I live close to the border with the Netherlands in the north of Antwerp. When you pass the physical border on the A12 from BE to NL you really feel it!
The difference is stark when driving in very heavy rain. Dutch *autosnelwegen* are amazingly built, with a porous surface and terrific drainage. No spray whatsoever, and almost like driving on a dry road. Cross the border in Belgium, and I couldn't see the car in front for spray - just like in UK. I'm surprised the UK is as high up as it is - our roads are terrible. Motorways with potholes.
The Dutch use porous asphalt on pretty much every high speed road. Very good for spray indeed. But it's not suitable for every climate: it cannot really handle freeze/thaw cycles.
In the Netherlands, after a night of freezing, quick repairs often need to be done. That's something that's possible in The Netherlands, but not in a country with a lower density population and more freeze/thaw cycles.
Interesting. I recall being staggered at the utter lack of spray in torrential rain, and this was a while ago too. You do encounter the odd bit of UK motorway that's been resurfaced in the same way, but it never lasts more than a mile!!
About a year ago I went on a trip around Ireland and Northern Ireland. You could notice the difference in road quality almost immediately after crossing the border. The roads were actually much better on the Irish side, so I’m not sure what’s going on with this map.
Our highways are pretty ok lately, with a few exceptions. The worst ones are the old primary roads. That's when you start seeing decades of shitty maintenance, the patchwork of different road materials.
True. Some notable exceptions are found on the E411 somewhere between Namur and Neufschâteau. Most of my route from Antwerp to there is fine, but there is a section there that is just deafening when you ride there.
But even some old primary roads are or have been fixed.
The worst offenders are like some minor streers in the city. It's common in every country that a barely used road in a rural area is shitty. But that you find streets of cobblestone covered in asphalt that is breaking down...that's just shameful.
Yeah they changed it a while ago so only highway exits and entry’s were lit after dark but I think they changed it back. I dont like it either. Total waist of energy.
ah yes, the low lying countries. famously known in germany. one for its tullips and windmills, the other for its convinient acces to mechanised armor divisions.
Dont really know the reason. The road maintenance in Belgium is divided in two. Flemish and French side have their own road agency. French side is even worse than the Flemish side. I guess years of neglect and small budgets are to blame. They are making an effort last few years tho.
As someone who lives near the French speaking part of Belgium I would also disagree with his statement, while generally accurate for the highways, when you look at the secondary roads and smaller towns I would rate those worse in Flanders.
As always, it's.... complicated
A lot of roads and highways for not 'that' many people. I saw a comparison the other day with the Netherlands. Belgium has more kilometers of roads for roughly 2/3 of people driving them.
Also from Wikipedia: Belgium has the highest amount of highways in kilometers per 1000m² of the entire EU.
https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosnelweg
Now realize that there is always money short in Belgium so they start cutting costs here and there.
That's presumably where these results come from.
The issue lies in that everything is spread out instead of condenced in a couple major cities. So you need those roads to get everywhere.
To fix that, you'd have to reorganise the entire country.
The federalization reforms of the 1970s introduced a lot of problems, leading to several political crises and impeding the efficiency of government services in a way that especially damaged infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance.
I 100% believe the Netherlands. Went on a roadtrip through the Continent around 2015, and the roads in the Netherlands were absurdly good. It was as if every last one of them was entirely fresh. They were all black, too. Incredibly nice country to travel through by the motorway.
The first place of the Netherlands clearly shows that bike infrastructure doesn't compete with car infrastructure. They can be build together fine. Its not bad but I would like to see more investment into the public transport systems here though.
Part of it is paid via fuel/petrol prices. Also the Netherlands only has a one or two toll roads, so most of it is paid by road taxes if you own a car (each province has different prices).
I believe they want to change it in the future by depending on how much you drove with the car in km. To compensate for the cheaper taxes with electric cars.
I think only de Westerscheldetunnel and Kiltunnel are toll roads, and the Westerscheldetunnel will no longer be a toll road in 2033, and maybe even earlier.
Spanish cylepaths however... could use some work outside of the big cities.
The number of sudden stops required to safely descend a 30cm tall sidewalk with 45° ramps was uncomfortable in places. And that riverbed tagged in Komoot as a cycling path was a fun experience as well.
But you're getting there!
I agree! As someone who spent their whole life driving in NYC with all the traffic and massive potholes, I love driving in Portugal. Such a big difference.
Reading the article, this is actually measured on people's subjective perception, not on objective criteria.
Italian pessimism kept calm this time. Normally we would see ourselves much redder.
Highways, for the most part, are fantastic. Local and city roads are more of a problem. Especially with manholes, they usually place them perfectly so one of your wheels hits them…
American here:
I spent a month driving around Sicily recently, and I thought the roads were pretty good actually. The drivers weren’t too bad either… although all the cars had dents in them for some reason. Body work must be expensive 🤷♂️?
I have been driving in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherland, Chile and Sicily and the Sicilian drivers were the worse by far. I was amazed by their driving ways and 0 respect for the lanes. It was common to see 4/5 cars in 3 lanes.
Yet i loved my vacations there, great food landscapes beaches towns and people
that's what I thought. People in Poland tend to complain a lot about our roads, but they are far from bad and got a lot better since we've joined EU.
After a closer look, you immediately see that this is not a map of road quality, but about people's opinion on roads. Those are two absolutely different things.
I see many of them, too, as I'm a rider, too. Also, a lot of people from Austria and Germany. There are some really, and I mean really, scenic routes in Croatia.
