Roads and Highways Books

This is a book review that is not useful for obtaining information about roads and highways. There is one main paragraph of information on roads and highways (road width, paving, bridges etc.); the rest is a description of the sources he used, the methodology, what he incorporated in his study, etc. The lingo of the reviews conclusion solidified my decision not to buy it. Here's a snippet:

"In sum, although Tropper's conception of the difference between
causative and factitive is flawed, and his understanding of the
Semitic stem system is..."

There's some insightful, inspiring material on travel in this book. I read it while traveling from Massachusetts to Louisiana on the open road, which added to the flavor of the event. I love the road anyway. Connecting with another road lover was a bonus. That's how I recommend reading it, i.e., while traveling.

While some of the insight is useful, in other places, Primeau has a very skewed perspective and his interpretation is totally bogus. In some places he over analyzes and takes things way too seriously. So that him in context. Enjoy some of what he says and disregard the rest.

Gasman introduces the concept of convergence, in which he shows that the main sources of communication are converging into one industry: information. Until now, the print media has been governed by the first amendment free speech protection, while telephones have been constricted by the universal access principal, and radio and television have been controlled by public interest policy. Within the next few years, the lines of distinction will blur sufficiently that if we don't reconsider these paradigms, we may be headed for big trouble, or at least regulatory measures that make less and less sense.

For instance, newspapers are likely to establish a web presence, but they may decide to supplement the stories with live action MPEG recordings. How are these to be regulated - as protected speech (like a newspaper), as universal access (since it comes in over your phone line), or as public interest (like television, and therefore subject to Fairness Doctrine)? Gasman suggests a change in the understanding of the First Amendment based on a property rights approach, in which all information transmission is protected, no matter what the means of recording, transmission, or playback. Gasman also shows that government involvement in the subsidization of infrastructure is neither necessary, nor benign, and usually leads to deceleration rather than acceleration of progress. Consider the initial success and subsequent failure of the Videotex machine in France: many Americans thought that we should emulate this investment in technology, but later recognized that free market investment in additional bandwidth and compression software has put Americans far ahead of the French.

After reading this book, you will know why we should change the way we are building our cities, and the way we are living.

I was interested to see a number of comments. I realise that it may be complicated and strove not to make it dependant on maths. What prompted me to put the book together was a collection of briefing and lecture notes that I had created while running my small company and giving instruction. I was acutely conscious of some glaring health and safety failings on the part of many people undertaking off-road (ie emergency) style recoveries. In the main it is not intended to be a collection of 'if you are stuck like this photos' and this again was a conscious decision because of the enormously wide variety of situations that could occur. In any case the understanding behind such a picture would still be necessary otherwise the learning point would be reduced.

My main target was to give people a feel and understanding of what may be involved in any situation and loads on winches and materials, what the ground could support, and so on is fairly crucial. This also involves bridging in which the scope for fatal disaster is extremely high.

The tables at the end are sufficent to enable someone to work out almost anything without a calculator, so long as paper and a pencil available. Not that I necessarily would do that but in the middle of nowhere with a vehicle up to its axles in mud or across a ravine making sure that nothing too hazardous is attempted should be common sense.

I was guided by the publishers to a certain extent who felt that it didn't need significant re-presentation. I had also produced a laminated quick reference card but this wasn't practically publishable. This is still available by special request.

I am pleased that most people have gained something constructive and hope that at least a few dangerous situations have been avoided.

I expected more practical tips for getting out of odd situations. I finished the book thinking I should add an engineering calculator to my toolbox--and not feeling like I got many useful ideas. A careful read would provide practical information, I'm sure, but my eyes glazed over at all the math and physics, before I got much benefit.

Cole gives good safety information, and recommends a very comprehensive toolkit (weighing in at almost 200 lbs. excluding winch). His gadgets and tricks are well suited to four-wheeling in his native, deforested England, where it's hard to find a tree to winch to.

It's good to understand a few principles behind winching, but a little algebra goes a long way. (Did you know that two pickets driven 1 meter into undisturbed earth, spaced 1 to 2 meters apart, inclined away from the load at 15 degress, should hold a pull of 1810 kilograms? Do you care? See page 15.)

I'd rather see a cookbook approach with photos: "Is your vehicle stuck like this? Then do this!" If it were written by an instructor at one of the 4x4 camps, I think it would be successful.

I found the information somewhat outdated most explanations in the book are better done elsewhere. The book deals with offroad recovery situations most fourwhelers will never experience. I suggest going to a basic offroad "live" class and forget this book.

The book was a little disappointing. It covered the topic and had some very detailed number crunching charts. But for the money Four-Wheeler's Bible is just as good on recovery and has many other topics for the same price.

I live in Mexico and I travel enough to know how accurate a map really is. This one is pretty good, considering things change here VERY often. The problem is that there are plenty of good maps of Mexico around and I bought this one because it was the whole country in one big frameable map... but to my surprise, a big part of it is actualy on the other side, so it didn't really work for me. Now it's just lying around unused. If you'll be travelling in Mexico buy the Guia Roji, it's like a Rand McNally book with a lot of detail, made in Mexico. (Updated every year)

The map did not show enough detail to be useful. It was not what I expected.