Is this road safe?

And what is the purpose of placing a flag on a foreign planet? It’s a way to say “we were here.” And the one, immediate symbol that any other human who came to the same spot any number of years later would be able to recognize a human hand. Even if governments change and collapse, we all understand a handprint.

And what is the purpose of placing a flag on a foreign planet? It’s a way to say “we were here.” And the one, immediate symbol that any other human who came to the same spot any number of years later would be able to recognize a human hand. Even if governments change and collapse, we all understand a handprint.

And what is the purpose of placing a flag on a foreign planet? It’s a way to say “we were here.” And the one, immediate symbol that any other human who came to the same spot any number of years later would be able to recognize a human hand. Even if governments change and collapse, we all understand a handprint.

gosh what a pretty road it is though, love it

no shoulders, uneven surface beside the road (so your car can like roll down a slope), narrow lanes

I love you Safety Wizard.

Poor pavement condition and no shoulders

Not quite sure what the lights up there mean but I like the barriers everywhere

I'm in a play and closing night starts in like 4 minutes and here I am reviewing a road on the blog I've not posted on in like a month

the lines are so faded, if they were ever there! how do you even know where to go?

the scenery is gorgeous of course

that said the reason i immediately hit 'reblog' on this one is because it demonstrates something: there's a crest here, and it masks the oncoming truck. like, as i type this, the video is paused, and there's no indication that a truck is there. you press play and then you go over the crest and bam there's the truck, and it's all fine and good because the truck is not, like, all up in your grill

but what if it was?

the specific risk at this location is that, because of the crest, coupled with the lack of line marking, you could drift over to the wrong side of the road and instead of the truck being a little distance away, it is right there and you don't have time to get out the way.

this risks a head on crash, and a head on crash becomes highly likely to be fatal of the time at impact speeds >70kmh (43mph apparently). and i can guarantee you that people are exceeding that speed in this road environment.

it's hard to rate something like this because it's doing quite a lot well, but the thing is - shoulders

i talk about shoulders a ll the time but maybe it's time to do some educating? like hardcore?

okay softcore, i'm not that into it

the reason i care so much about shoulders is safe roads are meant to be what we call "forgiving", that is, when you make a mistake (not if, when - we all make mistakes both on and off the road), the road should not punish you

i actually don't know the physics of this but trust me, it's very common that someone will die on a straight road like this with no hazards on it because the car rolls over. some of the crash reports i've read are gnarly, it sounds like a horrifying way to die.

if there were wider shoulders here, if you drifted off the road because you sneezed or were a bit tired or an animal ran into the road or whatever, you could put yourself back into your lane. there's no change in surface that might make you swerve and overcorrect (overcorrection is something we see very commonly in fatal crashes, where you drift a bit to one side and then you drift a LOT to the other side), all these sorts of things that lead to the crash that kills you

sorry i really have no idea

SNOW idea

What you see in this picture is actually not a road but a private logging trail located in the Canadian Far-North. So I guess it depends on your standards. By logging trail standards, it is moderately safe.

Firstly, here is what the road looks like in summer:

This is a pretty good logging trail because it's mainly used by megaload trucks, these guys:

This means it's very wide and relatively straight and flat. But it also makes it not too safe for other road users because trucks this size drive slowly (30 to 90km/h) and truckers cannot see in their mirrors when the truck is loaded. This + gravel dust means cars going 90 km/h crash into the back of these way more often than you'd think. I don't enjoy responding to those calls, so please drive slowly on logging trails: logging trucks in Canada operate day and night, all days of the week. Try to have a CB radio on board if you take these roads often.

This trail is owned by a big company so they maintain it very regularly, with a grader and calcium. This makes it better than most trails but like all private roads it is unpredictable, so I would give it a moderate safety.

In that picture it is winter, but the conditions are very good for the wintertime. Part of my job is testing road conditions in winter, so here's how I would test this road. First thing I would notice is that it was recently cleared of snow. Freshly fallen snow is a big no-no because it can be hard to tell what's underneath (ice, water, potholes), but here all looks good. You can tell it was cleared by the parallel tracks the plow leaves on the shoulder or if the snow on said shoulder looks disturbed.

Second thing is, as weird as it sounds: white is good. If the snow is white, it means it is solid and compact. If it's brown-ish or textured, it means it's actually slush (melting snow). Slush is very unpredictable, it's pretty much the worst possible condition. It is slippery, will constantly pull your car in random directions and can prevent you from making turns. I could give so much advice on this but I'll stick to: make the trip as short as possible or don't take the car at all.

Even when the snow is white it could still be slippery. So if you're unsure, wait until you reach a long straight part of the road and quickly slam the breaks. If the car slides, the snow is wet and slippery, or it was wet and now froze. This is how road workers test road conditions for ice.

