Great Astra Review

[The O.C.]

I would say that in my own experience though that public transportation and highway maintenance is better in Western Europe.

I think in regards to highway maintenance, it's REALLY hard to generalize due to the fact that it really really depends on where you are in the states. Our states have widely divergent levels of highway/freeway pavement quality.

[regfootball]

I wouldn't say that generally speaking, European policing or schooling are better than it is in the States. In this country at least, policing in many counties is woefully underfunded. The quality of state schools here can be hit and miss, as in the States, but things are improving now that schools across the country are graded based on exam results, teaching talent, etc. I'd say the standard of University education in the United States was second-to-none though, and probably the finest in the world.

I would say that in my own experience though that public transportation and highway maintenance is better in Western Europe.

so basically you are saying you get screwed by paying double for gas, getting nothing of substance out of it, and yet you endorse that.

[regfootball]

ROTFLMAO.....

That is the funniest damn thing I've read in a LONG time......

the part i left out.....the wocka wocka music starts and i mysteriously appear from the corner and soon lizzie is a **** star.

[Guest aatbloke]

I think in regards to highway maintenance, it's REALLY hard to generalize due to the fact that it really really depends on where you are in the states. Our states have widely divergent levels of highway/freeway pavement quality.

I'm going on what I've experienced and what other travellers like me have experienced. I've personally covered 31 US states, and while there's a significant variation in highway quality, overall they're nothing like as consistently good as in Western Europe. In this country, they waste silly amounts of money on highways - county councils won't get future allotted budgets from central government if they don't spent their allotment for any given year.

[Guest aatbloke]

so basically you are saying you get screwed by paying double for gas, getting nothing of substance out of it, and yet you endorse that.

No, that's not what I'm saying whatsoever.

[The O.C.]

I'm going on what I've experienced and what other travellers like me have experienced. I've personally covered 31 US states, and while there's a significant variation in highway quality, overall they're nothing like as consistently good as in Western Europe. In this country, they waste silly amounts of money on highways - county councils won't get future allotted budgets from central government if they don't spent their allotment for any given year.

The autobahns I travelled in Germany WERE first-class. The secondary roads were not in any way superior to ours......roads in GB were the same....."freeways" were nice, secondary roads not really any better (or worse.....)

We have such a divergence here.....for example, drive on the 15 freeway from the desert of Califrornia into Nevada towards the greater Las Vegas area, and when you cross the state line, you come into Nevada on a now six-lane freeway that looks like it was built to be an autobahn.....and many of Las Vegas' freeways have been upgraded to a similar level of quality.

Well, the simple answer why is that with all the HUGE growth in the region, the local government KNEW that they had to spend major $$ in upgrading the freeway systems in southern Nevada and the Las Vegas area (and they're not done yet.) The 15 freeway along the Strip and into downtown Las Vegas used to be a 4-lane freeway (2 on each side) and now, last time I was there, it has morphed into a 10-12 lane freeway....even in the center of town. (And even with that, the city is now clogged with traffic almost as bad as Los Angeles')

On the contrary, go to say Detroit, and you have to cringe at the abysmal quality of the freeways there. (AND Detroit has improved them in recent years even....)

[Guest aatbloke]

The autobahns I travelled in Germany WERE first-class. The secondary roads were not in any way superior to ours......roads in GB were the same....."freeways" were nice, secondary roads not really any better (or worse.....)

We have such a divergence here.....for example, drive on the 15 freeway from the desert of Califrornia into Nevada towards the greater Las Vegas area, and when you cross the state line, you come into Nevada on a now six-lane freeway that looks like it was built to be an autobahn.....and many of Las Vegas' freeways have been upgraded to a similar level of quality.

Well, the simple answer why is that with all the HUGE growth in the region, the local government KNEW that they had to spend major $$ in upgrading the freeway systems in southern Nevada and the Las Vegas area (and they're not done yet.) The 15 freeway along the Strip and into downtown Las Vegas used to be a 4-lane freeway (2 on each side) and now, last time I was there, it has morphed into a 10-12 lane freeway....even in the center of town. (And even with that, the city is now clogged with traffic almost as bad as Los Angeles')

On the contrary, go to say Detroit, and you have to cringe at the abysmal quality of the freeways there. (AND Detroit has improved them in recent years even....)

I'm not discounting that in many areas, there is excellent road quality over there, but there are many that do not, particularly in areas which experience brutal winters. But on the subject of secondary roads I disagree with you, because in the States highway funding varies from federal, state, and local level, and in each case income and expenditure varies - all very different from the funding system here and the higher levels of excise duty and indirect taxation used for the funding. Secondary roads in the States - not all, but a good many - are the worst I have ever seen, especially in areas with little money to resurface them. Instead, either potholes are left or literally refilled and refilled to the point where the surface is jarring. There isn't the consistency of good road maintenance as there is here.

Successive British government studies over the years have concluded that building wider roads doesn't ease traffic congestion - all it does is attract more and more traffic.

Edited May 15, 2008 by aatbloke