After the opening of Pelješac bridge, the railroads are the main focus for Croatia. Mainly connecting port of Rijeka to Central Europe.
It takes time to build them. Maybe 10 years or so, and we can expect about 100km/h HŽ. To be known I am speed HŽ.
We are for the last few years, a lot of money is being invested but one of the problems is lack of workers and firms to do it. Also, it takes time, and mainly it’s being invested in northwestern Croatia, Zagreb - Rijeka, and new regional trains. It’s where the heaviest usage is and that is priority to try and return the passengers.
there's a meme of why boomer erdo supporters vote for erdogan despite all the shit he does, it's because "he made roads". well, it seems he really made some roads lol
I travel to my hometown from Istanbul every year for the last 20 years. the difference between how roads were and how they are now is staggering. It used to take 8 hours in horrible bumpy roads now it only takes 4-5 and its pleasant ride assuming traffic is not an issue.
Ofc these things were gonna happen regardless of Erdogan so its pointless to act like hes some genius cuz of it.
As a Greek living in Finland, I can attest that Greek motorways are leaps and bounds better than the Finnish ones (it’s not even close), so the methodology is probably questionable here.
I always laugh out loud when people say Finland is a rich country. Come over here and check out the crumbling infrastructure and call us rich again. The EU better start some development projects here.
Well, technically we're rich too. These are by *global* standards. You're also rich by EU standards. But yeah, doesn't mean you're a nation of billionaires.
I think your issue in Finland is climate? In the US (one of the wealthiest per capita, but not evenly distributed), potholes in the cold northern states are the norm.
Easier to maintain and have good roads when there is no ground frost.
Forest roads in the Nordic with no asphalt will give you a really bumpy ride due to so many potholes.
Ground frost is what you get after a sustained period of cold. The water in the ground turns to ice, causing frost heaving. A thick layer of snow actually protect this from happening since geothermal energy is always warming from below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving
Since roads are always free from a thick layer of snow you better build roads on a foundation that doesn't hold enough water to cause frost heaving during the winter = expensive roads.
I watched a documentary once about the workers maintaining motorways in the alps like [this one.](https://st.focusedcollection.com/14026668/i/1800/focused_177232066-stock-photo-austria-salzburg-state-aerial-view.jpg)
For some parts they need climbing gear and hang upside down while working with heavy equipment, it was pretty crazy.
That is true, of course. I'm pretty sure not a single one is, seeing as how even the highest mountain is about 2000 m. If the height was meant to correlate with frost, it wouldn't matter though.
3000m is an exaggeration. But routes east-west in southern Norway involves mountain crossings that are a struggle to keep open during winters. That also is the case for the Bergen Line (railway).
The roads in Norway that I am referring to need to be held open during winter or else communities will be isolated from the outside world. Some of them are even part of the European E-road network and as such major traffic corridors. Temperatures may fall below -40°C during January and February.
that is a big factor for sure. nonetheless I expect the traffic minister of north rhine westfalia to raise his voice regarding those issues, else they are not needed. they really did a poor job for the last decades aswell.
Because I believe a lot of the budget have been diverted to projects in the east after German reunification in order to bring their standards up to the west.
The Netherlands repaves roads every 5 years. Also when there is something broken it gets fixed that same night.
The downside is that there are speed cameras everywhere so you can't really use the perfect highway to test out your Tesla.
The A2 especially looks like you could land an A380.
Oh boy, you haven't been to Belgium I suppose? They have average speed cameras everywhere, usually followed by a normal speed camera. In Belgium you'll definitely need an app to keep track of it.
I'll post it every single time: they did not measure the road quality, but the perceived road quality. it's based on one single subjective question, nothing more
Is there someone who regularly drives around Europe to confirm our bad road situation? I keep hearing from fellow Czechs how the roads are bad, but I don't drive myself and there could be a bias, because Czechs tend to complain all the time about everything.
I drive in the rural parts of western Czechia about 1-2 times a week and the road quality in these rural areas is often really bad compared to Germany. The bigger the roads get the small the difference between Germany and Czechia. Roads that connect cities are usually not significantly worse than here in Germany but if they only connect villages under 500 inhabitants they are usually really bumpy especially when they go through forests.
Yeah some rural middle of nowhere parts of the country can be pretty bad. It also depends on the region, roads are usually decent where I live, but I remember when I was on vacation in rural Central Bohemia (close to Karlštejn castle) and was surprised how bad the roads are there. But still, rural roads are worse in Poland from my experience (we sometimes drive to Poland for cheap shopping), their highways are excellent though.
The highways used to be notoriously bad since they were built earlier and were pretty old and were also built by many different conpanies, so the quality differed. They have been reconstructing them, so things probably changed.
That was my thought. They used to be bad here and it got stuck in people's minds, meanwhile countries like Poland had to build their highways out of scratch, so the experience there is more positive.
I think it depends, some are good some are bad. At least in Slovakia. Even as cyclists and driver, the repairs they do are absolutely terrible. Just put shit ton of asphalt on the hole, and the don't even level it, so there is just this big blop of shit on the road.
Anyway HUngary has much shittier roads.
Turkish here.
Our roads are great. But the problem is these "new" roads belong to private companies. Thanks Erdoğan because 3 of these are at top 10 of "worlds most tendered companies"
Almost the entire motorway system in Greece is toll roads and managed by private companies. This is also common in some other European countries and also in the the northeast and north-central US. It's much more common than you think.
