Yes, happened to me many times over the years, I think it's to do with the diesel fuel available in the UK-as soon as I fill up with French diesel fuel the economy improves immediately-I've posted on this subject before on HJ but can't find it.

Same car,same driver,same speed, different fuel-different economy-it isn't the roads it's the fuel.

Tolls are payable in France but not Holland or Germany and the road tax you pay has nothing whatsover to do with how many roads are built or repaired in the UK this bill is picked up through general taxation.You actually pay Road Fund Licence which is a payment to polute the highest poluters pay more than the least poluters.

There is a main A road approaching Hull surfaced in concrete which I think is the noisiest road I have ever been on.

Yet in Germany new concrete roads are extremely quiet its how they lay it.Fuel from German and Dutch and maybe French refineries are produced to a different formula that that produced in the UK .

Holland and Belgium have there fair share of hills lets face it the UK is no good at infrastructure I have been in African states with better kept roads than the UK,

I remember Lagos which has a wonderful multi lane highway suspended in the air.

When I was there it stopped in mid air and had been like that for about 6 years..

With regard to our roads and fuel consumption. I agree with Engineer Andy. I too am an engineer and have worked in construction for 40+ years. Schemes are designed to achieve the best results from the clients 'wish list'. When the schemes are priced the 'wish list' is then subject to 'value engineering' i.e. sod the design etc-take the cheapest price. You buy cheap-you buy twice. No free lunches etc etc. If these schemes were run by real professionals with a brief to deliver on design and also low maintainance for 25 years we would have a brilliant road, rail etc etc infrastructure, which would be cheaper in the long run.

Fuel consumption always varies when I drive on the continent. Arriving you are faced with a road system which generally is less busy and longer motorway distances between stops. This plus the relaxed atmosphere of a holiday generally means relaxed driving and better fuel consumption. Return home to our overcrowded roads, the prospect of work again, and the driving practices all equals less relaxed driving and higher consumption. Simples

Having just travelled through Holland and seen the new roads under construction geting rid of roads that are far better than anything in the UK and as Dutchie says you cannot even stop a bit of flooding in the UK anybody who thinks they are a good UK engineer in civils wants to spend some time in Holland or Germany and see how its done.

They know how it should be done (see concrete's post after my first), its those holding the purse-strings in the DfT, Councils etc who want the "cheap" (only over the short term) fix at the expense of a more cost-effective long-term solution. Most of these bods in charge have no clue about this sort of thing, and only want to please their political masters who (as previously described) have no experience in management of high quality large organisations. Until these people are replaced with those drawn from a wide variety of the respected professions and a much wider variety of the population as a whole, the narrow, insular and short-termist way things are run in this country will prevail.

Making this happen will be the one of the most important and difficult things society will need to do if we are to provide ourselves with the infrastructure tools to survive and complete with the best of the world in the 21st century and beyond.

Wow - I'm really getting into this issue!

Wow - I'm really getting into this issue!

Here, here Andy, if I performed for my company the way these idiots perform for public bodies then my proverbials would be on the block, but they walk away 'Scot Free' and are then allowed to repeat the folly ad infinitum. Oh to be King for a week. Going on holiday to calm down and lie in a darkened room for a week. Cheers Concrete

Already been on holiday - recharged and ready to kick some proverbial butt! I'd really love to be able to take on these (often) clueless numpties who are in charge - if most of these (and those I work on in building construction/refurbishment) were run by proper professionals, then we'd be able to do twice as much (and of better quality) for half the cost (some of the projects I've worked on [the NHS being the worst] have doubled or even tripped in budget for very little gain - lots of endless discussions/changing of minds, of during the construction phase of the projects). Of course, if anything goes wrong (especially where choice of design is concerned), it's never their fault, even if we warn them beforehand.

Its a wonder this country hasn't gone bust already over the past 15 years, given these people have been in charge for that long and more and the amount of "white elephants" that have been built (roads and buildings).