How good are American roads?

> 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.

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.

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.

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

Let me ask you: how many buildings collapsed during the reign of Hammurabi?

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?

Not obscure enough of a figure to necessitate a history degree. Well known for being one of the first to establish building codes.

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?

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.

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.

> 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?

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.

> all the other replies shiroiushi has made

But it's lo_zamoyski that made the reference.