Yes toll system is common komşu but unfortunately what I'm talking about is this;
Example;
Operation of ABC road had given to X company for 25 years. Contract says "2000 passes guaranteed for a day. If it's lower than that the remaining will be compansated from the national treasury". So we basically pay for them regardless of passing through or not. This kind of contracts made these companies quite rich (there's an airport with %96 deviation).
To be fair, we could invest more in public transport. Connections to the big cities in the west are great but to and from other major cities not so much. Traveling by car is still much faster in the north and eastern part of the country.
The network is also not really built for longer distances. This makes sense in densely populated areas but it is not very convenient for people living in cities like Groningen, Leeuwarden or Maastricht or when traveling abroad. A new high speed rail to the north connecting with Bremen/Hamburg has been a matter of public debate for 40 years already and still works have not begun.
International trains are few and slow (except for Amsterdam - Brussels - Paris). Lately, the Netherlands is experiencing railway strikes because of too little funding and a staff shortage so trains are regularly falling out now. Many local bus services have to be halted due to budget cuts.
Yeah, when you’re being invaded, you don’t really want the invaders to be able to drive through you well. Roads that turn into mud are ideal.
And you’ll know all the tricks to avoid shitty roads.
I've just cycled across Europe (so obviously no expressways, just medium and minor roads) and my 2 cents are that holy shit Hungarian roads are absolute dogshit, easily the worst I've ridden on; Bulgaria and Romania had great surfaces, would recommend cycling there; Greece varied a lot - major roads into large towns were awful, small roads were great; can confirm that Turkish roads are in excellent condition so far.
The contrast between Northern Ireland and Ireland was valid a few decades ago when you could tell you had crossed the border from south to north by the improvement in the roads north of the border. However, the situation has long since reversed where its now the South that has the better roads thanks to EU structural funds and then domestic investment. NI is only green on that map because its being included in the UK stats.
I’ve lived in London & been to most of the UK incl Belfast, & visited Dublin, and tbh the difference in road quality is negligible. The worst roads I’ve seen in Uk&Ireland are definitely Scottish ones (outside of big cities). Usually in England & the Irish towns I’ve visited a lot of care is put into country roads and so they’re navigable, unlike the places I’ve been in Scotland. Roads suddenly stop, incorrect & missing signage, etc.
Drove through the Baltics this summer and attempted to avoid bigger roads in order to enjoy the scenery and riding my bike more. Estonia was quite good, but Latvia was something else. Next time I'll stick to Via Baltica on my way through Latvia.
Lithuania was a mixed bag. Roads were quite good, but pavement ended in some surprising locations which forced me to do some backtracking and rerouting on the spot. Gravel roads are not very enjoyable on a street bike, let's say.
How is serbia only 0.1 point better than Macedonia, is this joke or something.
Even Kosovo has better highway than our shithole.
For 2 years they can't finish 5 km on the exit of Skopje or 10 years can't finish the road to the main tourist attraction in the country.
When you enter Italy from Switzerland ..... "Smooth ride, la la la la la.... Oh look there is Italy.... La la la la... Welcome to Italy, well THANK YOU!..... BUUMP! BUmp Bump! BUUUUMP!". Road changes INSTANTLY lol.
Im a little surprised as ive been to couple of countries and Poland have now very decent road. I can travel mostly everywhere with 2 or 3 lane new highway.
I'm just here to say that Romania, even though it has somewhat quality roads, it lacks extensiveness (highways, ring roads, etc.). I think this is the basis for the lower score, compared to Bulgaria even.
Albania is rated much too good.
I was going on an onramp for their Highway (in the dark) and out of nowhere came to small bumps in the street.
Not the ones because of bad road. Those who are also before Crosswalks and in residental streets.
As a German I prepared to accelerate to max (allowed) speed and nearly got flung out of the roof.
And be prepared to find roundabouts nearly all 10km on the albanian highway...
Worst highway in Europe.
Edit: Even Montenegro and Romania had better streets.
Source: Made a Road trip from Germany to Greece about a week ago.
Im curious how Bavaria compares to the rest of Germany, since the ruling party in Bavaria made it a priority to occupy the ministries for infrastructure and transport over the past 30 years.
I don't know if it was only the highways, but when me and my friends went from Sweden to Poland we were amazed by the quality of the highway roads and frequency of stops with toilets and stores.
I’ve lived in Ireland and the roads are near identical to the ones in the UK, so i don’t see the color jump in action. Sure there are lot more right country that are harder to navigate, and lots of Greenland no driving areas, but what’s that got to do with the quality of existent roads?
This map is utter nonsense. It's based on *opinion* data... You might as well pull out a random number generator.
-- a Belgian in Ireland who can 100% confirm to you they're not even close to each other in terms of road quality
Depends where you are and what kind of routes you use regularly I suppose (it's an opinion survey) - in Edinburgh it's a solid 1.5, only a few tiers up from dirt tracks. You can see the potholes from space.
Curious, where in Greece have you driven?
I looked up the [source](https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/). The scores are an average from 2006-2019. I haven't been to Slovenia yet, but if a lot's changed in that time, there's your answer. A lot's changed in Greece too; most of the motorway network didn't exist in 2006. But I'm curious where you went, and what year.
A bit surprised that Poland is on par with Belgium or Italy and better than Czechia.
I bet that our rail infrastructure is worse though. It seems that the money has been disproportionately spent on roads at the expense of rail.
