11/4/13 2:58 PM

Taken on a three day weekend tour many years ago. They weren't kidding about the road condition, either. I think that about half the punctures we ever got on that tandem happened in that one afternoon from pinch flats.

11/4/13 3:32 PM

You Australians are spoiled. Here's Route 30 in Vermont. Rather a main road. This part has been fixed now, but others have not.





[/img]

I actually got on a mountain bike earlier this fall and did not fall off, but I still can't climb hard owing to nerve issues in my foot, and this is the road that has probably ended my road cycling career. When they fixed it they did not make it any wider.

11/4/13 4:19 PM

Looks like many in SC.

11/4/13 5:02 PM

PA is right up there with the best (worst?) of them.

11/4/13 5:07 PM

We also have these little beauties, which we call pick-a-plank bridges. Many a cyclist has come to grief when their front wheel drops down a gap between the planks. Nowadays the only surviving examples are on small backroads, but 20 or 30 years ago there were still quite a number to be found on main roads and highways. I remember riding one fairly major race where we had to cross over several of these bridges, and one bridge had such big gaps between the planks that we were warned at the start that we would be required to dismount and walk/run across the bridge, and that a marshall would be stationed there to disqualify any rider who didn't dismount...

11/4/13 8:11 PM

You didn't need to tell us the picture was from years ago. The "fashions" told the tale.

11/5/13 6:32 AM

...I've been surprised to see cracks on main roads that are so old and large that grass is growing in them. I see this at times in NH, but typically only on minor back roads.

A woman was killed on Cape Cod this year on a steel bridge that had a new panel installed with grooves running along it's length. Her wheel dropped into one and she landed on her head. Since the accident, steel strips have been welded over the gaps, but one has to wonder what moron approved the designed of the replacement panel in the first place? The original parts of the bridge were a safe design.

11/5/13 8:25 AM

quote:

---

one has to wonder what moron approved the designed of the replacement panel in the first place?

---

11/5/13 8:55 AM

IN Vermont, I'm told, there is some mandate to create enough width on the edges to accommodate bicycles, and some repairs have, sure enough, provided just a little bit more shoulder, though they often narrow down to nothing at bridge and culvert crossings. Then, when they put the guard rails up, the posts are right at the margin of the shoulder, with the rails themselves so close, and occasionally actually over the pavement, that the shoulder cannot be used. Brilliant.