An interesting statistic about bitumens?

[turbguy + 1,418]

The top five countries with the most miles of paved roads (per Gemini AI).

• China: 5,350,000 miles of paved roads (all paved)
• United States: 5,124,000 miles of paved roads
• India: 4,500,000 miles of paved roads (estimate based on kilometers)
• Brazil: 214,000 miles of paved roads
• Russia: 677,105 miles of paved roads

Something I note, the USA has only 55% of the land area of Russia, but has more than 7½ times more pavement.

What does that say about, at least, the state of the roads in Russia (as well as the density of paved roads) vs the USA??

What does that say about the state of Russia itself?

Don't they have access to really cheap asphalt?  Or, would they rather sell it raw?

...and what does it say about China?

...and what does it say about Gemini AI?

Any comment?

Edited April 26 by turbguy

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,139]

Curiosity caught the cat and looked it up: Its from wikipedia, and its in km, not miles, and according to wikipedia... China has 100% paved roads and ZERO percent unpaved... 😜

As for Russia... They have roads that are paved?  It is tundra which means FROST heaving is omnipresent creating ULTRA expensive paved roads regardless of how cheap bitumen is. 

Likewise majority of roads in Canada are unpaved.   I was surprised that only 25% of roads in the USA were unpaved.  Would have thought it would be higher.  Vast majority of roads West of Appalachian mountains are unpaved.  I really have to wonder at that stat for what constitutes an "unpaved" road.   Must be maintained multiple times a year or some such?  Of course cities pack in the mileage of pavement so...

[TailingsPond + 501]

6 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

 

Likewise majority of roads in Canada are unpaved.

Have you ever been to Canada?  The vast majority of roads are paved.

[Meredith Poor + 884]

10 hours ago, TailingsPond said:

Have you ever been to Canada?  The vast majority of roads are paved.

I used to drive around Ontario in the 1970's, and things were paved.

I made a recent visit to St. Paul in Alberta. In that area one finds a lot of unpaved roads. Moving north, many roads are 'ice roads', and can only be driven in the winter.

[TailingsPond + 501]

52 minutes ago, Meredith Poor said:

I used to drive around Ontario in the 1970's, and things were paved.

I made a recent visit to St. Paul in Alberta. In that area one finds a lot of unpaved roads. Moving north, many roads are 'ice roads', and can only be driven in the winter.

I live in Edmonton Alberta.  I have family from St Paul.  That is a very rural area, but even there you would probably only have to drive a short distance on gravel off the main paved highways to get to your destination.

For fun I asked Chat GPT 3.5.  It says 78% paved.

"As of my last update in January 2022, approximately 78% of roads in Canada are paved. This percentage includes highways, major roads, urban streets, and some rural roads. Paved roads are essential for transportation infrastructure, providing reliable and safe routes for vehicles across the country."

Edited April 27 by TailingsPond

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,139]

On 4/26/2024 at 11:46 PM, TailingsPond said:

Have you ever been to Canada?  The vast majority of roads are paved.

Just because you have never stuck your nose out of a city or major highway corridor does not mean the rest of us have never traveled anywhere. 

CIA lists 60% of roads in Canada as unpaved.  Which is a rational number judging by its size and tiny population.

CIA is interested in getting between A--> B for military etc purposes; not sight seeing between photogenic hot spots for instagram.

Edited April 28 by footeab@yahoo.com

[TailingsPond + 501]

32 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Just because you have never stuck your nose out of a city or major highway corridor does not mean the rest of us have never traveled anywhere. 

CIA lists 60% of roads in Canada as unpaved.  Which is a rational number judging by its size and tiny population.

CIA is interested in getting between A--> B for military etc purposes; not sight seeing between photogenic hot spots for instagram.

That is really funny.

I'm not sure why any rational person would assume I was talking about military operations.  Sure, if you wondering about unmaintained roads to nowhere many are unpaved.  Most of those "roads" are not official roads, they were made for exploration, logging, mining.  Now atvs, hunting, and camping keeps them tracked in.  They would go on a military map, but they are not roads.

If you want to drive somewhere a normal person would have a reason to go to, the roads are likely paved.  Want to drive from the US border to Fort McMurray where all the oil sand business is?  All paved.  You can drive east west coast to coast and up north all the way to Alaska on paved roads.

Are you part of the CIA?  Did you know that the CIA hunts for photogenic hotspots? Collecting information is literally in their mandate.