# US's infrastructure compared to other countries. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766 "2018-04-04T00:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/41 "2018-04-06T00:00:03Z")
As with any question that goes “What is X like in the US” the answer is always “depends on which state you are talking about.” [Here is the recent report](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/infrastructure). As I drive between 2 states that are 40 ranks apart, the shift in road quality is immediately apparent at the border. I don’t know the answer to why states do very different things (it’s not like Rhode Island has a lot of ground to cover!) > [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > In terms of roads, I have to say that US roads are really kind of rough. It’s not really a fair comparison with Singapore since we’re so small, but Japanese roads are crazy good, and Australia’s roads are pretty ok. I’ve never actually seen a pothole in any of those countries, the US was the first. Australia loves [chipseal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal)though. And of course for a country like Australia, the population is rather concentrated on the coasts, so the city experience is potentially different than elsewhere. Though Australian rural roads are made to handle [some crazy traffic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Road_Train_Australia.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/42 "2018-04-06T00:47:04Z")
One area where we are competitive with or near/at the top is our freight rail system (measured by usage and cost). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/43 "2018-04-06T00:57:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Heck, there are two suburbs of Cleveland (both fairly affluent) that I sometimes pass through, and when it’s rainy, you can see the border between them, too. For whatever reason, the storm drainage system is just much better in Rocky River than in Westlake. > > And I’ve lived about 2/3 of my life in major metro areas, and 1/3 in a small town, all of it in areas that get severe weather, and the longest power outage I’ve ever been in was about six hours. When I lived on the East Coast (Maryland, Virginia, upstate NY and Mass for a year) we had fairly frequent power outage, mainly due to aging power infrastructure that was all above ground. Every time you’d get a strong wind or ice you’d have trees falling on the wires and taking out part of the grid. I never saw anything beyond one really bad ice storm in the 80’s that knocked out power in my neighborhood in Maryland for about 5 days. Here in New Mexico I can’t recall the last power outage. We did have an issue with gas in one of the counties about a decade ago…low gas pressure due to unusually cold weather and a break in the gas line…but it was only an issue for a few days and only to those at the end of the line, so to speak. Our roads, however, definitely suck compared to Arizona, but not uniformly. The roads in parts of the state are fine, in others they seem to be constantly under construction (my WAG…someone’s cousin or uncle has the road contract and needs to put his great grand children through college plus mama needs a new pair of shoes). From a telco perspective, it’s also a mixed bag. The old copper is really, REALLY old and just in bad shape. But a number of companies (and some counties or native American reservations) have put in tons of fiber, and our metro optical networks are on par with what I’ve seen in many other states, at least in the big metro areas. Rural areas are, sadly, in much worse shape for most things, including telco here in New Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/44 "2018-04-06T15:52:56Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > One area where we are competitive with or near/at the top is our freight rail system (measured by usage and cost). But what about safety? It’s hard to find stats on freight rail accidents but there seem to be a lot of them in the news. Railroads in the US are still not required to use [positive train control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control). (It was supposed to be mandatory by 2015 but Congress keeps pushing back the deadline.) And while the [Lac-Mégantic disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster) was in Canada, it was a US rail company. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/45 "2018-04-06T16:42:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Exactly so. As I noted earlier, here in the Chicago area (which is definitely _not_ rural), power outages lasting a day or more due to weather aren’t uncommon at all. … Enjoyed your posts in this thread, but on this point, my experience has been greatly different than yours. I’ve lived in Chicago and the western burbs for all of my 57-year life except for time at college and a 3-year stint in Valparaiso. I can’t remember ever personally experiencing a daylong blackout. Not saying it has NEVER happened, but I sure haven’t experienced it. As I recall, there may be some instances - such as a massive windstorm that knocks down several trees, where folk lose power for an extended period. But I would definitely characterize those as