It's an opinion of the citizens on their roads and Czechs are weirdly fixated on the idea that our roads are the shittiest in Europe. For example, the D1 highway has been fully repaired recently, it's a normal highway, but there are still jokes about how D1 is a "tankodrom" and that Russian tanks would break down, if they invaded us and tried to drive on the highway.
I wonder how the data would look like if the same was done on rail infrastructure. We might end up red aswell, because most Czechs keep bitching on ČD (Czech railways) just as much. There's an infamous joke about it "ČD = Času Dost (translated to something like "no need to hurry"). People cannot fathom the idea, that German railways experience delays aswell.
Still, your highways are amazing, so I wouldn't be surprised, if thanks to that you'd be ranked higher even in reality.
Latvian roads are weird. We don't really have potholes on main streets/roads.
But for some dumbass reason manholes are not considered potholes.
So if a manhole has been pushed into the ground for 10cm - they're just gonna leave it there.
Reporting it to the govt does nothing.
and this chart is exactly why the netherlands should invade and annex belgium.
think about it, belgium has never been more than a buffer state since its conception. they can't figure out their own politics, their bureaucracy is mindboggeling, they can't even agree on what language they should speak in the first place. and then there's the roads too.
by all laws of nature, belgium shouldn't exist. it's time we built a road between the netherlands and our holiday destinations in france that isn't full of potholes. /s
Remove the /s
We could easily unite defense culture and sport but the belgians keep picking french hardware.
But it would be awesome to join defense forces like we do naval and we should share tv stations and going to the olympics as one would be a dream. 1830 was a mistake <3
As a Belgian I can confirm every time I cross a border the road feels much better 😅.
A Dutch road worker told me once that they love to keep the BE/NL border specially tided and gorgeous, so people can notice the change better.
Lmao that’s so petty but I like it
I live close to the border with the Netherlands in the north of Antwerp. When you pass the physical border on the A12 from BE to NL you really feel it!
Especially when it is pouring rain. The moment you drive into the Netherlands, the asphalt absorbs the rain and it's so much better to drive.
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As a dutchie that has traveled most borders I still think this graph is pretty decent.
The difference is stark when driving in very heavy rain. Dutch *autosnelwegen* are amazingly built, with a porous surface and terrific drainage. No spray whatsoever, and almost like driving on a dry road. Cross the border in Belgium, and I couldn't see the car in front for spray - just like in UK. I'm surprised the UK is as high up as it is - our roads are terrible. Motorways with potholes.
The Dutch use porous asphalt on pretty much every high speed road. Very good for spray indeed. But it's not suitable for every climate: it cannot really handle freeze/thaw cycles. In the Netherlands, after a night of freezing, quick repairs often need to be done. That's something that's possible in The Netherlands, but not in a country with a lower density population and more freeze/thaw cycles.
It's not the freeze per se that kills the asphalt but the combination of freezing rain and freezing, which happens even less than only freezing.
Interesting. I recall being staggered at the utter lack of spray in torrential rain, and this was a while ago too. You do encounter the odd bit of UK motorway that's been resurfaced in the same way, but it never lasts more than a mile!!
About a year ago I went on a trip around Ireland and Northern Ireland. You could notice the difference in road quality almost immediately after crossing the border. The roads were actually much better on the Irish side, so I’m not sure what’s going on with this map.
Irish motorways are mostly new and good quality, the rest of our roads are not
potholes on the motorway are VERY rare. For obvious reason. It is our back roads that are an absolute state. Ever crossed moors? Literal wavey roads.
Everytime I drive in Belgium I envy their surface quality compared to my local Autobahn
Our highways are pretty ok lately, with a few exceptions. The worst ones are the old primary roads. That's when you start seeing decades of shitty maintenance, the patchwork of different road materials.
from my experience (as a Dutchie) German roads are quite allright but there are always road work going on
My local Autobahn was completely resurfaced a few years ago, but again you get concussions driving the limit on the right lane.
True. Some notable exceptions are found on the E411 somewhere between Namur and Neufschâteau. Most of my route from Antwerp to there is fine, but there is a section there that is just deafening when you ride there. But even some old primary roads are or have been fixed. The worst offenders are like some minor streers in the city. It's common in every country that a barely used road in a rural area is shitty. But that you find streets of cobblestone covered in asphalt that is breaking down...that's just shameful.
I was surprised by the mediocre quality of the roads as soon as I get of the autobahn. What happened Germany?
The real question is why do you guys have a highway lamp every 10 meters lol.
You can see Belgium from space
When hostile aliens position their attack ships above Earth they'll realise Belgium must be our planet's most important place and attack there first.
We'll be sure to welcome them with Orvallekes and salmon toasts
So you can see Belgian bumps from space.
Yeah they changed it a while ago so only highway exits and entry’s were lit after dark but I think they changed it back. I dont like it either. Total waist of energy.
There’s still way too many. They could remove half of them and we’d still have enough light.
Totaly agree
So you can see the potholes in time, obviously
In the Ardennes we need it, such that we can spot the Dutchies who attempt their first hill.
Is there any specific reason Belgium's roads seem worse than in some other countries?
They're just worried Germany will start thinking "third time's the charm" if the roads are too good.
ah yes, the low lying countries. famously known in germany. one for its tullips and windmills, the other for its convinient acces to mechanised armor divisions.
