Maarten's Road Pictures!

[MandelSoft]

Hello, fellow SimCity 4 Devotees.

You may not know it, but I have another hobby: making road pics. As a road geek, I like travelling by road and there's always something new to spot. So I took some pictures when I'm on the road.

This hobby actually started recently, but it's not a real original idea. A lot of people at wegenforum.nl do the same thing, and over the years, we've took thousands of pictures of the roads of the Netherlands, Belgium and beyond.

Let me start with my first photo series (click for full resolution):

The Öresund bridge, taken from Peberholm (DK):


Driving on the Öresund bridge (picture taken from the back seat):


Viewing the Öresund bridge from Malmö (S)




Suddenly, "Danish" signage in the Swedish province Hallands Län. Me likes! 










Don't be fooled. Even along the coast some freeways in Sweden tend to be steep. Maybe it's just me, since I come from the practically flat country of Holland 


A sign near Malmö, which I catagorize as a "Bingo-card": a heck of a lot of route numbers on a single sign...


Full album of the E6 between Malmö and Göteborg: http://picasaweb.google.com/102391425863319616313/SE6MalmoGoteborg

Best,
Maarten

[MandelSoft]

Guess what: I witnessed a freeway re-construction nearby my home. Since it was a beautiful day today, I took my camera and took some photo's of the event.

I've also took some pictures a few months ago, when the other side of the freeway was reconstructed. I'll show them together so you can see what's changed during the past months...

June 3, 2011


September 25, 2011


June 3, 2011


September 25, 2011


June 3, 2011


September 25, 2011






Some close-ups from the machines constructing the new asphalt layer:





The yellow sign says: "Signals out of order." I beg to differ...



This machine gets a fresh load of asphalt:


This machine equalizes the new asphalt layer.




Zoetermeer's lightrail trains, the RandstadRail




Well, that's it for today!

Full album: http://picasaweb.google.com/102391425863319616313/ZoetermeerA1225092011#5656279615320602226

Best,
Maarten

[Skimbo]

Mmh, roadpics. I've got many of thoose as well.....

[wallasey]

Whoever designed the Phillips Iridium lantern for streetlighting, must have made a packet by now! Can't get away from them!

[RickD]

Very interesting road pics, Maarten. Keep em coming.

[MandelSoft]

On the road in Luxembourg: http://picasaweb.google.com/102391425863319616313/LB7N7E421 (Album).

We start our trip near Colmar. Here we see the freeway A7 on a bridge over the river Alzette-Uelzecht.


The route number B7 rarely appears on signs. It's also one of the very, very few B-routes in Luxembourg (I believe there were only three). In this case however, the route number does appear on the sign.


Now this is Old School: internally lit signs:


And there we have our first route marker (with distance from starting point of the route A7/B7). The B7 is a 2+1 highway, or in SC4 terminology, a RHW-3 


The signage in Luxembourg is far from consistent. This somewhat old sign has a Belgian styled design (only the color scheme is typically Luxembourgish)


This one is slightly newer and it seems that Luxembourg is developing a more destinctive style.


Not only does Luxembourg use foreign designs for directional signage; the speed limit sign on the right is a dutch design (font and such are an exact match):


And another pair of dutch signs:


And another one (passing restriction). Also note the beautiful landscape


Another case of borrowing a design: these power pylons are very simmilar to the German Donaumast design.


This divider is a French design.


Hey! Another dutch sign!


To compare, this is the same speed limit sign in another design (probably Luxembourg's own design). However, the "End of passing restriction"-sign is a dutch design again...


These power pylons look ridiculously high...


The B7 comes to an end, and we continue on the N7. But not before we're notified that there's a roundabout coming up (they overdo it a bit here...)


The landscape in Luxembourg is hilly throughout the country...




A TLA-3? Not really, it's only a short stretch (about 200-300m), but it does function like a TLA-3


Wait, where did St. Vith go? All the way we were following St. Vith along this route, but here it disappears from the signs...


Multiple signage designs on one sign...


This road is wiiiiiide...




A milestone! Litteraly!


Gas stations are popping up. Yep, we're leaving Luxembourg now, so if you want cheap gas, you'd better stop here...


Turning right here and we go to the border. By the way, you don't see much "to freeway" directions in Luxembourg...


The next road is de N62 in Belgium, and that is one hell of a road: very curvy, bad road surface quality, in short not a pleasant route to drive on. I may continue my next photo series from there...

Best,
Maarten

[Sciurus]

Really nice topic, I discover it with good surprise!
By the way, direction signs are french design, but with yellow color for big directions (green in France).

Guillaume

[Skimbo]

The next road is de N62 in Belgium, and that is one hell of a road: very curvy, bad road surface quality, in short not a pleasant route to drive on.

Can't be as bad as  the Irish N67 Some parts of this road ain't whider than 4 meters. Especially fun to drive in a 2,30 meters whide campervan

[noahclem]

Nice topic Maarten! I really like the Oresund bridge pictures and Luxembourg looks really nice as well. Look forward to more! 

[WC_EEND]

The next road is de N62 in Belgium, and that is one hell of a road: very curvy, bad road surface quality, in short not a pleasant route to drive on...

I'd say bad road surface quality is somthing typically Belgian;D

[MandelSoft]

Thank you for your kind replies! 

We continue our journey in Belgium. I've moved here from the passengers seat to the back seat: http://picasaweb.google.com/102391425863319616313/BN62E42GrensLuxemburgBattice (Album)

First off, we get a series of signs with general road rules in Belgium.






We follow the N62 to St. Vith...


We are near the E42 now. This sign is somewhat old and I spot a violation of the heraldic color rule (green touches blue). Also note these signs are multi-ligual:


We don't want to go to Trier now; we've been there just a week before...


... no, we have to go to Luik\Liège\Lüttich (pick one ). Also, you see the typical four-lamp Belgian freeway lamp posts. We're going to see a lot of them on the way...




Here are those typical four-lamp Belgian freeway lamp posts. I did re-create them for my LRM Ploppable Median Lights Set...


Exonyms are covered quite sloppy...




This is a brand new sign in the new style of Wallonia:


Two exit signs?


There are more sections of freeway with lights than without in Belgium. This is one of these rare stretches of Belgian freeway without any kind of road lighting...




Viaduc du Recht:


We are near the race track of Franchorchamps. This is the tourist sign of the area:


A brand new road surface in Belgium! It exists!


A service sign that shows where all the parking areas are:


Looks like this part of the freeway needs to be converted from RHW 4.2 to RHW 5.0    The lanes on the old road surface are wider...


The lights are back again!


The route goes through some beautiful landscapes in the Ardennes. It's especially exciting when you're used to flat landscapes like me:


Another bridge...


This sign screams for replacement:


Steep slope for the following vehicles... wait, what?!


Funniest sign in Belgium ever!


Question: what's the speed limit here?


We are closing in to the juction Battice. This sign tries to show a diagram of the interchange directions. And it looks ... well ... you be the judge...


Redundancy: the to signs on the left are exactly the same!


Next time we continue our journey through Belgium!

Best,
Maarten

[jdenm8]

That car rear ending truck one is pretty good. We have one similar here, but it's two cars instead.

I guess that'd be kind of a problem with having two separate speed limits for two different types of vehicles.

I also find it funny that the change from New to Old surface was done so sloppily and the fact there's so many obsolete markings visible.

[WC_EEND]

I also find it funny that the change from New to Old surface was done so sloppily and the fact there's so many obsolete markings visible.

That is something typically Belgian actually some motorways over here don't even have road markings yet (most notably several stretches of the E40 between Gent and Bruges)