Highway Driving

The long grey road stretches out in front of you like an endless ribbon of concrete cutting through the great expanses of green that seem to also expand outward into eternity. The sound of the tires rolling on and on is like hypnotic voice whispering in your ear, attempting to engage your sleepiness control and send you careening off into the deep ravine beyond the shoulder. Stay awake and focused, lest your attention bend to the will of distance and midday daze. The United States has the world's largest network of highways, including both the Interstate Highway System and the U.S. Highway System. At least one of these networks is present in every state and they interconnect most major cities. China's highway network is the second most extensive in the world, with a total length of about 3.573 million km. China's expressway network is also the second longest in the world, and it is quickly expanding, stretching some 60,300 km at the end of 2008, In 2008 alone, 6,433 km expressways were added to the network. Modern highways reduce commute and other travel time but additional road capacity can also create new induced traffic demand. If not accurately predicted at the planning stage, this extra traffic may lead to the new road becoming congested sooner than anticipated. More roads add on to car-dependence, which can mean that a new road brings only short-term mitigation of traffic congestion. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=117162