Awesome Roads

When automakers want to test cars for longevity, they put them on rollers and shakers to simulate long-term driving. But how do you test how long roads last? Tom Scott takes us to a pavement testing facility in France that uses a rapidly spinning machine called a fatigue carousel to rapidly imitate decades of road use.

When the U.S. started creating highways connecting the nation, interstates were identified with a logical numbering scheme. CGP Grey looks back at the rationale behind the numbers which have since become cluttered with intrastate interstates, bypasses, beltways, spurs, and exception cases to confuse matters.

Potholed roads can be a major annoyance, or in severe cases, they can cause vehicle damage or accidents. Why is it that with all of the advancements in materials science, we still get roads with giant divots? Grady Hillhouse of Practical Engineering explains the uphill battle faced by transportation departments around the globe.

Filmmaker Conner Griffith is a master of tying together sound and motion. In this clip, he takes us on a speedy ride along California’s Interstate 5, precisely edited to the tune of Richard Tee’s rousing piano version of Take the A-Train.