Dick Dasterdly

....in worst condition since 1985 !

http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/11/...67_787451.html

A bit worrying.

Pity those funds wasted on little used new ghost roads couldn't have been put to better use.

Also noticeable is that the average age of vehicles involved in accidents, also continues to rise.

Pretty much another sign of the times I suppose.

jimenato

I drove down the road from Gaucin to the coast the other day, first time in many years, and it was in shocking condition - down to 20 kph in places to avoid the potholes and subsidence.

Last summer the route of La Vuelta was changed to avoid this stretch and I can see why. Luckily it meant that it passed the bottom of our garden.

Retired in Euskadi

I wonder if it has something to do with the indebtedness of certain regions resulting in lack of maintenance. I wouldn´t say that the roads here are any worse than usual, in fact they are in good condition generally.
What is really bad, I think, is the poor signage everywhere. Try driving through any major city or town such as Cordoba, Vitoria, or even Valdepenas. The direction signs are almost non existant.

agoreira

Yes, read that recently, talking about €6 billion(?) to repair them, that's serious money. I expect the ghost roads are fine, they've had hardly any use.

chopera

Poor roads and on top of that the councils have turned off the lighting along many stretches of road.

Driving back to Madrid along the A3 last weekend we came to the junction for the R3 (the toll road). We debated whether to take the toll road or risk the traffic jam on the A3. We decided to stick to the A3 and about a kilometre after the exit for the R3 there was a big sign saying there was 10km of slow moving traffic ahead! All they have to do is put that sign BEFORE the exit for the R3 and many people like us would have taken it! So we end up with an empty toll road requiring some kind of bailout because it's going bust, while everybody is left stuck on the A3 in a traffic jam! It sums up the cretinous Spanish roads system perfectly for me.

andyrich666

Can sympathise in total with that, as many times in UK I could never make my mind up to cut through London, stay on M25 and so on, then one day I was introduced to TomTom Live Traffic, its quiet here on the Costa, well for now but it was invaluable to me in UK, If you drive often where there is heavy traffic it might be worth buying one.

chopera

Thanks - we've got a Garmin because we saw that's what the taxi drivers use, but to be honest we don't use it that much, and I don't think we've got the traffic updates on it anyway. I tend to find my smartphone's GPS more reliable anyway.

Dick Dasterdly

Some good news.
http://www.thelocal.es/20140429/spai...on-road-deaths

As mentioned I think the tightening up and better enforcement of regulations has made a big difference.
I know I've noticed a big difference with regard to drivers sticking to speed limits during the past ten years.

Maybe the reduction of traffic due to the crisis as well as the need to raise revenue has played it's part also, though sadly the trend reversed for a while over Easter week with an increase in road deaths.

Dick Dasterdly

Good cops, Bad cops and DOWNRIGHT BRAINLESS COPS.

http://www.thelocal.es/20140429/good...-injured-biker

SHOCKING.

So that's the reward for doing the decent and correct thing ?

andyrich666

did you watch that video of the Drunk spanish guy at the bottom driving into shops

http://www.thelocal.es/20140430/vide...voc-in-belgium

crazy man

Dick Dasterdly

Ha ha, total mayhem, there's Spanish drivers for you eh ?
Strange though, one or two on here insist that Spaniards never get drunk !

Another link there of a German driver following his GPS and getting his truck wedged between buildings in a narrow Spanish street.
They've almost got me in a similar situation on more than one occasion.

I learned long ago never to trust them things and from recent experiences they still haven't improved much either.

Domino

what do you expect when they base their maps on Google which has been surveyed using a motorbike

andyrich666

mmmm, some GPS are made for soley for Lorries only, It was always happening in Colchester in the Dutch Quarter, usually foreign drivers too, its also bad signage as in Spain and bad understanding of signs ect.

Id never let my woman out with one though !!! for example mine sometimes tells me to go round a Spanish roundabout the wrong way as we would at home, very strange, other days it says go normal, she would just follow the nav.

Once driving round Guadamar, I decided to go off the beaten track and it took me onto some unbuilt roads eventually coming to the end where there was a big gap where the road had not been joined / completed, it was dark and I am so glad I was not believing the device. Generally though it has benefitted me more than I expected, once I had to get to pick up some tickets in Valencia by 2.30pm for the F1, I would never have found it with a map in time, It got me right to the door, in fact I did not believe it with 3 minutes to go.