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Who really has the worst roads?

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Old 03-14-08, 02:04 PM
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CK6Speed
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Default Who really has the worst roads?

Every one of us think our local roads has to be the worst or among the worst in the nation right? Well, it seems our local roads here in Honolulu is actually one of the worst in the nation I always knew it.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/ap...45/1001/NEWS01
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Old 03-14-08, 02:43 PM
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yusef
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Maile Custodio, owner of Titanium, said 80 percent of her business is created by potholes.
well guess there always a good and a bad to a situation. bad for drivers, good for business.
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Old 03-14-08, 03:03 PM
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mmarshall
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Interesting. Honolulu doesn't get freezing and thawing or road salt either...the primary cause of potholes and road damage.

On the continental U.S., Washington, D.C. and New York City, in my experience, have the worst urban roads. Michigan and Northeastern Ohio, both in the Snow Belt of the Great Lakes, have the overall worst.
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Old 03-14-08, 03:05 PM
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I'll take the roads in DC (saw a pothole filled in with a mattress once) or the ones in Hawaii over what I have here.
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Old 03-14-08, 03:07 PM
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I don't understand why warm places like San Jose, San Diego, LA, and Honolulu have such bad roads. I thought potholes and such are caused by temperature extremes from cold weather.
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Old 03-14-08, 03:13 PM
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Expansion of the road compounds due to heat. I have told road engineers here that they have to install finger joints in the roads to avoid this issue, but nothing doing.

In Mexico City, the cracks and potholes aren't due to earthquakes, but the fact that the whole city was built on a lakebed and is sinking (Spanish drained it after they conquered the Aztecs) and that is why the center part of the city gets hit really hard during earthquakes. Even my little 1/4 mile track in Tlalnepantla north of the city has had a dip near the end of the track that we have had to fill in twice in almost 4 years of operation (actually in the right lane where I am racing out of in my avatar to the left).
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Old 03-14-08, 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by mmarshall
Interesting. Honolulu doesn't get freezing and thawing or road salt either...the primary cause of potholes and road damage.

On the continental U.S., Washington, D.C. and New York City, in my experience, have the worst urban roads. Michigan and Northeastern Ohio, both in the Snow Belt of the Great Lakes, have the overall worst.

It is purely the LACK of maintenance. Remember, we are not exactly a rich state. We have deferred maintenance from 20+ years, plus extremely heavy traffic for such a small ground area.

Also, I'm not sure how the road salt and cold work in other areas since I'm not familiar with that, but every single time it rains here in Hawaii the roads develop pot holes. A lot of it has to do with the rain washing away the fill in old pot holes reopening them, or simply the heavy surface water breaking up the road or under the road causing problems. Pot hole filling and NOT resurfacing was the norm. These are all streets as well, even our freeways have cement chunks coming off.

Here is one reason on why our government has a lack of money. Our City's income is mostly from property taxes as most know. However, even with the higher property values in Hawaii, the actual property tax is fairly low compared to most states. A $600K home pays about $3000 a year in property taxes.

Our public school budges comes from the States General fund as well

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Old 03-14-08, 03:41 PM
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I live in SF and one of my rims got bent because of a pot hole on the road.
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Old 03-14-08, 04:59 PM
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Its very simple - the companies that City and State governments hire to do road construction do lousy work on purpose - this way they will get repeat and repair work. If they did their job the way they are suposed to, they would be out of work.
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Old 03-14-08, 05:20 PM
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Boston. We have trollies that have rails onto roads. We have roads that never quite finish getting repaved. Repaved roads deteriorate quickly. Potholes EVERYWHERE.
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Old 03-14-08, 05:44 PM
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Many of the urban roads here in Oz aren't too bad, especially in the new super duper sub-divisions, however some of the major roads are absolutely atrocious - you wouldn't dare drive over the posted speed limit especially in a lowered car like many of the people here on CL.
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Old 03-14-08, 06:00 PM
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Idk but the end of my street has a washout/pothole about 6'x3'x6" that I've almost bottomed my subi out on.
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Old 03-14-08, 06:02 PM
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When I first transferred out to the bay area from Chicago, the roads were super compared to Illinois. Now they are the pits. Car makers should quit fantasizing over the Nurburgring and come test here. Lexus aren't very quiet here.
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Old 03-14-08, 06:11 PM
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The roads here in Houston are horrible as well. They are filled w/ cracks & potholes.
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Old 03-14-08, 06:21 PM
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Originally Posted by mmarshall
Interesting. Honolulu doesn't get freezing and thawing or road salt either...the primary cause of potholes and road damage.

On the continental U.S., Washington, D.C. and New York City, in my experience, have the worst urban roads. Michigan and Northeastern Ohio, both in the Snow Belt of the Great Lakes, have the overall worst.
Dodging potholes it kinda fun. Makes up for the lack of mountainous twisties around here.
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