MetaFilter posts tagged with roads

Landscapes of the Dream

WPW — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:13:33 -0800

Industrial Span, Dead Cars, Burnout, Roadside Memorials. Short films by Ashley Perry.

Wait - there was life before motorways?

HaloMan — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:31:24 -0800

A less glamorous anniversary passed with little fanfare yesterday: 50 years since the opening of the first stretch of the humble British motorway, the 8-mile two-lane Preston Bypass, which now forms part of the M6. The occasion was celebrated by the official opening of an 5.8 mile M6 extension, closing the "Cumberland Gap", allowing commuters to make the entire 400 mile journey between Glasgow and London by motorway. The total length of motorways in the UK totals around 2200 miles.

Nature Creates a River

brain_drain — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:56:42 -0800

While God was fooling around with his celestial SimCity control panel, he accidentally built a river right through the middle of a road. [NOT THEIST]

Adding up US subsidies for auto travel with and without the costs of war

salvia — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:02:34 -0800

In the U.S., motorists do not pay their way. The US government spends more on highways and other auto-related expenses than it receives from auto-related taxes, unlike almost every country in Europe. In a recent report [pdf], Mark Delucchi calculates automobile-related costs and revenues in three different ways and concludes the subsidy is around 20-70 cents per gallon or $24-105 billion in 2002. But what are automobile-related costs, you ask? Largely tucked away in footnotes and background papers [pdf] are his careful considerations about which expenditures to include and what portion of costs relate directly to automobile oil use, for everything from the highway patrol, to fighting brushfires, to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to military activity in the Middle East. Don't miss Report #15, in which Delucchi and coauthor James Murphy seek to calculate: “If the U.S. transportation sector did not use oil, how much would the U.S. federal government reduce its military commitment in the Persian Gulf?” [pdf] (especially Table 15-12, which summarizes much of the paper). [previously] [originally via]

Infrastructure Report Card

homunculus — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:15:25 -0800

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) published their latest Infrastructure Report Card in 2005. America's infrastructure got a D. The ASCE estimate that it will cost $1.6 trillion over a five-year period to bring the nation's infrastructure to good condition. They also have a Critical Infrastructure blog. [Via Gristmill.]

Imaginary Places

dersins — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:31:17 -0800

If you like looking at maps of imaginary places, you should take a peek at the Fantasy Atlas, a German-language collection of maps of literary fantasy and sci-fi worlds. For a more obsessive (but just as interesting) take on maps of imaginary places, you can check out the work of Adrian Leskiw, who's been creating road maps of non-existent places since the age of 3. (Previously on Metafilter.)

public assets and infrastructure go private--and we pay

amberglow — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 16:49:13 -0800

Roads To Riches (or We've Got a Bridge in Brooklyn to Sell You--Seriously) -- Why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports—and why the public should be nervous.--...a slew of Wall Street firms—Goldman, Morgan Stanley, the Carlyle Group, Citigroup, and many others—is piling into infrastructure ... Assets sold now could change hands many times over the next 50 years, with each new buyer feeling increasing pressure to make the deal work financially. It's hardly a stretch to imagine service suffering in such a scenario; already, the record in the U.S. has been spotty. ...

The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

deern the headlice — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:36:38 -0800

The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

brum brum beep beep

13twelve — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 06:26:40 -0800

How motorways work (slightly NSFW - ever so slightly - I think it swears a couple o times). Why we hate UK motorway users hate using our motorways. See also Middle Lane Morons.

Ancient Routes

carter — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:58:29 -0800

Ancient Routes Illustrated gazetteers of old trade and communication routes, such as the King's Highway from Egypt to Syria and the Way of the Sea from Egypt to Damascus. Also, an illustrated compendium of ancient Mediterranean cities.

permeable pavement

stbalbach — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:00:52 -0800

New permeable pavement systems allow water to seep into and through the roadway surface, reducing run-off and recharging aquifers.

3DIs - The final frontier

falconred — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:33:37 -0800

3-digit Interstate Highways - Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about the offshoots of the U.S. Interstate system, including naming conventions and the evil I-238. [via Fark]

Antique road trip

KirkJobSluder — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:29:35 -0800

One of my joys of going on vacation is to get off the interstate and collect a bit of an old historic road. In California over the weekend we managed to grab a bit of Hwy. 1 aka the Pacific Coast Highway past nature preserves, resorts and neighborhoods. Another goal is to do all of U.S. 50, the initial stages of which were reportedly surveyed by George Washington during his tour in the British Army. Wired has a nice article about how a journalist and a photographer ignored the advice of a Federal Highway Administration spokesperson to take a trip down Route 1 from Maine to Florida.

Get your kicks... on the M25

jontyjago — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 02:30:36 -0800

Roads We've all heard of lorry spotting and maybe know about bus spotting and have probably indulged in a bit of car spotting but now it's the turn of the roads themselves.

You can travel the UK motorway network without leaving the house, discover rare roads, get your wheels wet, plan your route bend by bend and find somewhere to refresh yourselves.

And don't worry, the US Roadgeek community is not left out..

NycRoads.Com

PrinceValium — Sun, 15 Jun 2003 01:30:30 -0800

NYCRoads.com is an exhaustive history of the expressways, parkways, and river crossings that shaped metro New York over the last century and a half.

London Congestion Charging

brettski — Mon, 17 Feb 2003 02:25:05 -0800

Conjestion charging hits london £5 to take a car into the central zone (pdf) between 7am and 6.30pm Mon - Fri. It's all the work of controversial mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone Opinion is split: for and against. A small majority of Londoners seem in favour of it - traffic in London now is as slow as the days of the horse and cart! Day one seems quiet, though it is the school holidays! Is this the answer?

Mwongozi — Wed, 06 Feb 2002 08:45:12 -0800

Which side of the road do you drive on?
It's all down to which side you held your sword on, in the end. (Via Fark.)

machaus — Fri, 28 Dec 2001 15:23:47 -0800

Vanishing America. While doing some research on the "neon graveyard" in Las Vegas, I ran into this site which seeks to "discover, procure, document and preserve through photographic media the architecture and cultural landscapes situated along the highways of the U.S." While I wish that the gallery had more entries, the links section is a real gem. How else would you find out about stuckonstuckeys.com or The grotto of the redemption?

starduck — Tue, 30 May 2000 16:20:15 -0800

On the topic of cars , I've known about this city for awhile, and it looks like heaven. It's actually a law to have a picket fence, and there's no cars, because well, there's no roads! But, at around 500k at least for a house, I think it's a bit out of my league