Triumphrat

decobike

Watching the news tonight, two stories in, they highlilghted the crumbling infrastructure (mostly roads and bridges) across the country. Having just returned from Minneapolis/St. Paul this weekend (yes, I took the truck, no regrets, Saturday was nasty) I would concede we got problems. Ugly, deep potholes in the lanes of the intracity freeways. Really big potholes, you can drop your front wheel into sized potholes. The problem is doing these roads during the high traffic at speed daytime and early nightime hours. Up north here I do understand the freeze/thaw issues that attack the roads but, how is it where you're at?

Also in Minneapolis the Lowry Street bridge is closed for the next 3 years for replacement. That's good and its not (I used that bridge a lot). they're going to replace it with something modern and thats good and, its not, I liked the old steel grid deck bridge and you could see the Mississippi 3 stories below when you looked down (creepy on two wheels in a fun kind of way).

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BlueThrux

Not all the roads around here are that bad, there are alot of backroads that are not traveled heavily and are nice to go whippin around on. Some of the main roads are like a slalom course, except the cones are replaced with pot holes or patches. They are patch happy around here. They are getting better though. There is one stretch of road, 422 going up to Exeter, my friend and I have dubbed it the nut buster. No need for explanation there.

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Elwood Blues: We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark and we are wearing sunglasses.
Jake Blues: Hit it.

redbaron586

the roads in and around richmond, for the most part, suck. But that isn't due to freeze/thaw but rather the government's attention being elsewhere

hogwylde

Roads and bridges here in my neck of the woods in Massachusetts are horrible! If I am not mistaken, the bridges were deemed the worst in the USA.

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The mind is like a parachute. Works best when open.

erikmustride

The roads here kinda suck. Some of the main highways (I-35, I-40) aren't to bad. But the back roads are pretty awful. I nearly reconsidered my lowering springs after hitting a few nasty potholes. Nearly.

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No one hands out medals for "keeping it real"- Torr

When life gives you lemons, you paint that s#*t gold!

CAPTDON

Most of the biggies here suck!! The back / country roads arent too bad? I remember in college riding w/ a friend in his Abarth Zagato in Boston & seeing a pothole that was ready to eat the car. Scared the hell outa me!! We just caught the edges of it & made it!! I do a lot of zigggin & zagin on the Bonne!! If our country spentmore $$ on fixin our infrastrucrure than we spend on fixin Iraqs roads- things would be a lot better! O well?

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CAPT D

sweatmachine

in Austin a lot of the major highways are really good near town, I-35 is ok (depending on what construction is going on, what debris is on the highway, etc), Mopac is good, 183 good, 71 etc, but a lot of the inner-city roads are crappy w/ potholes and tar snakes.

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Macgruber!


Click for a picture of my slightly modified Bonnie

tc_dick

Seattle is a mess. We seem to have one of four options:

-Potholed
-Filled potholed
-ground up to fill potholed
-ground up to start over

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'07 Silver Bonnie
Seattle, WA

Kirkus51

The roads here are really not that bad, but it was a mild Winter.
There is however a move in the Statehouse to up the registration fees by a considerable amount to pay for bridge reconstruction.
Just as an aside, U.S. 36 from Denver to Boulder was and is called the Boulder Turnpike. They charged a toll to get to Boulder and vice versa until the road was paid for then they tore out the toll booth and the road was "free". That's the only road I know of that actually did away with tolls when it was paid for.
Got my 69 Rocket3 up to 130 on the Turnpike. Almost the dumbest thing I ever did.

Old Scratcher

It's going to cost an estimated $5mil to patch up the potholes the recent Monsoon Season created around here. Unfortunately they were only half way through patching the previous season's damage. So there are plenty of hazards to avoid.
Here on the coastal plain, we also suffer from too much infrastructure, thanks to the many sugar-cane farms. These are all interconnected by a light-rail system, which carts the cane to the mills, during harvset season (Jun-Nov). So there are rail-crossings everywhere. Some roads I ride have more than 6-7 crossings within 500 metres. Most of them don't have warning lights, & none have boom-gates. So it pays to be very wary around them. & not just in harvest season either, as there can be maintanance crews on them anytime.
The cane harvester's can also be a traffic hazard, as the cane's planted right to the paddock's edge, & the harvesters will often use the road to turn around. But it's the guy's who haul the full bins of cane back to the rail head, who pose the greatest threat. They're paid by the bin, so they drive flat-out all day, & they're big enough not to have to worry about giving way to anyone.
So they don't!

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"They told me I was goin to have to work for my living, & all I wanna do is ride." Jackson Browne (the Road & The Sky)