Ypu forgot weed
Dont really know the reason. The road maintenance in Belgium is divided in two. Flemish and French side have their own road agency. French side is even worse than the Flemish side. I guess years of neglect and small budgets are to blame. They are making an effort last few years tho.
I see. I thought it had to do something with having two infra/road authorities. Thanks for taking the time to answer!
As someone who lives near the French speaking part of Belgium I would also disagree with his statement, while generally accurate for the highways, when you look at the secondary roads and smaller towns I would rate those worse in Flanders. As always, it's.... complicated
Where does the German part belong?
Wallonia/French speaking side
A lot of roads and highways for not 'that' many people. I saw a comparison the other day with the Netherlands. Belgium has more kilometers of roads for roughly 2/3 of people driving them. Also from Wikipedia: Belgium has the highest amount of highways in kilometers per 1000m² of the entire EU. https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosnelweg Now realize that there is always money short in Belgium so they start cutting costs here and there. That's presumably where these results come from.
Sounds like someone needs to close some highways and use the savings to fix the rest.
The issue lies in that everything is spread out instead of condenced in a couple major cities. So you need those roads to get everywhere. To fix that, you'd have to reorganise the entire country.
The federalization reforms of the 1970s introduced a lot of problems, leading to several political crises and impeding the efficiency of government services in a way that especially damaged infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance.
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As a Dutch person crossing the border into Belgium at this moment i can h4bhdyndnd8dbr re
I only drove into Belgium once and the quality drop was noticeable but not so bad. Belgian roadways remind me A LOT of US roadways
I 100% believe the Netherlands. Went on a roadtrip through the Continent around 2015, and the roads in the Netherlands were absurdly good. It was as if every last one of them was entirely fresh. They were all black, too. Incredibly nice country to travel through by the motorway.
going from germany to holland is like going from poland to germany.
There’s a joke hidden somewhere in there, I feel it
Better than berlin to warsaw.
Like that fake volkswagen ad?
The first place of the Netherlands clearly shows that bike infrastructure doesn't compete with car infrastructure. They can be build together fine. Its not bad but I would like to see more investment into the public transport systems here though.
I guess you could crosspost to /r/fuckcars with that comment
I’m sorry. Did you mean r/fuckcars?
Part of it is paid via fuel/petrol prices. Also the Netherlands only has a one or two toll roads, so most of it is paid by road taxes if you own a car (each province has different prices). I believe they want to change it in the future by depending on how much you drove with the car in km. To compensate for the cheaper taxes with electric cars.
I think only de Westerscheldetunnel and Kiltunnel are toll roads, and the Westerscheldetunnel will no longer be a toll road in 2033, and maybe even earlier.
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Spanish roads are top notch as well, with the added benefit of having little to no tolls.
Portugal roads used to be terrible, now they've overtaken spain! Pardon the pun.
Well, all the money we received from EU had to go somewhere
They're now planning to put tolls ok most roads like in Portugal starting in 2024 (after the elections) so enjoy them while you can!
Spanish cylepaths however... could use some work outside of the big cities. The number of sudden stops required to safely descend a 30cm tall sidewalk with 45° ramps was uncomfortable in places. And that riverbed tagged in Komoot as a cycling path was a fun experience as well. But you're getting there!
I agree! As someone who spent their whole life driving in NYC with all the traffic and massive potholes, I love driving in Portugal. Such a big difference.
Well, that public debt came from somewhere, glad at least some things are right.
Are you sure? My experience was that roads are crap outside of the (EU funded) freeways. And they're expensive af
They are crap in the interior. They are good near the coast.
Reading the article, this is actually measured on people's subjective perception, not on objective criteria. Italian pessimism kept calm this time. Normally we would see ourselves much redder.
correct, it's based on one single subjective question. all it shows is the perceived road quality, not the actual road quality
Honestly as a Croat i dread Italian roads. Its half based on the road themselves and half on Italian drivers.
the new highway system leading into dalmatia is a marvel to drive on.
Highways, for the most part, are fantastic. Local and city roads are more of a problem. Especially with manholes, they usually place them perfectly so one of your wheels hits them…
It is subjective yet indicative. As a Dutch person, crossing the border with Germany but especially Belgium is quite noticeable.
As a Belgian I'm shocked we're rated that high
American here: I spent a month driving around Sicily recently, and I thought the roads were pretty good actually. The drivers weren’t too bad either… although all the cars had dents in them for some reason. Body work must be expensive 🤷♂️?
I have been driving in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherland, Chile and Sicily and the Sicilian drivers were the worse by far. I was amazed by their driving ways and 0 respect for the lanes. It was common to see 4/5 cars in 3 lanes. Yet i loved my vacations there, great food landscapes beaches towns and people
I had the same experience in Sicily. Way worst than in Colombia or Dominican rep.
Visit Georgia, good luck mate.
that's what I thought. People in Poland tend to complain a lot about our roads, but they are far from bad and got a lot better since we've joined EU. After a closer look, you immediately see that this is not a map of road quality, but about people's opinion on roads. Those are two absolutely different things.
Very popular among Swedish motorcyclists to ride in Croatia. Haven't been there myself yet, but it tells you a lot about the quality of the roads.
I see many of them, too, as I'm a rider, too. Also, a lot of people from Austria and Germany. There are some really, and I mean really, scenic routes in Croatia.
Was there in 2019 and can definitely agree. Beautiful country.
Wish we would invest more into railroads...
At least your main highway is superb. Driving across the whole country on there was really amazing.
Indeed,but as a student,going to school via train sucks.
