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Just returned from a small road trip to Italy and France and I had noticed that the car did seem to be running rather more quietly than usual. However on my return to the UK the noise was back again. Do other Euro countries use something different to surface their roads because the noise was caused quite simply by the road surfaces on our motorways and A roads?
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In the dead of night, when there isn't any traffic noise to speak of outside and all one has is the distant roar that passes for silence in London, I can hear from my bedroom when my ears are functioning cars hissing along a bit of elevated 60-limit that passes a couple of hundred yards away on the other side of two or three terraces, but with gaps in them.
There are expansion joints as we all know in elevated motorways, and what I hear most distinctly is the thump-thump of cars going over one of those, which must be on a good acoustic line from the second floor of this house. It's all very low-decibel though. You can't even begin to hear it most of the time.
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If you become aware of a reduction in road noise when driving in cold weather it can be a useful sign of the presence of black ice.
Most French motorways do seem to have a quieter surface than ours for some reason. The M6 Toll seems pretty good, maybe it's just because it's new-ish and doesn't see so many heavy weight vehicles which may have more of a damaging effect on the surface over time?
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About 10 years ago, there were trials of porous macadam with the claim (as used in France) taking place in the UK, I have no idea if it took off, but some newer roads are a lot quieter than the metalchip roads so maybe this is the reason.
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yes sure they can lay a quite road surface, but it costs more money.
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I've driven on a French motorway which was so smooth and quiet that were it not for the hum from the engine and the speedo reading 80 I would not have believed that the car was moving.
Not like the British motorways of course. On the odd occasion that the traffic allows you to drive at 70, the suspension has to work quite hard!
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And then there's the concrete motorways!
I've found they are generally quieter in France as well, though the section from Calais past Dunkirk to the Belgian border is the most rutted and rough surface of any motorways I've driven, and that includes the UK and Prague!
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