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Comment by tda | Hacker News Reader

And the best thing: new top layers are applied frequently (sometimes yearly). And they are literally applied overnight: construction starts at 23:00 and is completed before 06:00. And even better, the road isn't even closed. One night they pave the right lane and the next the left lane is paved. Complete road closures for maintenance are exceedingly rare. And if they happen, it will be at night and/or in the weekend. Compared to any place I've been Dutch road infrastructure and maintenance is really on another level. Not just some roads, but pretty much all roads in the entire country are designed and maintained to an entirely adequate baseline (not saying there is no room for improvement, just that the baseline is so much higher than anywhere else).

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And then they limit you to 80km/h on any highways (even huge 5 lane ones) because of trying to fight emissions, instead of 120km/h as almost everywhere else. It's more frustrating than a few holes in the tarmac. I mean sure reduce emissions, but when you have private jets flying all the time and huge steel factories it's a bit frustrating to be told a motorcycle needs to stay at 80km/h to protect the environment.

The limit is 100kph during the day, and 130kph at night. The reason isn't so much emissions as it is a royal fuckup on all sides around nitrogen compounds and biodiversity.

There are also a few cities where speed limits drop below a 100 when passing through. That is about health. Specifically noise and fine particles.

None of this is about greenhouse gasses.

Well, technically nitrogen is also emissions. But yeah it's been so badly handled this whole thing. The whole country is at a standstill and the housing crisis is only accelerating.

You'll find zero references to greenhouse gasses in my comment.

The difference between the quality of the infrastructure (esp. roads and rail) in the Netherlands and Belgium must surely be the most convincing testament to what a country loses from even relatively mild (from a worldwide point-of-view) levels of interethnic squabbling!

The massive amount of government money that has been earned from natural gas in the Netherlands also surely plays a role.

It's not just that, it's also a conceptual difference. Belgium is a tax haven compared to the Netherlands and there are whole towns made up of rich Dutch tax evaders just across the border. Less taxes, less money for infrastructure.

Funnily enough the Netherlands is also a tax haven but it's only for large megacorporations, not people. They wouldn't be based there at all if it wasn't for the tax benefits so they don't lose out by offering it, they just screw the rest of Europe over by allowing companies to evade taxes in the whole EU.

This is true lol. There is no need for signs at the border because you will know the second you enter Belgium :D

Complete roading closing for just (re-)paving is not common nowadays in many countries.

I remembered having them a lot in my childhood, but not in recent 10 years. If a road is closed totally there usually something beyond paving going on.

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