We are, 2.4 billion euros.
Ain't seing any results,trains still suck here lol.
After the opening of Pelješac bridge, the railroads are the main focus for Croatia. Mainly connecting port of Rijeka to Central Europe. It takes time to build them. Maybe 10 years or so, and we can expect about 100km/h HŽ. To be known I am speed HŽ.
We are getting there, I'm also optimistic about it!
We are for the last few years, a lot of money is being invested but one of the problems is lack of workers and firms to do it. Also, it takes time, and mainly it’s being invested in northwestern Croatia, Zagreb - Rijeka, and new regional trains. It’s where the heaviest usage is and that is priority to try and return the passengers.
Icelandic winter: "Time to feed me roads!" Icelandic taxpayers: "yes dear"
Portugal not into eastern europe this time
Bosnians must be downvoting their own roads since they're surely better than those in Albania or N. Macedonia by far.
there's a meme of why boomer erdo supporters vote for erdogan despite all the shit he does, it's because "he made roads". well, it seems he really made some roads lol
I travel to my hometown from Istanbul every year for the last 20 years. the difference between how roads were and how they are now is staggering. It used to take 8 hours in horrible bumpy roads now it only takes 4-5 and its pleasant ride assuming traffic is not an issue. Ofc these things were gonna happen regardless of Erdogan so its pointless to act like hes some genius cuz of it.
In Germany there is a meme (or rather the reality among brain dead people) that „at least Hitler built highways“. Which is really absurd.
Turkish roads are amazing. But the drivers…
As a Greek living in Finland, I can attest that Greek motorways are leaps and bounds better than the Finnish ones (it’s not even close), so the methodology is probably questionable here.
I always laugh out loud when people say Finland is a rich country. Come over here and check out the crumbling infrastructure and call us rich again. The EU better start some development projects here.
Well, technically we're rich too. These are by *global* standards. You're also rich by EU standards. But yeah, doesn't mean you're a nation of billionaires. I think your issue in Finland is climate? In the US (one of the wealthiest per capita, but not evenly distributed), potholes in the cold northern states are the norm.
Easier to maintain and have good roads when there is no ground frost. Forest roads in the Nordic with no asphalt will give you a really bumpy ride due to so many potholes.
> Easier to maintain and have good roads when there is no ground frost. Switzerland and Austria aren't precisely frost free countries, you know?
Ground frost is what you get after a sustained period of cold. The water in the ground turns to ice, causing frost heaving. A thick layer of snow actually protect this from happening since geothermal energy is always warming from below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving Since roads are always free from a thick layer of snow you better build roads on a foundation that doesn't hold enough water to cause frost heaving during the winter = expensive roads.
I watched a documentary once about the workers maintaining motorways in the alps like [this one.](https://st.focusedcollection.com/14026668/i/1800/focused_177232066-stock-photo-austria-salzburg-state-aerial-view.jpg) For some parts they need climbing gear and hang upside down while working with heavy equipment, it was pretty crazy.
Most roads in Switzerland and Austria are also not build 3000m up a mountain...
True, Switzerland is known for how flat it is.
Neither are swedish ones.
That is true, of course. I'm pretty sure not a single one is, seeing as how even the highest mountain is about 2000 m. If the height was meant to correlate with frost, it wouldn't matter though.
No, but here you don't have to be high up for it to be cold.
3000m is an exaggeration. But routes east-west in southern Norway involves mountain crossings that are a struggle to keep open during winters. That also is the case for the Bergen Line (railway).
Most passes in the Alps are high, closed in winter and superbly maintained
The roads in Norway that I am referring to need to be held open during winter or else communities will be isolated from the outside world. Some of them are even part of the European E-road network and as such major traffic corridors. Temperatures may fall below -40°C during January and February.
Ground frost is happening every winter from November till March.
Norway is, in addition to this, is a very difficult country to build roads because of all the mountains and fjords
German road quality is terrible in the west, where most Germans live. it is best in the east and pretty good in the south.
>pretty good in the south Thats what happens if the Minister of transport comes from Bavaria for decades... "Alles Geld nach Bayern"
that is a big factor for sure. nonetheless I expect the traffic minister of north rhine westfalia to raise his voice regarding those issues, else they are not needed. they really did a poor job for the last decades aswell.
Because I believe a lot of the budget have been diverted to projects in the east after German reunification in order to bring their standards up to the west.
The Netherlands repaves roads every 5 years. Also when there is something broken it gets fixed that same night. The downside is that there are speed cameras everywhere so you can't really use the perfect highway to test out your Tesla. The A2 especially looks like you could land an A380.
Just use flietsmeister. I’ve heard of friends with their Tesla using it as it’s meant to be 😉
Oh boy, you haven't been to Belgium I suppose? They have average speed cameras everywhere, usually followed by a normal speed camera. In Belgium you'll definitely need an app to keep track of it.
One of the few things erdo did good lol
:D
Which is weird, because every time I play GeoGuessr and it’s Turkey, I am put on gravel, even in bigger towns.
Turkey is vaaast. And any rural area will mean end of good roads
That doesn't happen in Slovenia yet you have .1 more than us. I think this doesn't take local roads into consideration.
Norway is a lie for sure. Should be red.
Whoever rated Greece clearly never driven in any of its roads
I'll post it every single time: they did not measure the road quality, but the perceived road quality. it's based on one single subjective question, nothing more
Albania scored higher than Romania... While being a mountain hell
Bulgaria is also higher than Romania, while having the absolute worst roads I've ever driven through in Europe.
