Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Build the Missourabahn

[Nathan Atkinson <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I'm all for the idea of a US autobahn, but the average American doesn't 
want to pay for the things that they use.  So to build the quality of 
roads required would be a massive cost that most people would love the 
result of but are not willing to pay for.  If I remember correctly the 
autobahn is about 30" of asphalt whereas most roads here are about 16" 
of concrete.  Also if there is a crack or anything that could cause a 
disturbance to the pavement the Germans go in a replace it, here there 
would have to be a massive crater for the highway department to fix it 
:p.  Also you have the damn greenies that you would have to deal with 
'cause I'll tell you now, my truck will be in the single digit in gas 
mileage when I'm boogien'' down the 'bahn at 120 :D.

Nathan A.

Jonathan King wrote:

> So here's a short but quite nice story that mentions death rates and
> everything else important:
> 
> http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/031029/c5818a3280a41852f8a4b6503f323325_2.html
> 
> So the big huge difference I see here that the German autobahns are
> built to much, much, MUCH higher standards than US roads, and there
> aren't any 16 year olds driving on them.  This explains a lot, I
> think.  There might also be a unique opportunity to do something
> about this coming up shortly.  It is no big secret that I-70 is in
> horrible shape throughout Missouri, and most of the road through
> Kansas is also built to dubious standards (e.g., the opposing lanes
> are too close together, which is why they have 400+ miles of barrier
> between them).  Also, there is a ton of truck traffic which is
> killer on two lane stretches of lousy roads.  And the worst part is
> that the recent rapid decline in passenger airline service promises
> that more people will find themselves driving the corridor for trips
> that used to be by plane, and the drive from (say) Columbia to St.
> Louis or KC is currently an absolute chore.
> 
> So I say: autobahn it.  Build a new 6-lane I-70 up to autobahn
> standards between St.Louis and Denver as an experiment and find out
> whether this holds up better and delivers on the promise of much
> higher speeds and resistance to truck damage.  If passenger cars (or
> hot-rodded passenger vans) could do 110+ mph on the Missourabahn,
> then any perceived need for high-speed rail and a lot of short-hop
> air routes could be eliminated for good, and it's obvious that we 
> have to re-do I-70 anyway.  If the project works, we could make this 
> the new standard for most or all other primarily rural interstates.  
> I don't think this plan would work in urban areas, more rugged 
> terrain, or in general, but it would have real value elsewhere.  20 
> years ago, I don't think I could argue that we could build cars well 
> enough (or cheaply enough) to make such high speeds reasonable, but 
> I don't really have those concerns these days.
> 
> jking
> 
> 
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