Question for Europeans

David Taylor wrote:
> Brimstone > wrote on Tue, 10 May 2005 15:58:21
> GMT:
>> David Taylor wrote:
>>> Brimstone > wrote on Tue, 10 May 2005 14:20:21
>>> GMT:
>>>> Depresion wrote:
>>>>> 3/4 or UK's local roads are deteriorating year on year. We are
>>>>> ?8.3 billon behind in road maintenance. By last year the plan was
>>>>> to have halted the deterioration but it hasn't happened and by
>>>>> 2010 we were to have caught up and removed the backlog
>>>>> unfortunately the first part was no where near achieved as about
>>>>> 50% of the money allocated for maintenance is being spent
>>>>> elsewhere on things like speed cushions, bus lanes, and what's
>>>>> laughably called our education system by local authorities. It's
>>>>> about time that money allocated by the national government for
>>>>> road maintenance is reserved only for use in actually
>>>>> maintaining roads.
>>>>
>>>> I wasn't talking about maintenance,
>>>
>>> So? He wasn't talking about improvements to the road system, but
>>> that didn't stop you.
>>
>> My comment referred to the fact that commuting has been made easier.
>
> Don't you think that roads in poor condition would make
> commuting harder? There's no point building a network of
> roads in every conceivable direction if they are badly maintained.
>
>>> So you actually have no argument against the fact that British roads
>>> are horrible unmaintained?
>>
>> On the contrary UK roads are mostly very well maintained. As with any
>> subject there are always the odd exceptions. Perhaps you can cite
>> some examples of what you consider to be "horrible unmaintained"
>> roads?
>
> Horribly unmaintained roads are all around. There was a study of
> the condition of roads released not so long ago. It did not
> praise the road network quite as much as you are...

I'm not praising the standard of maintenance, merely challenging some
people's blind assumption that all roads are badly maintained. I'm willing
to accept that many local authorities "could do better", but that applies to
all employees everywhere.