Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/115354
Lattatudes betterroads.com /BetterRoadsMagazine @betterroads Editorial Editor-in-Chief: John Latta Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Munich in Winter Executive Editor: Tina Grady Barbaccia Editor Emeritus: Kirk Landers Truck Editor: Jack Roberts Construction Editors: Tom Jackson, Tom Kuennen, Dan Brown, Lauren Heartsill Dowdle editorial@betterroads.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Graphic Designer: Kristen Chapman Advertising Production Manager: Linda Hapner production@betterroads.com Construction Media Senior VP of Market Development, Construction Media: Dan Tidwell VP of Sales, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@constructionmedia.com Corporate Chairman/CEO: Mike Reilly President: Brent Reilly Chief Process Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Administration Officer: David Wright Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Alan Sims Vice President, Audience Development: Stacy McCants Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Director of Marketing: Julie Arsenault 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: betterroads@halldata.com Better RoadsTM magazine, (ISSN 0006-0208) founded in 1931 by Alden F. Perrin, is published monthly by Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC.© 2013. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Qualified subscriptions solicited exclusively from governmental road agencies, contractors, consultants, research organizations, and equipment and materials suppliers. Single copy price $5.00 in U.S. and Canada. Subscription rate for individuals qualified in U.S. and Canada $24.95. Foreign $105.00. Special group rates to companies qualified in quantities over five names. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. For quality custom reprints, e-prints, and editorial copyright and licensing services please contact: Linda Hapner, (224) 723-5372 or reprints@betterroads.com. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Better Roads, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. B efore next month's huge bauma construction equipment trade show in Munich, Germany, the world's largest this year, was January's two-day prebauma media dialogue. It was wet, cold, snowy, windy and a blast. I have my favorite indoor and warm places there. Food is involved. You cannot help but be impressed by Germany's transportation infrastructure. It gets your attention. We should be so lucky, as they say. But comparing German apples and American oranges just doesn't work. The autobahns are superbly built and maintained. But the fuel taxes are wildly high and not dedicated to roads. Speeds are high, and that is a rush, but truck traffic is severely regulated on road use and that's a counterbalance for freight movement with significant cost implications. Munich airport is fun. Yes, fun. Easy to get into and out of, full of all sorts of shopping and dining and so much more hassle free than most American airports. But again the model has to be viewed from a distance. As with the roads, it's an operation that we could learn from, cherry picking what might work for us, rather than a blueprint we should try to reproduce. Rail and high-speed rail are extremely effective people movers in Germany. Arrive in Munich (or Paris or London for that matter) and trains slice you through the suburbs to the city center. But you realize that the rail right-of-ways expanded with the cities, they were not cut through existing buildings and other infrastructure. So again the mismatched fruit problem. And it was rail travel that almost got me arrested. There was a Saturday protest march (uneventful) and fully equipped riot police were out in force. I spent the day being a tourist with my iPhone's video camera and provided commentary for the family for one of those excruciating nights back home where they would relive my Munich trip with me. Yes they would. (Hey, I watched enough vacation slides as a kid to know how much fun this can be.) Late in the day I was filming trains at the main railway station. I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned. Riot police. Five of them. The biggest guy said something in German. My German is virtually non-existent. English? Why are you filming the police? You know that feeling when your stomach hits the ground? Sure enough there they were in my trains video. I explained shakily that I was filming trains. They seemed unconvinced. Then I got a bright idea. I showed them the day's rank amateurish home videos and suddenly unfunny commentaries. They smiled and left. My bumbling tourist persona had set me free. by John Latta, Editor-in-Chief jlatta@randallreilly.com Better Roads March 2013 5