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How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

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Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#221

Post by londons_explore »

jamiek88 wrote: post #219
onion2k wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do it on a reasonably clear road to get around someone hogging an overtaking lane, and the police see you, they're going to pull you over and give you a fixed penalty notice for careless driving though. I know this from experience.

Me too! M4 from London to Cardiff for the Ryder Cup. Had lived in Texas for years, was fresh off the plane and forgot it wasn't legal. No mercy shown! Jokes on them though I never paid the ticket and I'm never going to.

Your estate will likely pay the ticket with 50 years of interest when you die.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#222

Post by cmurf »

Stevvo wrote: post #186
habosa wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently drove around Spain for 2 weeks. My first significant international driving experience. I was shocked at how seriously they took the rule of only passing on the left. Every single car in the right line was driving slower than every single car in the left. It made driving so much better. The behavior of every car was basically predictable. I've never seen anyone pay much attention to their lane here.

In all of Europe, undertaking is illegal. When we come to the US, driving feels like you are in a third world country.

Perhaps worse in terms of consistency. Private drivers education, public school drivers education, or uncle Bob can just teachya!

The testing is remarkably pathetic. It's impressive this system works as well as it does. Red light runners, meh, just fine them! Pot smokers, fine and imprison them even if they weren't near a vehicle!

Honestly it's so backwards.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#223

Post by onion2k »

jamiek88 wrote: post #219
onion2k wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do it on a reasonably clear road to get around someone hogging an overtaking lane, and the police see you, they're going to pull you over and give you a fixed penalty notice for careless driving though. I know this from experience.

Me too! M4 from London to Cardiff for the Ryder Cup. Had lived in Texas for years, was fresh off the plane and forgot it wasn't legal. No mercy shown! Jokes on them though I never paid the ticket and I'm never going to.

You've been punished enough by sitting through the tedium of golf tournament. :)

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#224

Post by cmurf »

cortesoft wrote: post #171
slowhand09 wrote: post #57

I think of this as I drive 30ish miles each way to work. 5 miles of surface roads, 19 miles of interstate (2 lanes each way), and 6 miles of surface (2 lanes each way). One cause for increased construction is the need for more capacity. My frequent lament is poor driving habits. We have regular instances of sub-optimal speeds in both lanes. A 65 mph limit and vehicles driving 55mph in both lanes, frequently with 1/4…

Where I live (Los Angeles), all the lanes are filled all the time. There is no passing lane, so it doesn’t matter which lane you drive in. The skill that is important for drivers to have is the zipper merge, because those are happening all the time as fully utilized lanes merge and split. I am actually usually pretty impressed with LA drivers. Most respect the zipper merge.

Where was it I read the zipper merge is not recommended in the U.S. because Americans are too adversarial to understand it, and so it usually makes things worse.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#225

Post by toong »

bartread wrote: post #206
habosa wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently drove around Spain for 2 weeks. My first significant international driving experience. I was shocked at how seriously they took the rule of only passing on the left. Every single car in the right line was driving slower than every single car in the left. It made driving so much better. The behavior of every car was basically predictable. I've never seen anyone pay much attention to their lane here.

I'm not sure what it's like in Spain but, in France, if you hog the outside lane you will get flashed and beeped at. French drivers do not tolerate lane hogs at all and generally manifest excellent lane discipline: I wish the UK were more like that.

It's not simply against social norms: in (some/most?) European countries you can get a ticket for hogging the left (fast) lane. You are supposed to move over, if traffic allows.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#226

Post by viuphiet »

clarry wrote: post #218
rayiner wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relevant number here is the cost to repave, not reconstruct, which is about $330,000-$350,000 per mile for a minor arterial road in a rural or urban area. As to how small towns afford it--you don't repave that often, and you focus efforts on what to repave. For example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa calculated it would cost $500 million over 10 years to repave everything that needs to be repaved: https://www.kcrg.com/conten…

> The relevant number here is the cost to repave, not reconstruct, which is about $330,000-$350,000 per mile for a minor arterial road in a rural or urban area. Sounds a tad more expensive than it needs to be. Skimming search results for my country (.fi), I get numbers ranging from 30 000 to 50 000 eur per kilometer. I know murican roads are wider, but I don't think they're that much wider. And I don't think we're pa…

I think it's because everything is far more spread out in the US.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#227

Post by arkh »

bartread wrote: post #206
habosa wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently drove around Spain for 2 weeks. My first significant international driving experience. I was shocked at how seriously they took the rule of only passing on the left. Every single car in the right line was driving slower than every single car in the left. It made driving so much better. The behavior of every car was basically predictable. I've never seen anyone pay much attention to their lane here.