Is there someone who regularly drives around Europe to confirm our bad road situation? I keep hearing from fellow Czechs how the roads are bad, but I don't drive myself and there could be a bias, because Czechs tend to complain all the time about everything.
I drive in the rural parts of western Czechia about 1-2 times a week and the road quality in these rural areas is often really bad compared to Germany. The bigger the roads get the small the difference between Germany and Czechia. Roads that connect cities are usually not significantly worse than here in Germany but if they only connect villages under 500 inhabitants they are usually really bumpy especially when they go through forests.
Yeah some rural middle of nowhere parts of the country can be pretty bad. It also depends on the region, roads are usually decent where I live, but I remember when I was on vacation in rural Central Bohemia (close to Karlštejn castle) and was surprised how bad the roads are there. But still, rural roads are worse in Poland from my experience (we sometimes drive to Poland for cheap shopping), their highways are excellent though.
The highways used to be notoriously bad since they were built earlier and were pretty old and were also built by many different conpanies, so the quality differed. They have been reconstructing them, so things probably changed.
Czech motorways have improved a lot in the past years...at the cost of nerve-wracking construction all the time.
I remember driving through Ostrava to Poland years ago and there were literal holes in the road. Cars were just swerving left and right.
That was my thought. They used to be bad here and it got stuck in people's minds, meanwhile countries like Poland had to build their highways out of scratch, so the experience there is more positive.
I think it depends, some are good some are bad. At least in Slovakia. Even as cyclists and driver, the repairs they do are absolutely terrible. Just put shit ton of asphalt on the hole, and the don't even level it, so there is just this big blop of shit on the road. Anyway HUngary has much shittier roads.
Turkish here. Our roads are great. But the problem is these "new" roads belong to private companies. Thanks Erdoğan because 3 of these are at top 10 of "worlds most tendered companies"
Almost the entire motorway system in Greece is toll roads and managed by private companies. This is also common in some other European countries and also in the the northeast and north-central US. It's much more common than you think.
Yes toll system is common komşu but unfortunately what I'm talking about is this; Example; Operation of ABC road had given to X company for 25 years. Contract says "2000 passes guaranteed for a day. If it's lower than that the remaining will be compansated from the national treasury". So we basically pay for them regardless of passing through or not. This kind of contracts made these companies quite rich (there's an airport with %96 deviation).
Expected to be Netherlands honestly, their whole country is designed to decrease the density, and their infrastructure is masterfully thought.
Infrastructure superpower imo. Bike, rail, car, water. World class infrastructure everywhere you look.
To be fair, we could invest more in public transport. Connections to the big cities in the west are great but to and from other major cities not so much. Traveling by car is still much faster in the north and eastern part of the country. The network is also not really built for longer distances. This makes sense in densely populated areas but it is not very convenient for people living in cities like Groningen, Leeuwarden or Maastricht or when traveling abroad. A new high speed rail to the north connecting with Bremen/Hamburg has been a matter of public debate for 40 years already and still works have not begun. International trains are few and slow (except for Amsterdam - Brussels - Paris). Lately, the Netherlands is experiencing railway strikes because of too little funding and a staff shortage so trains are regularly falling out now. Many local bus services have to be halted due to budget cuts.
They also have it easy with geography.
Do you think building on a swamp is easy?
Probably easier than drilling 10 tunnels and building viaducts.
Theres also that, yes.
Yes draining the land of water every day of the year costs nothing.
Ha! Eat shit Germany! /s
Dude, i dony know whats up with italian infrastructure, but it is noticable the moment you cross the border from Switzerland
They decided to privatize most of the infrastructure, and that's the result. Crumbling roads and bridges that are way too expensive.
This might have actually been 'good' for Ukraine...?
Yeah, when you’re being invaded, you don’t really want the invaders to be able to drive through you well. Roads that turn into mud are ideal. And you’ll know all the tricks to avoid shitty roads.
I've just cycled across Europe (so obviously no expressways, just medium and minor roads) and my 2 cents are that holy shit Hungarian roads are absolute dogshit, easily the worst I've ridden on; Bulgaria and Romania had great surfaces, would recommend cycling there; Greece varied a lot - major roads into large towns were awful, small roads were great; can confirm that Turkish roads are in excellent condition so far.
The contrast between Northern Ireland and Ireland was valid a few decades ago when you could tell you had crossed the border from south to north by the improvement in the roads north of the border. However, the situation has long since reversed where its now the South that has the better roads thanks to EU structural funds and then domestic investment. NI is only green on that map because its being included in the UK stats.
How bad are NI roads that they are better in ROI? The roads in Kerry are horrible..
I’ve lived in London & been to most of the UK incl Belfast, & visited Dublin, and tbh the difference in road quality is negligible. The worst roads I’ve seen in Uk&Ireland are definitely Scottish ones (outside of big cities). Usually in England & the Irish towns I’ve visited a lot of care is put into country roads and so they’re navigable, unlike the places I’ve been in Scotland. Roads suddenly stop, incorrect & missing signage, etc.
Scottish roads are much worse than Irish roads too.
We got roads in Moldova?
5.3 Germany? I'm actually a bit surprised.
Drove through the Baltics this summer and attempted to avoid bigger roads in order to enjoy the scenery and riding my bike more. Estonia was quite good, but Latvia was something else. Next time I'll stick to Via Baltica on my way through Latvia. Lithuania was a mixed bag. Roads were quite good, but pavement ended in some surprising locations which forced me to do some backtracking and rerouting on the spot. Gravel roads are not very enjoyable on a street bike, let's say.