Anyways. Sorry I rambled a lot in this but one of my biggest regrets as a road worker is responding to accidents that could have been avoided if learning to read road conditions was more accessible to the general public, especially in regions like mine where conditions change rapidly. So. If this dumb post helps even just one person it will be worth the ramblings lol. In that same spirit, to the person I reblogged, I know your blog is mostly humoristic but I really admire what you do because I'm sure it's helped at least a few people go "hmmm. This road is unsafe, let's be careful".

i'm in Australia and i think we have a lot of similarities to Canada in terms of the heavy vehicles, logging trucks, agricultural transports, HVs on the road at all hours, etc etc etc - but not in terms of snow. I find it fascinating!

Like, in my day job, I'm a road safety expert(? imposter syndrome says otherwise) and people trust my opinion and read my reports nodding sagely, but I haven't the foggiest clue about anything snow-related.

We have a lot of dirt roads here, and while my job doesn't focus on them (I review designs, and generally speaking, designs don't involve dirt roads), they are graded to get rid of corrugations and such, all very similar to snow.

In the end, my road safety advice boils down to a few things:

Don't use any mind altering substances and then drive (especially alcohol, meth)

Don't drive too fast

Don't swerve to avoid an animal, you're almost always better off hitting the animal than hitting a tree or another car (note: we don't have moose in my jurisdiction)

Look at safety ratings of cars you are thinking of buying and let that be one of the axes you choose your car on (yes safer cars are more expensive and i know most people including me are buying second hand cars but i am saying much like you consider the reliability, mileage, fuel efficiency of a new car, also consider the safety rating)

omg i almost forgot do I even need to mention: don't use your mobile phone and especially don't text and drive i can't believe this needs to be said

Заброшенный отель Gletscher Belvedere в Швейцарии.

Отель «Бельведер» на Фурка - самый известный отель на перевале в мире. Был построен в 1882 г. семьей Зайлер из Вале на повороте новой дороги, откуда открываются лучшие виды на Альпы и в близости от главной достопримечательности - ледника Ронегг.

Потом ледник отступил , его уже стало не видно из отеля. Но Бельведер стал популярным объектом съемок . Сам Джеймс Бонд в 1965 году промчался по Фурке на своем Aston Martin, миновав Бельведер.

В период своего расцвета в конце XIX века, отель вмещал до 90 путешественников. Гостиница расширялась.

В 1920-х годах автобусы и железная дорога, привозили гостей на ледник. Поездки были рассчитаны с ночевкой. С появлением легкового транспорта они превратились в однодневные поездки туда и обратно. Гости, которые раньше оставались на ночь, теперь успевали посетить знаменитый ледник Рона с его восхитительным гротом, а в отеле лишь пообедать или просто выпить чашку чая. Да и сам ледник, из-за глобального потепления настолько удалился и потерял свою привлекательность, что желающих увидеть необычную красоту уменьшилось.

В 1988 отель купила семья из Брюгге. Поддерживать старинное здание в рабочем состоянии было тяжело и в 2015 году они закрылись. Отель выставлен на продажу.

Abandoned Gletscher Belvedere Hotel in Switzerland.

The Belvedere Hotel on the Furka Pass is the most famous hotel on the pass in the world. It was built in 1882 by the Sailer family from Valais at the turn of the new road, offering the best views of the Alps and close to the main attraction - the Ronegg Glacier.

Then the glacier retreated, it was no longer visible from the hotel. But the Belvedere became a popular filming location. James Bond himself raced along the Furka Pass in his Aston Martin in 1965, passing the Belvedere.

In its heyday at the end of the 19th century, the hotel accommodated up to 90 travelers. The hotel expanded.

In the 1920s, buses and the railway brought guests to the glacier. The trips were designed with an overnight stay. With the advent of passenger transport, they turned into one-day trips there and back. Guests who used to stay overnight now had time to visit the famous Rhone glacier with its amazing grotto, and only had lunch or just a cup of tea at the hotel. And the glacier itself, due to global warming, has become so remote and lost its appeal that there are fewer people wanting to see the unusual beauty.

In 1988, the hotel was bought by a family from Bruges. It was difficult to maintain the old building in working order, and in 2015 they closed. The hotel is up for sale.

look I really wanted to like this road and one of my friends told me irl that i have a bias towards finding roads unsafe but guess what road deaths kill more people than malaria so here we are

anyway look. it's a hairpin bend. that can't be safe. i can't see a speed limit, i can't see signs, it's pretty well delineated and i do enjoy that there's barriers of some sort around there but I have to emphasise: it's a hairpin bend