[CHN] Chinese Expressways • 中国高速

[londonindyboy]

u guyz have the best highways i have ever seen they look even better then the ones in USA & UK.

[Shado]

Originally Posted by zonie

I think the shrubs growing in the highway medians, while decent looking, are very impractical. It makes the garbage-picker's job extremely dangerous, forcing them to walk along the freeway instead of inside the median. Also, this makes it more dangerous for drivers as well. Just put grass there instead.

Who has garbage pickers? I've never heard of such a thing....

It hadn't occured to me that people throw garbage out the window while going down a highway. Cigarette butts maybe, but damn Americans must be slobs if you require people to pick up after you on highways. I imagine in China they just execute you if you litter, so much easier on the environment, and no need to pay someone to pick up garbage.

Grassy median's in Australia are where 99.9% of fatalities occur on our higways. Someone gets tired driving late at night and crosses into oncoming traffic. Shrubs / steel barriers prevent this, at worst, you scratch up your car a little. Where there is no median there's just a concrete barrier. IMO a fairly dangerous 'space saving' measure, as they don't 'catch' cars that go off the road, but deflect them back into traffic. If they ever need to do work like picking up garbage, they'll shut down the inside lane and do it late at night. We have many shrubs growing down the middle of any highway with the room to have a median. (They make great hiding spots for speed enforcement cameras). None are as neatly groomed as the ones in the above pics, but I assume that's just for the opening. (Although maybe not, in Malaysia they had some really crappy roads, but the medians looked beautiful. :o)

These roads look like motorways in every developed country. What's so special about them?

You have to go looking at our widest of wide motorways to find lanes as wide as those in these pics. I guess the biggest special though is that not many if any capitalist countries just out and out build an 8 lane motorway from scratch. Here they would start with a 2 lane, or at most 4 lane, and expand it over a few decades. Shows some great forward thinking, although with the population of China, forward thinking to American standards is quite dangerous long term. The world can't afford to support a population that size living such a resource heavy existance.

Some of the pics aren't nearly as impressive as others though.

Concrete lasts longer than Asphalt becuase it doesn't absorb water, and the surface doesn't 'lift' like Asphalt does when water runs under it. The downside is that it's harder, and so much noisier. One of the biggest highways in my area has concrete 'sections' (where they don't want to have to replace it for a very long time or there's likely to be more water run off). Those living several hundred meters away in the hills have complained about the increase in noise.

There's longer lasting water-resistant Asphalt too, it is unfortunatley gaining some bad press lately as there have been 47 deaths in 3 years on a stretch since it was upgraded with the new Asphalt.

Speaking of safety etc. One thing I notice is the absence of 'reflectors' in the lane markings. Here all highways have them (and most roads), no matter how remote (and there are some 500 miles from the nearest town). You wouldn't notice them 99% of the time, but when it's raining heavily white line markings dissapear quite easily, and all you have to keep you in your lane is the light from the reflectors.

[zonie]

Originally Posted by Shado

Who has garbage pickers? I've never heard of such a thing....

There are thousands of highway maintenance workers in China doing various different tasks, including gardening and picking up trash. They are out there daily to keep things looking pretty.

[zergcerebrates]

Originally Posted by Shado

Who has garbage pickers? I've never heard of such a thing....

It hadn't occured to me that people throw garbage out the window while going down a highway. Cigarette butts maybe, but damn Americans must be slobs if you require people to pick up after you on highways. I imagine in China they just execute you if you litter, so much easier on the environment, and no need to pay someone to pick up garbage.

Grassy median's in Australia are where 99.9% of fatalities occur on our higways. Someone gets tired driving late at night and crosses into oncoming traffic. Shrubs / steel barriers prevent this, at worst, you scratch up your car a little. Where there is no median there's just a concrete barrier. IMO a fairly dangerous 'space saving' measure, as they don't 'catch' cars that go off the road, but deflect them back into traffic. If they ever need to do work like picking up garbage, they'll shut down the inside lane and do it late at night. We have many shrubs growing down the middle of any highway with the room to have a median. (They make great hiding spots for speed enforcement cameras). None are as neatly groomed as the ones in the above pics, but I assume that's just for the opening. (Although maybe not, in Malaysia they had some really crappy roads, but the medians looked beautiful. :o)



You have to go looking at our widest of wide motorways to find lanes as wide as those in these pics. I guess the biggest special though is that not many if any capitalist countries just out and out build an 8 lane motorway from scratch. Here they would start with a 2 lane, or at most 4 lane, and expand it over a few decades. Shows some great forward thinking, although with the population of China, forward thinking to American standards is quite dangerous long term. The world can't afford to support a population that size living such a resource heavy existance.

