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Old 04-23-2016, 08:39 AM   #41
safisher
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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I read a few books about the great depression where locally at least the government contracted individuals to maintain stretches of road. One person with basic tools can maintain a passable road remarkably well.
That is the system used today in developing nations.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Nm...0tools&f=false
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Old 04-23-2016, 08:18 PM   #42
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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Another vote for location and weather conditions to play a major role. I'm in a high mountain desert area, but about 65 years ago, they shifted the route of one of the state highways marginally (a deviation of a few hundred yards away from the current path (fewer hills to loop around for safety reasons). You can still clearly make out where the old highway went, and it's not particularly cluttered. You wouldn't want to drive highway speeds on it, but you can easily make 40mph without much worry. There aren't even many weeds on it. .
Well "high mountain desert area" sort of explains that. Vegetation in the more arid areas here out west can grow quite slowly. There are places where you can see footprints that are two generations old, let alone a road! Being dry helps, too- that's why there are so many surviving cabins. Back east a log cabin rots quickly if it isn't maintained. And the ground is so dry that although there is a large temperature variation throughout the year there isn't enough moisture in the soil to cause a frost heave.

The American west really is the perfect place for an AtE campaign. Australia is damned good, too.
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Old 04-24-2016, 09:25 AM   #43
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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60 mph is what you do on nice, smooth, modern, paved highways, with nice wide lanes, wide clear shoulders, and big smoooooth curves.
Oh my, you'd get a heart attack here. I don't think there are roads here that this description fits, yet the speed limit here is 90 kph. There are also non-paved roads and as far as I can tell people don't drive much slower on them.
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Old 04-24-2016, 09:55 AM   #44
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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Oh my, you'd get a heart attack here. I don't think there are roads here that this description fits, yet the speed limit here is 90 kph. There are also non-paved roads and as far as I can tell people don't drive much slower on them.
I don't drive, when I visit Europe. Partially, I don't enjoy it and partially, I don't know the rules and can't read the signs (I've only ever passed through Great Britain, so far, and I ride the tube down to Picadilly for lunch and a beer, if the layover is long enough).

I also don't drive because some of the driving, there, is insane. The Germans are insanely good at it, and the Romanians are insanely bad. The Spanish seemed okay, but it was easy to use the Metro and then just walk, to wherever it was I wanted to go.
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Old 04-24-2016, 02:18 PM   #45
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

I've lived a total of five years of my life in Germany and I'll agree- the Germans are insanely good at it. It's also very expensive to take all of the required classes and get a license, there, which probably helps. They also have a much better traffic system than the US. (I envy their recycling system, too.) I like to claim that some of it rubbed off. For instance, it annoys the hell out of me that no one here knows how to use a traffic circle. And then they have the gall to honk at me as if I was the one who screwed up.

OTOH places not to drive include Italy, Greece, and anywhere in the Balkans. Of course, if you're on foot then you're essentially defenseless, so pick your poison...
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Old 04-24-2016, 02:48 PM   #46
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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One thing I've run into with my current GURPS Rifts game set along the Chesapeake Bay (ca 102 PA) is travel times.
IIRC in the colonial era (c. 1609 to 1776) most folks in that area went by boat -- safer and faster than trying to move across roads.

Safer? If you know the local conditions and have a good Weather Sense and stay close to land your chances of drowning are low. Given the major inletting of the Bay coastlands it's probably a much shorter distance. While highwaymen can use boats (they're then called pirates) it demands at least some boating knowledge & is more visible than bushwhacking -- so a fair chance of being caught.

In that area boats rule.
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Old 04-24-2016, 07:08 PM   #47
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

I live in Maryland. The old land parcels tended to be long and thin so that everyone had a waterfront stretch.
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Old 04-25-2016, 01:15 AM   #48
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I don't think I see anyone driving as slow as 60mph here unless it's on a dirt road. Even the highways with 65mph speed limits see a flow of traffic speed closer to 75, and the interstate goes up to 85 or 90 in some places with the average speed being a bit more than that.

The speed limit on the, then, dirt road I grew up on was 55 except on a couple of turns where it dropped to 35 (and you really didn't want to take it faster than that, more than one car ended up in the canal).
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Old 04-25-2016, 01:45 AM   #49
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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I don't think I see anyone driving as slow as 60mph here unless it's on a dirt road. Even the highways with 65mph speed limits see a flow of traffic speed closer to 75, and the interstate goes up to 85 or 90 in some places with the average speed being a bit more than that.

The speed limit on the, then, dirt road I grew up on was 55 except on a couple of turns where it dropped to 35 (and you really didn't want to take it faster than that, more than one car ended up in the canal).
On a dirt road I have been on before and know the condition of I have no problems with going those speeds.
On unfamiliar dirt roads, I'm going slower because I don't know where all the potholes/ruts are to avoid them.
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Old 04-25-2016, 09:54 PM   #50
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Default Re: [AtE] Condition of Highways

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On a dirt road I have been on before and know the condition of I have no problems with going those speeds.
On unfamiliar dirt roads, I'm going slower because I don't know where all the potholes/ruts are to avoid them.
Out here, ruts aren't that big of an issue. Washboarding is however. These are a sort of series of sort of ruts that cross the road side to side. Think naturally occuring speed bumps, a few dozen side by side. Or similar to going across several cattle guards in a row.
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