It is shocking to me how expensive the roads are in France, and you don’t get any quality for it either

From my experience driving between Lyon, Paris, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, etc. the highways are pristine.

lancebeet 10 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's a very strange statement to me. In my experience, France has extremely high motorway quality, one of the absolute best in Europe. Comparing with autobahn, there's no competition. And this is without even including supporting infrastructure like aires.

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heikkikalliokos 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, exactly, last time driving from Reims to Paris and then to Belgium started to really think about that when driving in toll after another, week after that started to work on this.

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Bayart an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's because the State delegated construction and exploitation to private entities.

	▲	Glawen 31 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It was initially a fixed term contract to build and exploit the roads, where government had 50% stake in the company. When the contract reached its term, instead of keeping operating the roads, government sold its stake. That started a massive hike in prices, firing of thousands employees.

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heikkikalliokos 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In our data France is infact the dearest per kilometre, now when taking a closer look: about €11 per 100 km for a car, more for a camper.

The motorways are run by private concession companies, which is why each stretch has its own booth price.

Free alternative are the N and D roads, slower but toll-free, which is often how locals do longer trips on a budget.

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amanaplanacanal 30 minutes ago | parent [-]

In the US they keep telling us that private companies are more efficient than government.

	▲	moooo99 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I mean that is often times true. But efficiency in this context - particularly with infrastructure - usually means extracting most profit while providing the bare minimum of service. The expectation that the service gets either better for the same amount, or cheaper for the same service, is usually naive