MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I always thought the condition of our roads was comparatively poor, but having just returned from Italy, I'm looking at them in a whole new light. I wasn't cycling, but if I had been, the epic unrepaired subsidence on the roads of Tuscany would have certainly helped maintain concentration. It was quite a laugh in the hire car though.
So where's generally best and worst for B roads and lanes in the EU?
depends where in Italy.
UK are pretty shocking generally (more road surface noise etc.).
Other countries certainly have potholes that make UK roadusers look like a right bunch of whingers, verging on US levels of finding someone to sue.
Italian mountain roads can be shocking, but then they get ripped up by more than daily snow plough usage. UK ones just get neglected.
Belgians have worst motorways. And conveniently the worst drivers to go with them.
Ah - that explains the frankly frightening motorbike ride along motorway to Bruges the other week. I thought it was just something I was doing wrong that was causing Belgian drivers to pull back in about 6 feet in front of me... :-/
Rachel
6ft? they were being generous. Try the E40 the other side of Brussels, between there and Liege. Empty road, but it rattles the fillings and eyeballs. They did repair the bit that had 2 gulleys in the tarmac at truck wheel spacing, that meant driving in the rain in a car meant you had the choice of the left wheels or the right wheels permanently aquaplaning for 20km+.
germany has now largely replaced its tarmac over cobbles autobahns. now they were bad.
edit: although my street is 3cm of tarmac over cobbles too.
The worst roads I've been on in Europe are in northern Portugal. You know when you've crossed the border because the roads go from nice smooth Spanish tarmac to rough, potholed, pavement less - almost tracks.
The driving is also mad as well, overtaking into oncoming traffic and forcing you half off the road was not uncommon - and more than a few cars crashed in drainage ditches and apparently dumped as a result.
Portuguese people are fantastic though, massively sociable - always giving us food and booze (often sherry from big unmarked plastic containers) on campsites. hmmm maybe that explains the driving?
what anytherocketeer said. Including the Belgians.
Belgians have worst motorways. And conveniently the worst drivers to go with them.
Do they still crap in the laybys like they used to?
I hear you on Italy...
Not all roads (Lake Como area was fine) but some of the surfaces in the Dolomites would shake the very flesh from your bones. Particularly terrifying is the SS51 into Cortina from the north west. The tarmac seems to have sloughed off to the side leaving long, serpentine cracks along the camber, exactly where you would ride a bike.
[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-climbs-in-europe-rambling-incoherent-photo-essay-within ]http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-climbs-in-europe-rambling-incoherent-photo-essay-within[/url]
Devon.
Can I nominate Bushy Wood Road in Dore, after todays experience. We just assumed that it was an unadopted private road.
Apparently it isn't!
I thought the worst roads in the world were in Edinburgh. If you believe some of the people on here anyway 😉
Sicily..............motorway to unconstructed gravel road, no warning at all
Italy.......Apennines beautiful a road then round the corner looked like something from Tremors,
another road funded by EU beautifuly straight and tarmaced stopped in front of a forest, I have no idea if the road was continued on the other side and they failed to connect the two.
Croatia.......EU funded A road changed to donkey track at least they warned us the road was getting narrow.........
A1Swiss Cottage London .
In fact most of London ,for a Capital city it's roads shock me daily.
The "motorway" that gets you from the airport to Marmaris,Turkey shockers last time I was there .
Best roads = Denmark.
Super smooth & very well maintained
Another vote for Italy having worst.
I used to work out of an office just south of Rome and never failed to be shocked by the holes & random lumps in the road.
Was in Sankt Moritz earlier this month and travelled over to Livigno. It was quite obvious where the border was without needing a control post.
Recently visited Switzerland (Lugano) and drove there and back, did some mooching around Como/Garda and have to agree with Marge, you certainly know where the Borders are 😆
We thought Sicilian roads were pretty good.
Found some interesting roads in Greece in the past.
Agree road from Brussels to Liege could be improved - and were being sorted, we think.
Worst roads around: Southampton.
Romania is pretty bad in places. Crazy driving too.
hamishthecat - Member
Devon.
I know what you mean: twenty-odd miles of single track road, to get to the village I was staying in, few passing places, fifteen foot hedges dropping straight down to the Tarmac, blind bends, very steep hills. Even the main A-road from Dartmouth to Kingsbridge is like a C-road in Wiltshire; the only guaranteed way of getting anywhere reasonably quickly is to find a bus and get behind it, 'cos everyone else has to give way!
Road from Brussels to Liege (E40) is not so bad....
It is incredibly noisy though due to the rough concrete surface but doesn't have any holes or significant bumps. It also holds a lot of standing water when it rains and we've had a lot of that this 'summer'.
Don't think there's any plan to improve it.
Even the main A-road from Dartmouth to Kingsbridge is like a C-road in Wiltshire;
I was in Devon at the weekend with the caravan, and I wasn't the slowest thing on the A roads. To be fair it's topographical rather than maintenance..
And old Dears in Micras 😉
Devon+2 topography is a bit bonkers, i feel like i notice far more 20%+ lanes over here than i ever did living right up in the pyrenees, they just take the longer way round to maintain gradients possible to drive in winter tyres with a bit of snow...
But also lots of roads down here (and i include cornwall really) with grass growing in the middle of them and tarmac either side.
High sided (as in 8ft solid hedgerow-over-earth-and-rocks) lanes all over including many of our 'trunk' roads in the south hams. But also so many folk incapabale of selecting reverse, and having no idea how wide their car isn't. If i can fit a 6ft wide van through there, you can fit your focus through too!
Given the way little roads are funded, i wonder if there is a correlation between miles of road to maintain and council tax take. Given the low population density, relatively high numbers of these people on some form of council tax benefit (elderly, unemployed) and high numbers of holidaymakers hammering the roads with their suv's and caravans but not contributing directly to council tax take, i wonder if little (local authority-maintained) roads in counties like devon and cornwall might suffer more.
The last mile into ferry port at Calais. Took three hours last night. Madness.
Surrey roads are shocking too.
Don't think there's any plan to improve it.
I stand corrected. I thought we drove through roadworks on that road last time we went there.