Some of the pics aren't nearly as impressive as others though.

Concrete lasts longer than Asphalt becuase it doesn't absorb water, and the surface doesn't 'lift' like Asphalt does when water runs under it. The downside is that it's harder, and so much noisier. One of the biggest highways in my area has concrete 'sections' (where they don't want to have to replace it for a very long time or there's likely to be more water run off). Those living several hundred meters away in the hills have complained about the increase in noise.

There's longer lasting water-resistant Asphalt too, it is unfortunatley gaining some bad press lately as there have been 47 deaths in 3 years on a stretch since it was upgraded with the new Asphalt.

Speaking of safety etc. One thing I notice is the absence of 'reflectors' in the lane markings. Here all highways have them (and most roads), no matter how remote (and there are some 500 miles from the nearest town). You wouldn't notice them 99% of the time, but when it's raining heavily white line markings dissapear quite easily, and all you have to keep you in your lane is the light from the reflectors.

I'm surprised you've never heard of garbage pickers. Although their job titles aren't necessarily that, theres certainly people picking up debris or garbage along freeways. As for the freeways trust me they're asphalt. You can tell because they have no connecting lines between concrete slabs, and in some detail picks you can actually see that its asphalt.

[minime]

sorry mate, not impressed at all...

[AcesHigh]

Originally Posted by sequoias

nice freeways, but not too impressive. China doesn't have as many cars as in the United states, so maybe in a few years or in a decade or so, it will be lot of cars in rural China. American freeways are busy, even in rural areas. I don't see many cars in rural area of China in the pictures. I-90 6 lane freeway over snoquailimie pass in Washington state gets average of 26,000 cars a day, one of the busiest mountain pass in the US.

6 lanes for only 26.000 cars a day????

the BR-116 road connecting the metro area of Porto Alegre in Brasil deals with 130.000 cars per day with only 4 lanes (2 in each direction)

[Shado]

Originally Posted by zergcerebrates

I'm surprised you've never heard of garbage pickers. Although their job titles aren't necessarily that, theres certainly people picking up debris or garbage along freeways. As for the freeways trust me they're asphalt. You can tell because they have no connecting lines between concrete slabs, and in some detail picks you can actually see that its asphalt.

I'm surprised because while travelling on freeways here in Australia I've never once seen anyone picking up garbage on freeways, not during the day, not at night, never. I'm not saying our freeways are totally without any garbage at all (I'll bet there's quite a few million cigarette butts out there). But people aren't throwing garbage out the window to the extent that requires people to be paid pick it up. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

Plants down the middle of freeways here are allowed to grow to be quite large, none are the neatly trimmed shrubs you see in China or Malaysia.

That said, down roads here (not freeways), I have seen people picking up garbage, and trimming shrubs to look nice. Perhaps it's a safety issue here that prevents people from doing the same on highways. If any work was to be done in the median, the inner lane/s must be shut down for safety reasons, so work is seldom done.

[unusualfire]

It's amazing what cheap labor can get you these days.

[Xing500]

...the best thing to come out of the Nazi Germany.

Seriously though, as an American, yes, this is very impressive. They are better kept than ours, but if they have less traffic, than it's no surprise they are kept well. However, this is China, and something tells me that's not the case.

[Caliguy2005]

China's Highways are definately more attractive than the one's here in The U.S...it seems like China's Designs in everything are so Futuristic and Unique.

[pflo777]

does anybody have a map of china with all these new, western standart highways on it, and maybe a secon map, where you can see what they want to build?

[Minato ku]

china freeways look like french freeways. they are similar
-french freeways

-china freeways

but china freeways are more recent and has less circulation.

[FM 2258]

Originally Posted by Caliguy2005

China's Highways are definately more attractive than the one's here in The U.S...it seems like China's Designs in everything are so Futuristic and Unique.

I actually like our U.S. freeways better than any other place.

[newyorkrunaway1]

these highways are indeed the best i have ever seen, by far surpasses the US!!!

[Caliguy2005]

The U.S does have some impressive freeways,but the Chinese freeways impress me more.

Originally Posted by FM 2258

I actually like our U.S. freeways better than any other place.

[rzj2000]

china!~~~~~~~~SHENDA !(SHENYANG-DALIAN)

[rzj2000]

SHENDA TOO!

[rzj2000]

HANGNING!(HANGZHOU-NANJING)

[rzj2000]

ALL CHINA highways!~~

[rzj2000]

highways in fujian