves distort and the material itself weakens. This is before any additional damage caused by plowing or ice scraping.
5. wombatpm ◴[20 Nov 24 19:59 UTC] No.42197526[source]▶
Freeze thaw and Temp range. MN may experience air temps from -20 to 100 over the course of a year. And you might experience 50 degree swings in a week (-20 to +30).
6. ensignavenger ◴[20 Nov 24 21:17 UTC] No.42198207[source]▶
Chip and Seal is a technique used in a lot of rural areas that comes in with less maintenance than gravel but not as expensive as asphalt. It is basically a a top thin layer of tar with gravel pressed into it.
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7. kevin_thibedeau ◴[20 Nov 24 21:46 UTC] No.42198448[source]▶
A lot of that is the road profile. Western NY has notably better county highways than PA because they tend to have wide shoulders that mitigate plow damage and frost heaving on the he edges.
8. pkaye ◴[20 Nov 24 22:28 UTC] No.42198782[source]▶
My city in SF bay area resurfaced some residential streets that way. So far it held on well for 10 years probably because we don't get much truck traffic. Meanwhile the near freeway is a major route for big trucks so after the winter rain its all full of potholes.