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rwigginslast Wednesday at 10:14 PM2 repliesview on HN

Errr, not in the rural area I grew up in. Gravel driveways are super common, gravel roads not so much.

To give some specifics: I only remember driving down an actual gravel road (like, for public use) a single time. In 18 years. Even my friends who lived >30min from the nearest "city" (~10k population) had paved roads all the way.

But that is just my own experience. Areas with a different climate or geography might be a totally different story. My hometown area is relatively flat, lots of farmland, and rarely gets severe winter weather.


Replies

tharkun__last Thursday at 12:22 AM

FWIW in non-rural Canada we sometimes have gravel roads in towns twice that 10k size and in the metro area of a multi million inhabitant city (of which there are not all that many in Canada :)).

Not saying it's common. I don't have to drive over one of those but I have had to when there was construction on our regular route. It's right off the main road leading into town from the highway.

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hteklast Thursday at 4:49 PM

What most people mean by gravel road is macadamized road, which is a gravel/aggregate material bound in crowned layers from larger rocks to smaller on top often by a tar or asphalt binder or at least through compaction. There are true gravel roads in some rural areas, but, thankfully, I've rarely encountered them.