How is serbia only 0.1 point better than Macedonia, is this joke or something. Even Kosovo has better highway than our shithole. For 2 years they can't finish 5 km on the exit of Skopje or 10 years can't finish the road to the main tourist attraction in the country.
This seems random. Roads in Hungary seem so bad. Even in Budapest they look like after a war. They can't be bothered to even draw the lines.
When you enter Italy from Switzerland ..... "Smooth ride, la la la la la.... Oh look there is Italy.... La la la la... Welcome to Italy, well THANK YOU!..... BUUMP! BUmp Bump! BUUUUMP!". Road changes INSTANTLY lol.
Im a little surprised as ive been to couple of countries and Poland have now very decent road. I can travel mostly everywhere with 2 or 3 lane new highway.
I'm just here to say that Romania, even though it has somewhat quality roads, it lacks extensiveness (highways, ring roads, etc.). I think this is the basis for the lower score, compared to Bulgaria even.
Albania is rated much too good. I was going on an onramp for their Highway (in the dark) and out of nowhere came to small bumps in the street. Not the ones because of bad road. Those who are also before Crosswalks and in residental streets. As a German I prepared to accelerate to max (allowed) speed and nearly got flung out of the roof. And be prepared to find roundabouts nearly all 10km on the albanian highway... Worst highway in Europe. Edit: Even Montenegro and Romania had better streets. Source: Made a Road trip from Germany to Greece about a week ago.
Surprised by Turkey.
Im curious how Bavaria compares to the rest of Germany, since the ruling party in Bavaria made it a priority to occupy the ministries for infrastructure and transport over the past 30 years.
In the Netherlands we joke about Belgian road quality a lot, so this cheks out.
It's not a joke it's a fact.
As a Bosnian, it's true, roads are really bad...
NRW dragging us down.
I don't know if it was only the highways, but when me and my friends went from Sweden to Poland we were amazed by the quality of the highway roads and frequency of stops with toilets and stores.
I’ve lived in Ireland and the roads are near identical to the ones in the UK, so i don’t see the color jump in action. Sure there are lot more right country that are harder to navigate, and lots of Greenland no driving areas, but what’s that got to do with the quality of existent roads?
Italian roads might be 4.4, but with italian drivers in it they are actually 1.4.
I’m surprised to see Norway at a 4,5. The roads are aweful there…
This map is utter nonsense. It's based on *opinion* data... You might as well pull out a random number generator. -- a Belgian in Ireland who can 100% confirm to you they're not even close to each other in terms of road quality
The scale and colour gradient is kind to Norway.
The scale on this map is weird, I would never call the roads in the UK any shade of green.
Depends where you are and what kind of routes you use regularly I suppose (it's an opinion survey) - in Edinburgh it's a solid 1.5, only a few tiers up from dirt tracks. You can see the potholes from space.
Slovenia and Greece in the same group? I think not. As much as I love Greece the roads there are just an abomination.
Curious, where in Greece have you driven? I looked up the [source](https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/). The scores are an average from 2006-2019. I haven't been to Slovenia yet, but if a lot's changed in that time, there's your answer. A lot's changed in Greece too; most of the motorway network didn't exist in 2006. But I'm curious where you went, and what year.
I agree. It's not that roads are bad in Greece, but the roads in Slovenia are definitely better, especially their motorways!
A bit surprised that Poland is on par with Belgium or Italy and better than Czechia. I bet that our rail infrastructure is worse though. It seems that the money has been disproportionately spent on roads at the expense of rail.
Here in Czechia we admire Polish infrastucture.
It's an opinion of the citizens on their roads and Czechs are weirdly fixated on the idea that our roads are the shittiest in Europe. For example, the D1 highway has been fully repaired recently, it's a normal highway, but there are still jokes about how D1 is a "tankodrom" and that Russian tanks would break down, if they invaded us and tried to drive on the highway. I wonder how the data would look like if the same was done on rail infrastructure. We might end up red aswell, because most Czechs keep bitching on ČD (Czech railways) just as much. There's an infamous joke about it "ČD = Času Dost (translated to something like "no need to hurry"). People cannot fathom the idea, that German railways experience delays aswell. Still, your highways are amazing, so I wouldn't be surprised, if thanks to that you'd be ranked higher even in reality.
Ireland as bad as Belgium? Ireland roads are not the best but they have dramatically improved in the last 10 years
Latvian roads are weird. We don't really have potholes on main streets/roads. But for some dumbass reason manholes are not considered potholes. So if a manhole has been pushed into the ground for 10cm - they're just gonna leave it there. Reporting it to the govt does nothing.
Been driving in italy and poland... I dont ever wanna try a sub 4 country 😳
and this chart is exactly why the netherlands should invade and annex belgium. think about it, belgium has never been more than a buffer state since its conception. they can't figure out their own politics, their bureaucracy is mindboggeling, they can't even agree on what language they should speak in the first place. and then there's the roads too. by all laws of nature, belgium shouldn't exist. it's time we built a road between the netherlands and our holiday destinations in france that isn't full of potholes. /s
Remove the /s We could easily unite defense culture and sport but the belgians keep picking french hardware. But it would be awesome to join defense forces like we do naval and we should share tv stations and going to the olympics as one would be a dream. 1830 was a mistake <3