Roads post catastrophe.

in a country like the UK(same in US I would think) where the majority of the population either drives or uses public transport, don't just assume post catastrophe that you can drive anywhere you like.
for a start, once the panic sets in the roads will become giant car parks within 1 hour or two, there will be accidents, collisions, breakdowns, and general mayhem, people running out of fuel and losing their tempers .
secondly all motorways and A roads in and out of cities and large towns will be designated by the government as "Essential Service Routes" and closed to all except the military and emergency services. if you get out in time you may almost certainly have to use unclassified and back country roads, not all of these are signposted and your Sat.Nav. may not work.
thirdly in those locations where they still have control, they may well set up curfews and road blocks, nobody gets in, nobody gets out.

 

it dosent even have to be anything active, roads will soon start deteriorating and cracking, just last winter 2 roads not far from me were undermined by river water and collapsed into the rivers, of course they were repaired but what if there was no one left to repair them, gullies get blocked, trees fall down, rivers burst their banks,these will block roads and you will have to find another route.

 

most major roads out of the cities will resemble giant parking lots within a few hours of an event, which is why I seldom use motorways or major road systems unless it is very early morning, I generally take back county roads and go across country instead.

 

about 10 years ago we had a major "protest" about the then price of road fuel, refineries were blockaded and no deliveries got to the filling stations or the supermarkets.
fuel ran out in 24-36 hours and the supermarkets ran out of staples like bread and milk, there was general mild panic, the stupid thing is this was advertised well in advance but still nobody bothered to stock up.
also everyone seems to run their tanks dry, I always top up when the fuel guage gets to half and have done so for the last 40 years.

 

by good tires with clealted tread put 1/4 can of stop leak in each tire fill with air to 35lbs drive slowly watching for stuff on road axe. and chain. in car to clear road

 

I know from personal experience roads will start cracking up and disintegrating immediately after the first winter storms, without anyone repairing them they will only get worse.
give it a year to 18 months and most will be unusable, that's if you had any fuel anyway.

 

if we have to leave here the old 6x6 will get us there

 

maybe in America, wouldn't get far in rural north Devon, we have granite walls, deep ditches and narrow lanes(about the size of farm tracks).

 

roads will soon start breaking up post collapse from any number of reasons, flooding, heat, ice and snow, winter storms, the slightest crack will allow water and earth to ingress, weeds will start growing, then shrub, before long you've got a sapling growing in the middle of the road, without anyone to do anything about it whats to stop it??
what about fallen trees? if there is no one to remove them the road will be blocked for years to come.

 

read my reply again, I said "what if their is no one to remove them".

 

winch axe chainsaw. all wheeldrive. roads will be there just will have to go slower and carefully

 

that's the whole point, without anyone to repair them the roads WONT be there!(they definitely wont be in Britain for sure).
roads get undermined, roads have landslides, roads have fallen trees, never mind normal winter storms.
we could come along some time after SHTF and find roads are impassable, you cant just go off road in England even with a 4x4, although if your lucky you could use the "green lanes" that's if they are useable post event that is, a lot of them are overgrown even now.
anyway, post SHTF where are you going to go?

 

Fuel and oil must be used only when its a must to do so no one will be makeing more chainsaw is great fast easy yes but only use these when your need to survive and live is there saw& axe best when in no hurry winch or comealong is amust have allso

 

fuel and oil post collapse will be in short supply with no more being refined, what there is is what there is, when that is gone there is no more.
stocks even personal stocks are finite, when its gone its gone.

 

cant be bothered with all that, anyway I wont be going anywhere post collapse and the roads wont be drivable after one British winter.
staying close to the homestead.

 

Where we live we need a 4WD anyway, my youngest son has one, we have a property 4WD, a 4WD we use to get to town plus an SUV. Plus we are looking for another 4WD. Roads around here are dirt. Sealed roads are still country roads & with a 4WD you can get around road blocks. Blocked roads are not likely to occur this far from any major city. If you have a good large 4WD like we have with a bull bar, you can push other vehicles out of the way if you have to. Even without a bull bar you can push them with the rear of your vehicle without disabling your own vehicle. We also have a manual winch & a wallaby jack, so pretty much all the basics are covered. I have driven right around Australia & driven 4WDs in all terrains including the tropics & consider myself lucky to have had the experience. We lived in the Territory for 10 years, & I spent a lot of time rescuing other people who were stuck out bush. We had three 4WDs in the Territory, a Suzuki, & two Toyota Landcruisers. We had a system, when it was too wet for the heavy Landcruisers, we used the Suzuki, if the Suzuki got bogged I used a horse. If my horse got bogged I stayed at home.
Keith.

My eldest son at the wheel back in the Territory. To the left of the steering wheel was a rifle rack for my 45/70 Marlin underlever.

One of three horses I had at the time. I wore a holstered revolver at all times & carried the 45/70 in a saddle boot when on horseback. Those were the days.
Keith.

 

I drive a Citroen Berlingo multispace 1400cc petrol, its what is called an MPV here or multi purpose vehicle, its like a van with windows. gives good mileage, I can get loads in the back and you'd be surprised at the places it can get to or drive down.

 

It would not surprise me my friend, a good driver can take a two wheel drive places where an inexperienced driver could not take a 4WD without getting bogged. As in all things, experience counts for a lot.
Keith.

 

well, living where I do we don't have any major highways, the motorways end over 30 miles away and we don't use them on a daily basis like some do.
our local backcountry roads are what I use daily, deep narrow westcountry lanes with grass growing in the middle, granite walls either side and deep ditches.

 

a lot of the back country roads around here haven't been repaired for several years, some of them are as rough as old boots!!
walking cycling post SHTF get off the roads, roads will be too obvious and make good ambush places.

 

my kind of heaven.

 

I wish I could put some photos on here for you to see of the area but I cant- no camera and I wouldn't know how to do it anyway.

 

I remember those English country roads well, & still miss them. Australian country roads for the most part are wide with no ditches, but can get pretty rough. Nothing a 4WD can't handle though. But I don't see us having to leave our forest home.
Keith.

 

I generally stay off motorways unless it is early(really early) mornings, just yesterday the M5 was closed northbound for hours because of a truck accident-3 people injured-I find going across country easier and more interesting.

 

Same here, hate motorways & cities. The nearest city to us is very small, & the motorways leading into it have very little traffic. We do not touch a motorway from our direction, country roads only. This does of course mean that we are sometimes cut off if there are sudden heavy rains. 4WD access on the back roads is sometimes available, but the local creek has no bridge & floods too deep to ford. However, we would not have it any other way. The less people coming out this way the better.
Keith.

 

I feel the same way, we live in an area most people would call remote, its not a tourist area, its a farming area and we still have one of the last agricultural markets in the area.
we live 30 miles from the END of the motorway system, I know that not far in American or Australian terms but its far enough to be remote to most. the nearest large city is hundreds of miles away, lots of rivers and bridges in Devon which flood a lot in the winter, just going off road will cause someone a lot of trouble, as we have fields not prairies or outback and these fields go nowhere and are enclosed by high hedges and stone walls.
we also have to remember that once SHTF the government (if TPTB still exist) will CLOSE all motorways and main roads, these they have designated as ESR's or Essential Service Routes and all civilian traffic will be BANNED from using these roads, that's not just vehicles that will be banned but motor cycles, cyclists and even walking, so anyone intending on bugging out from a big city will have to find an alternative-and therefore longer- route.