The road to hell is paved with asphaltdevonzuegel.com/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-asphalt
4299 sats \ 13 comments \ @kr 7 Feb culture
Asphalt is fiat.
  • It is the cheapest material (upfront) to construct a road with
  • It ends up needing lots of (expensive) ongoing maintenance over time
  • It looks ugly on day one, and worse with every passing day
  • It is prone to potholes and cracks
  • It blocks water from being absorbed
  • It makes roads and cities way hotter than they should be in the summer
  • It comes with a ton of smelly, toxic fumes during installation
  • It needs to be completely replaced in a couple decades
Brick and cobblestone roads absolutely crush asphalt on all these metrics, and come with the added benefit of slowing down traffic naturally (reducing the need for ugly speed signs and speed cameras).
The higher upfront cost of brick and cobblestones is neutralized by the lack of maintenance needed and hundred-plus year lifespan. on top of all that, it also comes with the added benefit of being a beautiful road that builds character over time.
Devon makes some great points here, hope we see more brick and cobblestone roads (especially on residential streets) on a Bitcoin standard.
write
preview
related posts
1255 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
in the span of 24 hours since i first read this article, i have become a brick/cobblestone maximalist.
there is no second best.
reply
1131 sats \ 0 replies \ @KeynesianClowns 8 Feb
Great article. Also have to mention that they also often have to pay for installation multiple times because the highway dept. crews screw up, and they have to re-do it. Seen that more than once.
reply
507 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 7 Feb
I am definitely all for a brick and cobblestone comeback. Especially on residential streets. Maybe with advancements in robotics we lay brick much quicker or maybe AI will take everyone's job and with nothing to do with our time we will seek out laborious tasks like laying entire streets of brick. After we spend a couple hours on SN of course.
reply
50 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
Maybe with advancements in robotics we lay brick much quicker
Yes, this would be huge in cutting costs, most of the installation cost of a brick/cobblestone road comes from the labor required
reply
1068 sats \ 2 replies \ @TheFish 7 Feb
Tick tock next brick.
reply
976 sats \ 1 reply \ @pajdo 7 Feb
Tick tock next brick.
tock tick next brick
reply
5 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
😂
reply
1060 sats \ 1 reply \ @kurszusz 7 Feb
Always remember, that cheap (short term) "solutions" are not the best solutions. But with this you can deceive peoples to think you worked well Long term solutions are always more expensive at the beginning, but the uniform cost is much lower, if you calculate with the total duration of use.
This is a thing that 90% of peoples can't understand...to make some great thing, you need to invest (time, money, study, etc)!
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
yup, this seems like a great example of a negative side effect that comes from having short tenures for politicians.
a 4 year term allows a politician to build a bunch of cheap roads, claim they saved money, and then pass along the road maintenance expenses to the next guy to get elected.
reply
418 sats \ 3 replies \ @OT 7 Feb
How fast can you drive on a brick and cobblestone road? Sounds bumpy
reply
480 sats \ 2 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
not fast, and that’s a good thing in many cases.
obviously highways should be asphalt, because they’re designed to help you move as fast as possible.
but residential streets, shopping districts, school zones, etc… are all places where fast drivers are problematic.
rather than stick up a bunch of speed radar signs, speed bumps, and other ugly distractions to limit speeding, brick and cobblestone roads naturally make drivers want to slow down.
reply
423 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 7 Feb
What about trucks for delivering goods? I'd imagine they would pinch loose stones and damage cars or people walking past.
reply
143 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr OP 7 Feb
there are cobblestone and brick streets in boston and other areas of north america (we have one neighborhood here in toronto) where bricks have been used for 100+ years. this means they’ve held up to the wear and tear of people, horses, cars, trucks, etc…
loose/cracked bricks definitely happen, but each brick is too small to create damaging potholes and can quickly be replaced without needing to resurface the entire road
reply