Why do I love living in New England...................well there is the Vineyard, Nantucket, the Cape, the White and Green Mountains, the foliage and then there is this...... For your viewing pleasure please find the "support cup" the holds my E92 rear shock in place, what it does look like and what it should look like.
Klunk Klunk
- Thread starter bavbob
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I was chatting with Mario Langston (of Vintage Sports and Restoration) a couple of years ago about the effect of New England roads on modern BMWs. He had found stress fractures in structural areas of several customer cars, and found similar stress fractures in his daily driver (he was driving an e46 M3 at the time). After speaking to BMW and studying the problem, his view was that this was a design problem. Specifically, Mario concluded that the CAD software BMW used at the time to design its bodies was programmed for German roads, which are far better than US roads. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, a little over half of US roads are in either good or fair driving condition. In Germany, however, roads we consider to be in fair condition would be considered to be in poor condition, so through this lens, only about 40% of US roads would be considered to be in acceptable condition in Germany (and even that might be too high). But wait, there's more. This is a US wide average. Massachusetts is 45th in road quality (with Connecticut at 48 and Rhode Island at 49), so those roads are much worse than average.
In my view, this is a big part of why SUVs have become so popular in the US.
In my view, this is a big part of why SUVs have become so popular in the US.
That makes sense. I know the roads here in PA are really crap, particularly around this time of year as the freeze/thaw cycles have done their damage on the asphalt pavement. I am always amazed at how much better the roads are almost anywhere outside of the state of PA (our bridges are awful too).
Years ago a colleague had his wife's e series Mercedes out of service for repairs when a spring perch failed. It was only about eight years old and he found that both sides on the rear were failing from the combination of rust (salt use on the roads) and pothole damage.
Years ago a colleague had his wife's e series Mercedes out of service for repairs when a spring perch failed. It was only about eight years old and he found that both sides on the rear were failing from the combination of rust (salt use on the roads) and pothole damage.
@boonies, you are dead on correct. I am not far away from you in Bucks County. There is a beautiful state road (Rt. 32) that parallels the Wild and Senic(An official designation) Delaware River. One of the most beautiful river side drives in the country. But you need a Panzer Tank to traverse it safely. There are portions of the north bound lane where I have to go into the south bound lane to avoid the killer potholes.
Two months ago PENNDOT announced they would be filling potholes and patch this very road. Well, here it is, the middle of April and not a shovel of asphalt has been tossed.
Perhaps they were talking about Spring 2025.
Two months ago PENNDOT announced they would be filling potholes and patch this very road. Well, here it is, the middle of April and not a shovel of asphalt has been tossed.
Perhaps they were talking about Spring 2025.
I believe in the Ma bottle tax for the sake of recycling but it was also for revenue for infrastructure repair.........got the tax part anyway.
At least it was easy to find the problem!
Ja! I had a good conversation with the Santa Cruz County engineer. Very nice guy, I asked him when my street was due for full repaving, not just the small pothole repair. He said it was not. California has different funding sources for different streets and highways types, and no serious money from the gas tax is going to this type of street. Then I spoke to the planner responsible for allocating time to the pothole patching crew to ask him to at least patch larger lengths and widths. Not a very nice guy, we at least agreed that my street could be in a third world country... He said us neighbors could pony up 100k$ or so and they would authorize us to repave our street with the right permits... I need to look him up on Google street and see how his street looks like. Oh, well.
Well @Arde here is an idea to try:
"An anoymous U.K. artist is forcing city officials to take action against potholes by making them obscene"
That's pretty creative.
The artist's name is great
let's say there are benefits and draw backs on low taxes.... I pay about 40% income tax, and it get's us a street in front of our house that I can seriously use as a bowling alley.
When I visited the Detroit area in 2009 It became pretty obvious to me why I didn't see any tiny cars. At that time the family had a small Fiat Panda with skinny 13 inch wheels -It wouldn't stand a chance with the potholes i saw there. It for sure would loose an entire wheel.
The problem here is not the taxes, it’s the misuse of funds by our esteemed politicians.
You cannot have an awful Mass Transit system and simultaneously abandon the people who use a car for transportation to get to and from work.
40% average tax burden, or 40% marginal tax?
Our marginal tax in the US is above that (Federal marginal in the 30s% for many, state about another 10%, then about 6% of social security taxes, almost 3% for medicare tax). Of course there is the property tax if you want to live somewhere, and the gas tax if you want to fill your tank...
But I am not complaining, this is paradise and AFAIK paradise was not paved, really.
I do not know how does it work in US (probably depending on state) but quite often here pot holes repairs means additional money to monthly pay "readiness"amount.
So there is not a target to do the pothole repair correctly. It needs only to survive the period from the contract.
If we would be talking about the "best in class" russia would win probably
So there is not a target to do the pothole repair correctly. It needs only to survive the period from the contract.
If we would be talking about the "best in class" russia would win probably