Roman & Mayan Roads

My friends currently located South of the U.S. border are amazed at the condition of the public roads and the functioning of the transportation system and its buses. Many of the older city streets are cobblestone or brick and these surfaces produce a slightly irregular ride compared to the high speed system we are used to driving on here in the USA, at least our newer urban roads.

We still have many brick and stone roads in older American cities that have been paved over with asphalt so we do not really notice them. The Egyptians, Romans, Mayans and other cultures used rock pavements of various sorts to improve transportation and these are not dissimilar to those still found in parts of the world today, including Mexico. The challenge to producers of buses is immense when one considers how diverse a range of roadways they must traverse in a lifetime that can approach thirty or forty years. I thought it might be useful for me to show the s/v Faith crew the important parts of the life cycle of the these buses they are riding since I have both access to a high speed Internet connection, time and with my background in geology in the construction materials business, a perspective they may appreciate.

This is a picture of the bus Sandy and Patty used yesterday in PV.

After being crushed it is shredded to reduce its volume for transportation.

The metal is melted......

.....and poured into forms.






Some of this metal is used to make these shock absorbers.




And some is used to make these heavy duty springs.

These are what they do not install on the buses and taxis that use cobblestone streets because they would not last 5 minutes. A solid piece of I-beam is simply welded into that space where a suspension system would normally be located. This is simply ingenious!

An actual photograph of a Puerto Vallarta cobblestone street.

Notice that there is no vehicular traffic. This is due to the fact that every vehicle in the region is in a shop having its suspension system re-welded. The health benefits of walking are not lost on the population and there is no cry from the public to pave over the street system with smooth surface.