Question for Europeans

Depresion wrote:
> "Brimstone" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Depresion wrote:
>>> "Brimstone" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>>
>>>> Contrary to popular mythology roads have been improved to allow
>>>> faster
>>>> speeds and railways are now carrying more people than ever before,
>>>> despite significant reductions in track mileage.
>>>>
>>>
>>> 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, but then you were aware of that
>> before your petulant little rant weren't you?.
>
> How can you make claims about "roads have been improved" when 3/4's
> of them are so badly maintained they are deteriorating and there is
> more than a six year backlog in fixing them.

Because construction (i.e. provision of new roads, flyovers, underpasses
etc) is different from maintaining them and keeping them in good order. Is
that too difficult for you to understand?.

Mark Hewitt wrote:

> "Depresion" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Ford have 2 cars smaller than the Focus, the Fiesta and Ka in Europe, VW
>>are the same with the Polo and Lupo (soon to be replaced with the fox but
>>no relation to the VW fox sold in the US in the '90s) smaller than the
>>Golf. Both Toyota and Honda do a single vehicle smaller than the models
>>you list (Yaris and Jazz respectively), I guess none of them are sold in
>>the USA or at least in no great numbers.
>
> Yes. From that past at looking at the Ford USA website it seems that the
> Focus is the smallest car they sell. And it's a 2.0Litre version too, pretty
> much top of the range for here. However the price they charge is comparible
> to what I paid for my 1.4L Fiesta!

On the positive side your 1.4L Fiesta would leave that US model
standing. On a good day a 2L US automatic is roughly equivalent in
performance to a European 1L manual transmission car.

I gather that the tiny Mercedes Smart cars have developed a small (if
suicidal) cult following as town cars in the USA.

Regards,
Martin Brown

"Brimstone" > wrote in message
...
>
> The additional tax needed to pay for the additional civil servants to
> watch
> oil prices, calculate the change needed and to implement it would negate
> any
> reduction in the Fuel Duty.

Nonsense.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>
>
>As the map in your link below shows, Iceland is a European country yet
>you list it with the countries of North America.
>

Geographically speaking it is both.

Mark Hewitt wrote:
> "Brimstone" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> The additional tax needed to pay for the additional civil servants to
>> watch
>> oil prices, calculate the change needed and to implement it would
>> negate any
>> reduction in the Fuel Duty.
>
> Nonsense.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

wrote:
> Brimstone wrote:
>> "Scott en Aztlán" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Here in the US the top story recently has been the large upward
>>> spike in gasoline prices. Some have predicted that gasoline will top
>>> $5/gallon by next year, up from $2.50/gallon today. Since you folks
>>> in Europe have had $5/gallon gas for years (thanks to high taxes),
>>> what's happening to gas prices over there in Europe? Are they going
>>> to hit $10/gallon soon? Is the price of gas the top story on your
>>> local TV news?
>>>
>>
>> One point that seems to escape many Americans is that Europe is a
>> collection of seperate countries. We all therefore speak different
>> languages and have different ways of doing things, including levying
>> taxes. Lumping us all together is like suggesting that Antigua and
>> Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba,
>> Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greenland (Kalaallit
>> Nunaat), Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Jamaica,
>> Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint
>> Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United
>> States of America is one country.
>
> As the map in your link below shows, Iceland is a European country yet
> you list it with the countries of North America.
>
>> Europe consists of 46 countries of which only 25 are members of the
>> European Union.
>> http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworl...europe_map.htm

I created neither the list nor the map. Maybe it's got a split personality?

> wrote

> As the map in your link below shows, Iceland is a European country yet
> you list it with the countries of North America.

Greenland too belongs to Europe (Danmark).
In Germany there are several jokes about the geographic (and cultural)
competence of US politicans (and their soldiers and *.org sites).
Maybe the stories hold a grain of truth.

Thomas

"Martin Brown" > wrote in message
...
> Mark Hewitt wrote:
>
>> "Depresion" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>Ford have 2 cars smaller than the Focus, the Fiesta and Ka in Europe, VW are
>>>the same with the Polo and Lupo (soon to be replaced with the fox but no
>>>relation to the VW fox sold in the US in the '90s) smaller than the Golf.
>>>Both Toyota and Honda do a single vehicle smaller than the models you list
>>>(Yaris and Jazz respectively), I guess none of them are sold in the USA or at
>>>least in no great numbers.
>>
>> Yes. From that past at looking at the Ford USA website it seems that the
>> Focus is the smallest car they sell. And it's a 2.0Litre version too, pretty
>> much top of the range for here. However the price they charge is comparible
>> to what I paid for my 1.4L Fiesta!
>
> On the positive side your 1.4L Fiesta would leave that US model standing. On a
> good day a 2L US automatic is roughly equivalent in performance to a European
> 1L manual transmission car.
>
> I gather that the tiny Mercedes Smart cars have developed a small (if
> suicidal) cult following as town cars in the USA.
>

That's just to get from the car park to work then back, where they can load it
into there Expedition for the drive home.

"Brimstone" > wrote in message
...
> Depresion wrote:
>> "Brimstone" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Depresion wrote:
>>>> "Brimstone" > wrote in message
>>>> ...
>>>>>
>>>>> Contrary to popular mythology roads have been improved to allow
>>>>> faster
>>>>> speeds and railways are now carrying more people than ever before,
>>>>> despite significant reductions in track mileage.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 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, but then you were aware of that
>>> before your petulant little rant weren't you?.
>>
>> How can you make claims about "roads have been improved" when 3/4's
>> of them are so badly maintained they are deteriorating and there is
>> more than a six year backlog in fixing them.
>
> Because construction (i.e. provision of new roads, flyovers, underpasses
> etc) is different from maintaining them and keeping them in good order. Is
> that too difficult for you to understand?.

As the general condition of 72% of roads is deteriorating (used for more than
75% of commuting) then the tiny amount of road building is hardly going to make
for a general improvement. So if 72% of roads are deteriorating what percentage
are actually improving or new? Quite clearly less than 30% and you some how
expect that to offset the deterioration of the other roads.

Alot of small cars would not be sold in the US because they would get
very poor scores in crash tests, based on the way our tests are performed.
Government crash test ratings can be a deal breaker for many people looking
at cars and trucks now days. A few years ago, it wasn't such a big issue.
I think the dispelling the notion that SUV's weren't necessarily "safe" has
heightened awareness.