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How good are American roads?

(www.construction-physics.com)
193 points chmaynard | 16 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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burnte ◴[20 Nov 24 20:42 UTC] No.42197899[source]▶
This happens CONSTANTLY in Atlanta. They'll spend a bunch of money fixing a road, then a month later Public Works digs a huge hole and leaves a steel plate on it for a year, then patch it with either concrete that is an inch or two below the rest of the surface, or they don't pack the earth they put back and in 3 months the patch has sunk into a new pothole in a brand new road. The city has been trying to force public works to go do those things BEFORE road projects, but it's an uphill battle.
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ASalazarMX ◴[20 Nov 24 20:58 UTC] No.42198036[source]▶
This happens in other countries too. Some people theorize that it's done because of internal rivalries between dependencies/political factions, but I suspect local governments are just inept at logistics.
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jakjak123 ◴[20 Nov 24 21:29 UTC] No.42198299[source]▶
Its also a difficult problem. They need the right digger and the right crew at the right time and possibly the right weather to get the job done. Many times there will be weeks of juggling around schedules and suddenly the digging started three weeks after the road was finished
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lo_zamoyski ◴[20 Nov 24 21:44 UTC] No.42198428[source]▶
Let me ask you: how many buildings collapsed during the reign of Hammurabi?
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Carrok ◴[20 Nov 24 21:52 UTC] No.42198493[source]▶
I.. I have no idea. I don't even know who Hammurabi is.

Is there a point you're trying to make? If so, care to enlighten us without assuming we all have history degrees?

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1. yulker ◴[20 Nov 24 22:04 UTC] No.42198585[source]▶
Not obscure enough of a figure to necessitate a history degree. Well known for being one of the first to establish building codes.
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2. tharkun__ ◴[20 Nov 24 23:45 UTC] No.42199380[source]▶
Yet many including myself have never heard of him.

Would it have been so much to ask to put a Wikipedia link and nerd-snipe some of us in the process?

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3. shiroiushi ◴[20 Nov 24 23:58 UTC] No.42199489[source]▶
Anyone with a basic high school education should have heard of him.

And how hard it is for you to google for "wikipedia hammurabi" anyway?

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4. johnnyanmac ◴[21 Nov 24 00:03 UTC] No.42199521{3}[source]▶
>Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator.

I don't think Wikipedia gets to the point quickly enough for this context to be relevant.

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5. shiroiushi ◴[21 Nov 24 00:39 UTC] No.42199793{4}[source]▶
That's a valid point, but I was just responding to someone who claimed that Hammurabi was so obscure that (in their minds) no one had heard of him, and additionally complained that there was no Wikipedia link. I feel like I should have used LMGTFY.

Whether the OP was making a poorly-articulated point by merely bringing up Hammurabi and expecting the reader to know about his history with building codes, I think, is a separate issue. Anyone with a basic education should have heard of Hammurabi, though they may have forgotten the specifics about him. And finding a Wikipedia link on your own is trivial.

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6. PittleyDunkin ◴[21 Nov 24 01:59 UTC] No.42200296[source]▶
Would it be so hard to google an unknown figure? Jesus christ, open the schools. If you're confused there's much less hostile ways to indicate you want explanation.
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7. tharkun__ ◴[21 Nov 24 02:04 UTC] No.42200331{5}[source]▶
I did not claim that he was obscure nor that no one had heard of him.

I merely mentioned that your and other claims that "anyone with a high school education has to have heard of him" is bollocks.

I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him and don't think I need to have.

Now you even claim someone with a "basic education" should've heard of him (meaning someone that didn't even finish high school). If you doubt that, Google about different countries' school systems and what would go for "basic" education.

That said you definitely would've nerd sniped me with a link and if these replies here on HN hadn't been there to catch my interest first I would have just googled him.

Basically by trying to be a smart ass and belittling others you harmed your own cause so to speak.

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8. shiroiushi ◴[21 Nov 24 02:08 UTC] No.42200351{6}[source]▶
>I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him

I question the value of your education.

Have you also never heard of Shakespeare or Bach?

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9. tharkun__ ◴[21 Nov 24 02:11 UTC] No.42200362{3}[source]▶
For me it's not so much about that but the "how".

Parent definitely would've nerd sniped me with a link and if these replies here on HN hadn't been there to catch my interest first I would have just googled him.

Basically by trying to be a smart ass and belittling others they harmed their own cause of making Hammurabi more widely known.

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10. tharkun__ ◴[21 Nov 24 02:14 UTC] No.42200381{7}[source]▶
Very much have. Don't care much for one, do care for some of the other.

The belittling continues I see.

Have you heard of Terry Fox? Anyone with an elementary school education surely has.

11. Dylan16807 ◴[21 Nov 24 02:37 UTC] No.42200527{4}[source]▶
> Basically by trying to be a smart ass and belittling others

You are reading way too much into someone not documenting their comment.

> they harmed their own cause

To me it looks like you and others paid even more attention this way.

> their own cause of making Hammurabi more widely known

I don't think that was their goal?

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12. tharkun__ ◴[21 Nov 24 02:45 UTC] No.42200576{5}[source]▶
I might actually agree with you if I hadn't read all the other replies shiroiushi has made since. I firmly believe he's out on some crusade to belittle everyone he can now that didn't have the exact same education as him.

Or just do it for kicks and to feel better about himself.

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13. Dylan16807 ◴[21 Nov 24 03:47 UTC] No.42200900{6}[source]▶
> all the other replies shiroiushi has made

But it's lo_zamoyski that made the reference.

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14. tharkun__ ◴[21 Nov 24 04:30 UTC] No.42201139{7}[source]▶
And yulker is the one that I replied to. That's all fair enough and yes yulker had quite some passive aggressiveness swinging in that "doesn't need a history degree" to start with.

Yet shiroiushi is the one directly insulting my (and others that I'm referencing as not having had to have heard of him)'s education without knowing anything about said education.

Depending on very specific and exact place of upbringing and schooling, there are a myriad of differences in what is regular curriculum or not. This is a global forum too, so it's even "worse" in that sense for making very absolute statements like shiroiushi has.

Has every Bachelor of Computer Science had to take a course that included learning about how regular expressions are implemented and had to implement a regular expression parser? I sure did, mandatory course and wouldn't have been able to get the BA and then go on from that even further without it at my university. Yet I've met people from other universities that didn't. Do I insult them and their education for it? I don't!

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15. Dylan16807 ◴[21 Nov 24 05:39 UTC] No.42201463{8}[source]▶
Well you said "parent" so I thought you didn't mean shiroiushi. Yes shiroiushi is being belittling, thanks for the clarification of what you meant then.
16. thaumasiotes ◴[21 Nov 24 06:41 UTC] No.42201754{6}[source]▶
> I merely mentioned that your and other claims that "anyone with a high school education has to have heard of him" is bollocks.

> I have both a high school and university degree and have never heard of him

With all due respect, it's far more likely that you have heard of him, but you didn't retain the information.