Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eneevax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!eneevax!hsu
From: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (David T. Hsu)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Best Roads
Message-ID: <397@eneevax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 13:01:00 EST
Article-I.D.: eneevax.397
Posted: Fri Oct 25 13:01:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Oct-85 03:47:23 EST
References: <526@phri.UUCP> <3900003@tilt.FUN> <10792@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: hsu@eneevax.UUCP (David T. Hsu)
Organization: U of Maryland, EE Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 41

In article <10792@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> chin@ucbvax.UUCP (David Chin) writes:
>
>The worst road in the world is much more difficult to state since there are
>so many junk roads around.  My vote would have to go to the road to
>Sun-Moon Lake in Taiwan.  This road (when I was there many years ago)
>hugged the mountainsides, but was almost completely unpaved.  The crushed
>rock surface was so bad that it could cause seasickness.  Also, the road
>was so narrow that two small cars would have considerable trouble passing
>one another on parts of the road.  Moreover, the people who regularly
>travel on the road drove rickety cars which looked like they would fall
>apart any second at speeds that were suicidal.  None of the cars had any
>shocks left and it often looked as if they would just bounce off the road.
>More than once, I saw tires go off the road and there were signs that at
>least a few people hadn't made it (burned out hulks down the mountainsides).
>The key points are that this road in combination with its drivers was not
>only highly uncomfortable, but also extremely unsafe.

Thanks for reminding me of the WORST road I rode on (replace context US with
context EverywhereYou'veBeen).
Must be the East-West Cross Island Highway in Taiwan.  Paved (thus..a road)
this highway is cut INTO a very steep granite face for much of its length,
and sports literally dozens of tunnels each mile.  Barely two lanes, I ended
up traveling this thing in a bus, and when two buses want to pass in opposite
directions, everybody holds their breath.  Also, being cut into a face, parts
of the roadway constantly fall into the gorge below, knocking out the entire
lane sometimes.  Vertical clearance in the tunnels is not amusing, either.
My great-uncle was the chief engineer on the project, and I'm surprised that
he is still into transportation.  Of course, having been constructed over
20 years ago, I can see why it wasn't made as a superhighway. Despite this,
one of my friends remarked "Damn, I wish I had my Spitfire on this road."

-dave
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hsu						Across the net...
USnail: Communications & Signal Processing Laboratory	hsu @ eneevax.umd.edu
	Dept of Electr Engr, Univ Md			hsu @ mit-prep.arpa
	College Park, MD 20742				hsu @ umd2.arpa
UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!eneevax!hsu		BITnet: CF522 @ UMDD

"...YOU can enjoy an EXCITING career as a diesel mechanic..."