I’m betting the potholes on a road in Siberia would be pretty bad. I know nothing about roads in Russia (or Alaska, for that matter), I’m just basing this on what the roads around here (Pittsburgh) are like after this past winter.
I would not want to drive in Russia in general, from what I’ve heard. Most Russian drivers feel the need to have dashboard cameras, just because accidents are common and traffic law enforcement is kind of sketchy. It doesn’t sound like a place where I would want to drive.
Who would plow all those remote roads in Siberia when it snows? Who will pay for this? What happens if you have an accident or your car breaks down somewhere in Siberia, far from any towns? It’s worse if this happens during bad weather, which, AIUI, is not uncommon in Siberia.
A bridge or tunnel crossing the Atlantic will have some of the same problems. Who’s responsible for maintaining the road, and who’s paying? What happens if your car breaks down on the bridge or in the tunnel? How long would it take to clear an accident or a breakdown from a bridge or tunnel? From my experience with bridges and tunnels here and in the SF Bay Area, accidents or breakdowns often tend to snarl traffic on the bridge or in the tunnel until they are cleared. How bad is that going to be on a 3400 mile long bridge or tunnel?
If it’s a bridge, you have potential snow issues, as well as possible damage from hurricanes. I wonder what would happen if an iceberg hit a bridge?
There’s an extra problem with a trans-Atlantic bridge or tunnel connecting New York and London: it’s in international waters. Who enforces traffic laws, and which traffic laws apply? Which side of the road would you drive on? You’d have to switch sides somewhere, but where? The side switch is probably going to make accidents more likely wherever it is.
Are all cars that are street legal in the US also street legal in the UK and vice versa? What about the US and Russia? I don’t know how car insurance would work between the different countries. I know you need to get Mexican car insurance if you drive into Mexico (or at least you did a few years ago).
No fucking way. I loathe the drive back to Chicago from DC. Anyone who would do this out of actual preference (opposed to being the first or the story or whatever) is nuts.
Ignoring the concerns over safety, auto services, accommodations, weather, road maintenance…
Hell YEAH.
My fantasy, for when we win the lottery, is to get an RV and spend a year or more travelling all over North America. I’m just a tad pissed that there is no ferry service to get us from North America to anywhere in Europe (if we could get to Iceland there are ferries to Norway, I believe), so we can’t take that RV across any of the ponds once we’ve gone all over North America.
I think Asia would be pretty cool to see by road.
More realistically though, while crossing Eurasia sounds nifty, all the above drawbacks would have me more willing to cross it via train or bus tour.
I’d seen shows on the Discovery Channel or whatever, talking about megabridges like one across the Bering Strait. For that particular one, there just isn’t enough civilization anywhere within a thousand miles, to create a demand for it. New York to London, on the other hand, would have a LOT more demand. Probably not enough to make it worth the engineering feat, since there are significantly cheaper options for getting there as long as you don’t insist on having your own car with you.
I would do it at least once as an adventure vacation. I’ve done Central America and while much shorter it had a lot of the same issues and they were not that tough to overcome.
Umm. Yeah. The OP is talking about the long way around. As much as I don’t mind 1000 mile roads trips. Um. No. Maybe when I was 25, but there is a reason that as much of a pain in the ass it is, I’ll take the plane.
The shortest distance across the Atlantic appears to be St. Johns NL to Ballinskelligs IE, which is about 1900 miles(st). The only realistic (snert) way to do that is with one (a pair) of those sort of habitrail-looking thingies from Futurama, only, big enough for a truck. So, you would pull up to the tube station, pay your toll, and get sucked across the ocean at maybe 150mph, making the trip in about 12~15 hours, under water for hundreds of miles at a time between relay pumps.
I could handle that. Read a book, play a game, take a nap. But it would not be any good unless they could also take bikes and pedestrians (just try to get that image out of your head).
Oddly, it looks really close. Touros RGdN Brazil to the Turtle Island Peninsula, Sierra Leon is less than 100 miles shorter. But, to get there from New York, you have to cross the Darien Gap, and then, to get to London, well, it is a long way round. I think most people would prefer to take the extra hundred miles.
No mention about how absolutely goddamn boring of a drive that would be?
It’s nothing but water for thousands of miles, in all directions. It’s no different than driving through a cornfield.
Not to mention that as we’re thinking abotu it in our heads we are thinking of sunny skies over the pretty water, but what about when it’s cloudy. I’m not even talking about storms, just regular old heavy clouds. Gray all around? and nothing but water? Count me out.
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Not to mention that as we’re thinking abotu it in our heads we are thinking of sunny skies over the pretty water, but what about when it’s cloudy. I’m not even talking about storms, just regular old heavy clouds. Gray all around? and nothing but water? Count me out.
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It’s only 80 miles from Alaska to the east coast of Russia, so wouldn’t think it would be THAT bad. I’ve been stuck on the Bay Bridge for longer than it will end up taking to drive that distance, assuming they could actually bridge it. It’s the steppes I’d think that some folks would find boring, but I think it would be a cool trip.
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It would be a nice 3-6 month long road trip. The kind of thing I’d absolutely love to do during retirement or sabbatical.
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Pretty much this is how I feel. It would be an adventure, and I love driving.
See Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier for the joys of driving the “road” which runs alongside the Trans-Siberian Railway. Frazier camped out and cooked out for much of the trip, because of the infrequency and poor quality of restaurants and lodging, and would not have attempted the trip without a Russian driver and guide.
Came in to add this. Although to be fair, He did it…along with Charley Boorman, a very experienced motorcycle adventure rider, AND a support crew consisting of a cook, a doctor, a mechanic, 'fixer’s at almost every border crossing, AND a crapload of financing from sponsors and the BBC.
Still, the Long Way Round television series (available on Netflix) is fantastic and very entertaining.
Yeah, all of this pre-supposes that the Russians actually build the infrastructure to make all of this happen, including places to food, lodging and gas stations. Like I said in the OP, this is all mostly fantasy and unicorn wishes, but IF it were there and had the services would you drive it? I would.
My fantasy goal when my son is in high school or college is to take a months-long sabbatical and drive from the Washington DC area, where we live, to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost tip of South America. (A small portion of the trip is necessarily done by ferry, bypassing the Darién Gap area between Panama and Colombia).
So at least conceptually, I’d be open to a similar ride through Europe and Canada.
