Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
 

i just saw a news story about federal funding for highways and it made me think about how terrible the roads are here in Pa. i have done some travelling and have found nice road conditions in Virginia, Texas, New Mexico. there are other states i've driven through that have decent roads, too. what are the roads like where you live? what states do you think have good roads?

They suck in LA for two reasons, endemic corruption and poor sources for base material, related to the first part. It's gotten better in the past 10 years or so with an aberration: 2.5 honest administrations in a row. They appointed an actual civil engineer to run the hwy dept. Scarey stuff.

B

i drove through la. on 20 two years ago and that wasn't too memorable; i don't know if that's good or not!

20 years ago and it wasn't memorable. I'm guessing you were either traveling from MS south into LA or you were going E-W via I-10 or I-20. In any case, you were probably on interstates.

Everybody with any sense in my state wonders what happened to the oil and gas taxes since the 1930's. We visit Texas and see fine fine secondaries and come home to US Hwy 84 or LA 1! Aaaaaaahh!

I think Hydrogen Peroxide drove these roads for a while. Wonder if he has a chiropacter on retainer.

Bot

sorry. I-20 two years ago is what i meant to mean!

Ah, the interstates are about average, which is why they aren't memorable. MS has the best interstates East of the MS, IMO.

We could ask BenzAdmiral (I think), who lives in NOLA, but I think NOLA has been importing extra potholes from other major cities.

B

Howdy All,
The roads in California and Arizona are good.

i used to drive rt. 50 (i think) through magdalena, NM to Phoenix-through globe, concho, chandler; all the old copper mining towns-awesome scenery and great road!

Howdy Hogweed,
Arizona is my favorite state. There are sooooo many things to see. And as mentioned good roads to see them.

howdy frank,
i'm partial to new mexico but i'm stuck back east for awhile. actually, the condition of the roads here in Pa. aside, there are some really nice scenic rides here.

Howdy Hogweed,
New Mexico is my next choice. But like you I am stuck only it is in Cal.

bump
 

i need more cowbell!! cmon, folks i can't believe there are no more thoughts about road conditions on a car message board :computer:

Hogweed, that was (is) highway 60, not 50. I'm only 26 miles south of it here in Alpine. Yeah, most roads in AZ and NM are in pretty good shape, although the highway engineers in NM could use a refresher in slope stablity.

Wes

that is correct! it's been a while but i used to go that way from albuq to phoenix to see the eagles play the cardinals and one time to go to san diego to see the dead-that was a wild ride! giant car-sized boulders flaaing off the mountain into the road righ before the tunnel! awesome

you have to kkep in mind i'm comparing them to pa roads- i would probably enjoy driving conditions on the moon after driving on the roads here

These roads suck. Even Dubbyah said so when he came to Bakersfield. And no frikkin trees, anywhere! Especially parking lots.

Howdy Hogweed,
Threads started near the weeken seem to take there time catching on. Sunday night or Monday should pick up.

bump
 

anyone else before this slips into eternity?

The roads in CT are probably among the worst in the country. Long winters combined with heavy traffic and old roads. I-95 is a never ending construction zone. :mad:

New Haven also has some pretty bad roads. I remember last year when I started driving my car to school all of a sudden I started needing more and more suspension work. :rolleyes:

i drove through conn recently and i must agree.

I used to travel HWY 1 coming home from LSU every other weekend before HWY 49 was finished so I know what you are talking about. Texas has some good roads but they also have the worst drivers of any state.

I think the government of Ky is run by a couple of big contributor-road buiding companies. Unfortunately, they are big black-top companies. Thus all we get are blacktop roads that wear out after a few years. Plus we let overweight trucks run all over them. Then guess what, we have to let more contracts for rebuilding the roads! I especially like it when they use blacktop at a stop sign ona road that gets truck or bus traffic. After a couple of hot summers, the pavement looks like and accordian from the trucks pushing the near liquid pavement around. I wanna send all the highway dept guys to Germany to see how you really build roads. They built the autobahn almost two feet thick. Then again, if you want to move around Tiger tanks (or just big heavy trucks) thats what you do.

Around Seattle, our roads are fine, except for the viaduct which everyone fears is gonna fall down at the next quake, and some of the worst traffic congestion in the nation, and, of course, an overall freeway design that takes into consideration that folks are patient and that miracles do, in fact happen.

Our local gov’s idea of helping the city is to spend 11 BILLION dollars on a 14 mile monorail, and tax everyone’s vehicle license tabs for the next 50 years to pay for it. Ha Ha, the joke is on them as in far less than 50 years there won’t be any vehicles to tax.

Other than that, things are just fine.

One of my favorite hobbyhorses!
 

Yes, I do live in New Orleans, Botnst, and I doubt we have to import potholes; what we have here is homegrown, like fungus. It's truly embarrassing when you drive on crunchy Hwy. 90 in LA to MS -- and the road *improves* as you cross into MS.

I've said for years that the roads here -- and that includes portions of the Interstates, too -- are as cracked and split as neglected toenails. I will actually drive out of my way to stick to reasonably smooth roads, because they're so rare. Whether cracked and patched, or those vicious little ripple-bump roads that look smooth but make your dash vibrate, or the big buckled concrete fault-blocks which make your car crash its way down the street, they're all horrifying. One of the Brazilian graduate students in my office said that she fell off her bike more than once because the roads/streets were so broken.

I lived in Denver, CO, for four years, and even side streets in the metro area were in excellent condition. They spent all summer fixing them, too.

(Jeez, I want to go somewhere else!)