Talk:Roads and expressways in Poland
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I'm sorry but Polish road infrastructure is amongst the worst in Europe. I don't know who told you that they're well developed. I'd say it's almost a joke...
The condition of roads in Poland is very very bad and is deteriorating as there is no real money to repare them. I mean, I have to use them and it's very very difficult and tiring to drive on Polish roads.
To give an example: going from Warsaw to Bialystok on the best (and only!) road ("national road nr 8") takes from 3 to 3.5 hours. It's 150 km (about 90 miles).
Bad road conditions is a frequent excuse for abusing the highway code. Speed limits are not obeyed at all. In Warsaw, despite a general limit of 50 km/h, you are intimidated, flashed, horned or yelled at unless you do 80-100. (Drivers are bad here as well...)
As for the lenght of motorways.
Here http://marcius004.webpark.pl/siec_autostrat_teraz.gif you can see the motorway (dubbed "expressway" in the wiki article) network in Poland as it is now. There are currently 394 km of motorways in Poland. That is, 245 miles.
Construction of more motorways is planned, some are constructed at the moment, but as it is very expensive (around euro 4M per 1 kilometer), banks won't credit them, so the process is very lenghty. The motorway linking Warsaw and Gdansk is to be completed in 2015 - 2020 more realistically.
Here you can find the plans for the network: http://marcius004.webpark.pl/autostrady_plany_to_tylko_plany.jpg
But we say "these are just plans" as originnaly, the whole network was meant to be built by no later than 2007. Well, that's a typical Polish government kind of joke.
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So, there are very few existing motorways. Almost all are in construction or still being planned. The most finished motorway is in the South of the country and links Krakow, Katowice and Wroclaw.
There are very two-lane roads as well, the longest of which is the road linking Warsaw and Katowice and dubbed "Trasa Katowicka" or "Gierkówka" (from the name of the then 1st Secretary who decreted building it).
Here is an excerpt from the US Department of State information on Polish road conditions: "The number of cars on the road in Poland has increased substantially. Driving, especially after dark, is hazardous. Roads are generally narrow, badly lit, frequently under repair (especially in the summer months), and are often also used by pedestrians and animals."
The expressway linking Warsaw and Gliwice is to be built by 2010. There is no such road at the moment (any road, I mean).
The expressway linking Krakow and Czechia is not even planned!
There is no expressay linking Warsaw and Bialystok. There only is a one-lane national road there. The same applies to Warsaw-Gdansk, Warsaw-Poznan, Warsaw-Bydgoszcz, Gdansk-Swinoujscie and many others.
Who drew that picture? :-)
To the condition of Poland's Motorways, most of them are now in an excellent condition.
The A4 has been fully renovated, and reopened a month or so ago, in september. The A2 is in very good condition; nice asphalt, little traffic, and good signage.
The real problem are those non-motorway roads. They have a lot of track-forming in the roads, and the overall quality is bad.
Now, it looks like all Polands roads are very bad. Most Motorways are in a better condition than for example German ones.
