Having just returned from another driving trip to France, about the twelth in the last few years, I am again amazed at the difference between Autoroutes and Motorways.
In the 250 miles or so between my home in Glossop and Dover I encountered about 5 or 6 sets of roadworks, the one on the M1 near Luton, where 3 lanes came down to 1, added at least one hour to the journey.
Off in Boulogne. Up into Belgium to visit a war grave then down into Brittany. 500 miles of autoroute, almost all of which is two lane. No roadworks.
Any ideas why?
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Privately owned, run, maintained and not the density of population. And of copurse you have to pay to use them. Focuses the mind if you're the operator - you don't want to annoy your customers.
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A true business case for motorway work would include costs caused by the delays, so forcing the repair company to find ways to minimise those delays.
Alas, not government policy to do it this way!
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Lane discipline enforced by fines is a big help, but I notice that lane hogging is creeping into the French style of driving. fortunately it is still customary to go straight to aggressive use of full beam when encountering a car in front of you that could move over. Makes a big impact on the capacity of a road.
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We have just returned from France and noticed that on the three-lane motorway sections the normally impeccable French lane discipline completely breaks down.
They hog the middle lane like the best British Rover 45 driver.
On two-lane roads we had no problems at all, althought the locals do pull out and cut in a little more forcefully than their UK counterparts.
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I guess, by and large, autoroutes just don't the hammering that British motorways experience so they don't need the same amount of maintenance.
Personally, I find it a bit cheeky to charge for the use of a two-lane autoroute which is of no higher standard than an ordinary dual-carriageway and less well able to cope with occasional heavy traffic.
All the toll covers (you may or may not need the 'aires') is the right to drive at 130kph instead of 110kph. If 130kph is safe on a two-lane autoroute, why not on an ordinary dual-carriageway?
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you don't want to annoy your customers.
Unlike our government who seem to go out of their way to annoy their 'customers' as much as possible - reducing 2-lane roads to 1-lane roads, bus-lanes on maotorways, traffic lights on roundabouts, speed-humps left right and centre, etc., etc.
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