• Rouxibeau@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    The mountains of Northern California are treacherous. Many of the highways up there are frequently shut down for extended periods.

    • comador @lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Being from SoCal and having lived in the UK, let me explain:

      In the UK many of the roads are quite literally conversions from horse drawn carriage paths. In some cases, a drunk wanker from Liverpool could draw a better line for a road than most roads connecting off many of the UK motorways (Especially in Wales or Scotland). Add in round abouts, hills, creeks, rivers and stupidly narrow bridges, it’s difficult.

      I’d sincerely rather drive the Grapevine through Mammoth into Yosemite Village with black ice warnings than try and drive myself from Maidenbower, West Sussex UK to Dundee, Scotland again tbh.

      • Syldon
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        What roads did you take? A majority of that is dualed.

        • comador @lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          While living in the UK, I bought a Heritage pass and took off almost every weekend either by light rail or by car. When my wife came to visit though, we drove from my flat near Crawley to Scotland over a 3 day trip. We visited in order: Ashford, Broomfield (Leeds Castle), Rettondon, Chelmsford, Ipswitch, Cambridge, Nottingham, Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Perth and finally ending in Dundee where I have distant relatives.

          In all my trips, driving through the hills of Yorkshire and Cumbria are the scariest, but getting to Scone Palace outside of Perth through snow was quite challenging.

          • Syldon
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            So not really the main roads.

            Most of the non main roads are a result of the feudal farming system. The US differs because people could buy up large rectangles of land which fit nicely together. The farming in Europe was a piecemeal affair, and roads were built onto to that. The UK is a very London centric country. The further north you get the less that is spent on roads and transport.