Damn good thing the Wim Rocket has a navigation system!


Europe's highways a web of neglect, unclear signposts

Robert Wielaard
Associated Press
Jun. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

BRUSSELS, Belgium - It's that time of year again when Europeans pack up the kids and pets and embark on an annual vacation exodus, jamming highways that are no celebration of European unity.

The highway headaches are rooted largely in European governments' inability to craft a sensibly numbered, well-maintained and uniformly signposted highway grid.

"There has been a chronic under-investment in European roadways," said Brendan Halleman, a spokesman for the European Union Road Federation, a Brussels lobby group. advertisement




He said public investment in transport infrastructure in the EU fell from 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in the 1980s to less than 1 percent in 2004.

That's a funding drop of $119 billion over 25 years, an amount that pales compared with the $435 billion EU governments pocketed in tax revenues from road users in 2004 alone.

That year, Cyprus, Malta and eight East European nations joined the EU, compounding the problem of bad highways. The 10 nations require 8,700 miles of new or upgraded highways, the equivalent of Germany's autobahn network.

The EU road federation says governments have paid scant attention to improving Europe's highways, even as car ownership has doubled and fuel costs have skyrocketed in the last 25 years.

Halleman said European road users, from private car owners to trucking companies, have no idea how governments use the taxes they pay on vehicles, fuel and roadway tolls.

"They don't see it going to road repairs because under-investment in infrastructure is cause of traffic jams," he said.

And those jams are bound to get worse.

Traffic in England, for instance, is expected to rise by as much as 10 percent by 2010, said a recent study of Britain's Institute for Public Policy Research.

Fifty years of European economic integration have left no mark on Europe's packed highways.

A decade ago, the EU drafted plans to upgrade trans-European highways, notably major north-south and east-west corridors, at a cost of hundreds of billions of euros, but governments have brushed those aside. Across the EU, road signs and signals have not been made uniform.

And Europeans should take no comfort from maps showing "E-highways" sprawling like crab grass across the continent - all the way to China, in fact. Once behind the wheel, drivers soon find out the purported network is as bewildering as alphabet soup.

The vast majority of the 55 European nations that agreed in 1975 to create a uniform highway grid have assigned 'E' numbers to major roads. But only four - Norway, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark - now have E-highways as was meant: uncluttered with rival national numbers.

For instance, the main road from Milan in the northern Italy to Tarranto in the south is 560 miles long and masquerades as the A1, the E35, the E45, the A14, the E55 and the E843. In the Netherlands, the A15, the A16 and the E19 can be the same road. Germany's autobahns list a green 'E' number - sometimes.

"It has always been up to European governments to display European highways," said Christopher Smith, a road safety expert at the Geneva-based United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, which brokered the 1975 E-highway network deal.

"E-highways don't work if governments are unwilling to organize this in a logical manner," said Henk Kramer, a lobbyist at the European Union for TNL, the Dutch road-transport sector.

Grillo Pasquarelli, a senior EU transport official, rules out the EU legislating a uniform highway network across Europe at a time when public opinion is wary of EU meddling in Europeans' lives.

"That's a pity, because the current system need not be this complicated," he said.

Benedicte-Marie Chevet, a spokeswoman for Michelin road maps in Paris, said her group will continue to list E-numbers as a service to motorists.

She has never heard one complaint. But has she ever seen a European highway system other than on her own maps?

"Actually, no!" she said. "I never notice it."

" Halleman said European road users, from private car owners to trucking companies, have no idea how governments use the taxes they pay on vehicles, fuel and roadway tolls. "

Very true , we are planning here and there doubledeck roads now because of the birds and the bees ! Where will it end ?

Does Wim have a navigation system ??
You know I find Oedt and Brueggen on my smell, and overthere I fuck up my future navigation system , every time again. Life can be difficult .... , just bought a new camera, right ! , for the apple of my eye ....

When you come over again 420, and lead me the way : "When are we there Wim , i'm getting nervous!!"

Groeten uit Amsterdam

I missed your navigation system in the wim rocket, wim. I had no trouble getting the four Musketeers TO Oedt, I just couldn't get us OUT of Oedt!. You know, after all this time, that's still the ONLY time I ever drove in Germany.
Doog
Pepto

I, for one, really don't mind different systems. So, I'm driving on A4 and A9 in Germany, A2 and whater in the Netherlands, Ewhatever in Belgium,... so what. For heaven's sake, let's at least pretend that we have some intelligence left and that we don't need dumbing down. A road sign seen on my recent visit to USA said: Weight limit: 8000 lb including passengers and load...

It's also irritating that all the signs aren't in English :-)

I have no probs either with not spending millions on new road signs with the E numbers. We are different countries still after all. I just focus on the FKK to which I am going and can cope with the demands of German numbering.Can't remember many road signs which inspire me - except the Indian ones "Go in peace, not in pieces"

In England we have loads of brown road signs telling you that you are near a pub, or lake, or Shopping "Village". Perhaps in Germany there could be more signs "Only 20 km to FKK...." - that woudl help keep focussed on one of the important things in life

Perhaps I've wandered off the subject

Shiatsu

It's also irritating that all the signs aren't in English :-)


Especially since our EEC contribution paid for half the damned road signs in Europe.

I've only driven from Amsterdam to Frankfurt and the surrounding areas a few times, but I found NL and DE highways pretty easy to navigate and well maintained.

My only complaint is that in Germany when I am turning off from one highway to another they don't label them with compass directions like "A5 Norden" and "A5 Süd". Instead they use local town names like "A5 Dorkburg" and "A5 Brambledorf" which is a real tourist test. All too often I have to flip a coin...and I am not lucky when flipping coins!