[Closed] Why do French roads have so many tarmac squiggles?

Our roads just break up under sheer volume of traffic and freeze-thaw but French roads generally last better as traffic, in rural areas at least, is much less than ours and the weather more clement. So patching and sealing cracks to prevent water ingress becomes worthwhile.

Now I was going to go the other way and say due to more extreme temperature ranges French roads crack more than ours so need sealing regularly.

To befuddle British drivers in hire cars so they kerb the wheels and get stung by the [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/how-much-am-i-going-to-get-stung-for-getting-a-puncture-in-a-hire-car-in-france ]excess.[/url]

Makes up for the lack of cats eyes.

It's the gallic shrug equivalent for "we could have put cats eyes here but couldn't be asrsed."

Is it a Pokemon thing ?

All of those who think French roads are in better condition that British ones don't drive round the Peripherique regularly. Peage is generally in great condition as it's expensive to use and the French avoid them if possible.

I saw a Marmot on a French road yesterday. I then saw a car speed towards it in my mirrors. Luckily it saw it though and stopped.
True story.

I did wonder about the squiggles though.

😆

I drive at least 2000 miles in France most years on a variety of roads - yes including tolls but also the A and local roads. Most of them are better maintained than ours.

The tar prevents water filling the cracks, freezing, then expanding and consequently increasing the size of the cracks. In the UK the application of tar strips is outlawed.

In 1988 a certain Norman Cothbert concluded after numerous studies that the additional tar strips would become slippery when wet and be a hazard to cyclists and so they were outlawed. Many councils backed this and it was said this was due to cost more than a safety issue. More tar = more money = more cost to the public.

Tar was outlawed ages ago because it is cancerous.

The banding strips (bitumen) are considered a slip hazard for two wheelers because it is slick when wet. If somebody bins their crotch rocket near a banding stip in the UK then they can sue the council/authority for failure to maintain an adequate carriageway surface.

The common belief is that overbanding is not required and you only need to spray the vertical edge between where the old/new surface meets, or to fill the crack in order to stop water ingress. In reality i think things are quite a bit more complicated than this.

There are new high performance crack filling and overbanding products availibe that have a high friction aggregate in them and i bet they will start to become more popular for larger crack fill jobs in the UK but the product is textured and generally grey so it will be harder to spot the squiggles!

Biggest brown trouser moment I ever had on my motorbike was one wet day when I accelerated away from a junction and my rear wheel got onto a long ribbon of bitumen that had been used to seal along the edge of a repair; the bike went into a tank-slapper as the rear wheel spun then grabbed then spun again.

Am I the only one puerile enough too laugh at the idea of twistys "high performance crack filling .... products" 😀

Yes, it's crack filling. I saw them at it on a recent cycling weekend in the pre-alps just outside of Nice. The cracks obviously appear due to the thermal stress between the winter and summer, I guess as the winter thaw's, and they are filled with bitumen over the summer months in preparation for the next winter.

The state of the roads did seem better over there, but then they were nowhere near as busy and congested as our roads. Once you get out of the city and town centres the roads are practically deserted. For us the challenge is the concentration of traffic on our roads and not wanting to clog up the system by carrying out frequent repairs, so we tend to let the roads deteriorate a certain amount then blitz them in one go.

jambalaya - Member

All of those who think French roads are in better condition that British ones don't drive round the Peripherique regularly.

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reckon

Am I the only one puerile enough too laugh at the idea of twistys "high performance crack filling .... products"

Not at all.

Talking about filling big cracks is a bit funny I guess but [url=

i am not making it up[/url]

Was thinking the same in Portugal a few weeks back, loads of overbanding everywhere and still hundreds of cracks.....

Talking about filling big cracks is a bit funny I guess but but i am not making it up

To my mind that's not very high performance, was expecting lots of big machines (though please don't start talking about "hot boxes" BIY works with them and I nearly wet my self every time he mentions it)

Did I mention I was puerile 🙂

Easy one.

Road are maintan and own by the DDE a state own agency. So the government is it's own assuring body. It means that if you have an accident caused by the road the DDE will pay the bill.
This mean as it's everybodies money they are not too fuss about doing a great deal of work. So a little patch will work just fine.
Then, the people working for the DDE aren't paid a great deal but it's ok because they have plenty of time to work for they "second" job, the logical consequence is that they have less time to work for their main job aka fixing road. And trust me all are perfectly happy to go and spread a bit of metlted tarmac than to just ressurface the whole bit of road.

While we're talking about French roads, I noticed a thing a lot of motorcyclists do. When they overtake and pull back in they drop the right foot off the peg and lower it towards the ground.

What's that all about then?

Letting out a cheeky fart