uncommon. In some places, the power seemed more reliable than others. In Lombard we rarely (if ever) lost power - tho folk across the street would. In Glen Ellyn, it seemed the lights would flicker if the wind blew hard. Now in Elmhurst, maybe once a year I’ll see that the clocks apparently stopped. In more rural areas, it is not at all uncommon to come across bridges that are either closed to all vehicles, or to trucks. As others suggested above, one factor is that the US built so much infrastructure earlier than many countries, in a piecemeal fashion, and never had to rebuild it following war. Since building it, no unit of government (local, state, or national) seems willing to commit the funds needed for regular maintenance, improvement and replacement. If we wait until tomorrow, someone else will have to deal with it. Or, keep using the bridge as it crumbles, and then replace it after it falls down, killing/injuring people. Ain’t the American way great! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/46 "2018-04-06T16:55:11Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > But what about safety? It’s hard to find stats on freight rail accidents but there seem to be a lot of them in the news. Railroads in the US are still not required to use [positive train control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control). (It was supposed to be mandatory by 2015 but Congress keeps pushing back the deadline.) > > And while the [Lac-Mégantic disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster) was in Canada, it was a US rail company. Rail fatalities overall in the US seem to be lower than in the EU in absolute numbers, but I assume the EU has more traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/47 "2018-04-07T01:45:20Z")
Another utility infrastructure with HUGE variation across the US is internet connectivity. It tends to follow patterns of other utilities in that upload and download speeds are generally much better in developed urban areas. And in some rural areas there simply is not any internet service available that can reasonably be called broadband. Overall internet speeds tend to be slower and costs high in the US than in many other developed countries. > **[This is how Internet speed and price in the U.S. compares to the rest of the...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/internet-u-s-compare-globally-hint-slower-expensive)** > > Even though the Internet was invented in the United States, Americans pay the most in the world for broadband access. And it’s not exactly blazing fast. So why are Americans paying more for slower service? > **[America FALLS In Internet Speed Rankings](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-internet-speed_n_3645927)** > > America FALLS In Internet Speed Rankings [The U.S. ranks 28th in the world in mobile internet speeds](https://www.recode.net/2017/6/7/15747486/united-states-developed-world-mobile-internet-speeds-akamai) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/48 "2018-04-07T03:43:21Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > And while the [Lac-Mégantic disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster) was in Canada, it was a US rail company. That was a case of a railway deliberately doing the absolute minimum maintainance to keep it rolling. Also known as running the company into the ground and squeezing as much money out of it as they could. It eventually caught up with them, which it always does, although unfortunately other people had to pay the price. Personally, I’d have given the company president and directors life in front of a firing squad for that, but as is typical of these things, they got off with just losing some money. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/49 "2018-04-07T05:21:38Z")
In the Czech Republic (Prague) I got 4x faster internet than in Reno, NV and paid 1/2 the price for it. In 12 years in Prague, our power never went out. It goes out about once every 12-18 months in Reno. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/50 "2018-04-07T06:36:44Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > In the Czech Republic (Prague) I got 4x faster internet than in Reno, NV and paid 1/2 the price for it. > > In 12 years in Prague, our power never went out. It goes out about once every 12-18 months in Reno. NV Energy can’t figure out this rain thing. Goes out a bit every time, although 2018 was pretty good. Charter internet is happy to say that they are the third least shitty internet provider that starts with “C” (after Cox, and Comcast, who is like the first or second hated company in the country alongside EA). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/51 "2018-04-07T10:03:27Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > In the Czech Republic (Prague) I got 4x faster internet than in Reno, NV and paid 1/2 the price for it. What were those speeds? I ask because as I was reading this there was a Charter Cable internet commercial playing on the TV behind me, and I notice that they’ve started marketing 100 megabits per second as their base speed instead of their (now) old base speed of 60 megabits per second. (When I first started using Charter, base speed was 768 kilobits per second.) ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/52 "2018-04-07T21:16:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > What were those speeds? I ask because as I was reading this there was a Charter Cable internet commercial playing on the TV behind me, and I notice that they’ve started marketing 100 megabits per second as their base speed instead of their (now) old base speed of 60 megabits per second. (When I first started using Charter, base speed was 768 kilobits per second.) Here is the current offer from UPC in Prague: [https://www.upc.cz/internet/nabidka/porovnani/](https://www.upc.cz/internet/nabidka/porovnani/) 500Mb/s down, 30Mb/s up with the first three months free. The cost is 529Kc/mo ($26/mo). The slowest I ever got in Prague was 20Mb/s (in 2006 or so). Charter was 5Mb/s as I recall - it may have been only 3. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/54 "2018-04-08T00:30:09Z")
Apart from public transport I think the US does pretty well overall. Some of the things that stand out - like not having home grocery deliveries - are more a feature of just how much space there is between areas in the US. (Yes, I’m aware that some places in the US do have home grocery deliveries, but not all do, and everywhere in the UK has done for over a decade) - and also are not really that big a deal anyway. > [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > In our defense, I don’t think the US has ever had 100,000 people lose power because of schoolchildren [burning](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/24/school-leavers-burning-books-power-cuts-across-essex) their textbooks, or 25,000 traffic lights go out because of a [buildup](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pigeon-feces-blamed-japanese-electricity-blackout-article-1.1445424) of three feet of pigeon guano. We did once have a county’s 911 system [disabled](http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2310810-181/turkey-into-electrical-wires-knocks) by a turkey, however. Well, the English one lasted an hour. There probably have been US power outages lasting an hour that you haven’t heard about. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/55 "2018-04-08T05:57:07Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The power grid in the US (I’ve lived in CA, MA and AL) is much less reliable than Japan. Growing up in Japan, a power outage was something I only read about in books or heard about on TV. I may have experienced it first-hand in a bad typhoon, but that was about it. I don’t think I ever saw anyone in Japan use a UPS for their computer. I’ve lived in Seattle for about 20 years now, and have had only a couple unscheduled power outages that I can remember. We have a well-managed public utility in a mild-climate with very rare ice. We do have our own natural disasters, though: a couple years back, a decent chuck of south Seattle lost power when a sea gull dropped a salmon it was carrying on some high-voltage lines. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/56 "2018-04-08T09:46:09Z")
500mbps fibre to the home goes for about $34 usd per month here in Singapore. It’s the minimum speed, there’s also 1gbps and 2 gbps, and you can get 10gbps if you wanted (but at that point it’s probably your home equipment being the bottleneck). > **[Fibre Broadband Plans | Singtel](https://www.singtel.com/personal/products-services/broadband/fibre-broadband-plans?gclid=CjwKCAjw-6bWBRBiEiwA_K1ZDbjgaSjrbcmZWdWL-SSlaWkzfPxAsgahkQFK_aJGv0sN14lbTQsyYhoChQ8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CL6X19KxqtoCFUVGKwodDg0MyA)** > > Find the most reliable Fibre Broadband Plan from 1Gbps to 10Gbps, WiFi mesh and smart home solutions. All these are on Singapore's #1 Network. Shop online now. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/57 "2018-04-08T14:36:54Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > …and you can get 10gbps if you wanted (but at that point it’s probably your home equipment being the bottleneck). At that point sanity is the bottleneck. Even your base speed of 500 megabits per second is enough to stream [20 simultaneous 4K video feeds](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/12/10/youre-buying-4-k-tv-how-much-internet-bandwidth-do-you-need/933989001/) into your house. 10 gigabits per second gets you 400. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/58 "2018-04-09T01:02:32Z")
Hey, if you have 143.83 USD per month just lying around, go nuts! > **[Fibre Broadband Plans | Singtel](https://www.singtel.com/personal/products-services/broadband/fibre-broadband-plans)** > > Find the most reliable Fibre Broadband Plan from 1Gbps to 10Gbps, WiFi mesh and smart home solutions. All these are on Singapore's #1 Network. Shop online now. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2018, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766/59 "2018-04-09T03:45:46Z")
:: sob :: I’m paying $65 Canadian per month for 15 Mb/s with a monthly data-transfer cap of 95 GiB. The same company offers 1 Gb/s with no transfer cap for $149/month. Canada has expensive Internet (and mobile phones, too). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-infrastructure-compared-to-other-countries/811766.md?page=2)