I'm not sure what it's like in Spain but, in France, if you hog the outside lane you will get flashed and beeped at. French drivers do not tolerate lane hogs at all and generally manifest excellent lane discipline: I wish the UK were more like that.

> generally manifest excellent lane discipline

Until you get to a road with more than 2x2 lanes. You have people half asleep in the middle lane going 10 km/h under the speed limit.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#228

Post by hinkley »

pentae wrote: post #207
asdff wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most respect the zipper merge. Most. Maybe 1/10 are that prick that believes you merging in front of them is an affront to their pride, and opts to block you from entering or exiting the freeway. I see this most on the 10, but also on the 110 going from pasadena to downtown when you have to merge over 3 lanes to stay on the freeway then merge back 3 lanes to get on the 10 west.

I wouldn't let it bother you too much.. For every prick like that theres another prick like myself who is willing to smash up their front bumper with the rear of my vehicle to make a point. Interestingly, they always cede your right of way when you don't hesitate.

Ah, I recall as a young man when the guy in the shiny SUV would try to cut you off because they had a bigger vehicle.

I felt like I could tell the moment when they realized that the repairs on their car would be more expensive than my entire car, and slink back into their lane.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#229

Post by bartread »

onion2k wrote: post #213
bartread wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK it's actually not illegal: it's just advised against, and considered bad form in most situations by most drivers. And, of course, if you cause an accident by undertaking the police will (rightly) throw the book at you. Examples where it's considered acceptable to undertake: - In heavier or queuing traffic inside lanes might move faster than outside lanes: this is OK, and it's considered better and safer to…

If you do it on a reasonably clear road to get around someone hogging an overtaking lane, and the police see you, they're going to pull you over and give you a fixed penalty notice for careless driving though. I know this from experience.

Interesting. On the A1M heading to and from Peterborough I've also seen them flash and pull people over for lane hogging so at least they're enforcing it both ways.

Super annoying when you're cruising along in the inside lane and then have to cross the entire width of the carriageway to overtake some clown hogging the middle lane: always feels a bit risky, especially if there are vehicles coming up from behind in the outside lane.

Same when you get someone who's pulled out to overtake a lorry but can't be bothered to pull in again even though the next vehicle they'd overtake is hundreds of metres ahead of them.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#230

Post by wwweston »

romwell wrote: post #220
erulabs wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man particularly from the 110 to the 5 south - that one lane change - there is _always_ one person go tries to skip the line and merge at the very end, only to get stuck, and cause a massive hangup. That line of cars is ~30 long, so 1 in 10 is perfectly high enough for it to be broken all the time.

>there is _always_ one person go tries to skip the line and merge at the very end, Ahem... he's the one that actually knows what a zipper merge is, and you are the one who needs to learn a thing today. There is no line in the zipper merge. You are supposed to merge at the very end to keep the traffic flowing, like a zipper would. Read up, and don't be that guy: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/traffic-lane-zipper-merge…

The benefits of zipper merge don't materialize fully unless merging lanes match speed approaching the merge point.

The parent is likely talking about situations like those presented where a relatively less dense (and ending) lane is merging into a fully-loaded thru-lane, and the traffic in the relatively less dense lane, rather than matching speed and finding the tooth-gap correspondence that's implied in the name zipper merge, zooms as quickly as possible to the last merge point, and then either cuts in without having negotiated a corresponding gap (causing the traffic column in the thru-lane to brake dramatically) or ends up having to slow/stop until an opportunity presents itself (causing a build-up in the ending lane). Or maybe even the latter and then the former.

So, yes, there is "no line" in the zipper merge. There are two lines. And yes, you are supposed to merge at the very end.

But if that's where the thinking/behavior stops, then the parent is right to complain. Drivers who are not matching speed before the merge point are not doing a zipper merge.

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