M: Are the roads in the area where you live busy?

R: Well, not in the immediate area. I wouldn't say. So it's quite a narrow set of roads, or at least a narrow set of streets, so not many cars can use them at any one time anyway, even the main roads up and down the road from my house are usually reasonably clear.

M: How do people cross the road in the city where you live?

R: Oh, wow. Well, in as many ways as there are people, frankly, usually we have traffic lights that can be operated by pedestrians, but sometimes people just cross the road where they please, and you can only hope they do that after looking both ways. Thank heavens, the traffic isn't that bad. Otherwise, there could be a lot of accidents.

M: What's the condition of the roads in your city?

R: It's not that bad where I live now. I think the worst things are people parking on pavements or the occasional pothole, but I live near the centre, so that's to be expected. Further afield, it's a different story. There are numerous potholes and cracks in the asphalt, despite the endless roadworks, and some roads are so narrow that only one car can move on them at any one time.

M: Do you think the roads in your city need improvement?

R: Well, I wouldn't say it's so bad in the city proper, but the infrastructure in the suburbs and the outskirts could definitely use some work. It's so obvious they haven't been built to last, and repair efforts seem so poorly planned out. It's ridiculous.

M: Hey! Roads, dear listener! And traffic. We say that the roads are busy. You know, you are busy with work, and also the roads are busy with their work, which is traffic.

R: They are packed.

M: The roads are packed. They are busy. This means that there are a lot of cars. I usually have heavy traffic, or there is heavy traffic on the road. We have the main road and little streets, like narrow streets. The main road is the most important road. Usually is the biggest, the widest road. So you can say that, okay, the main road is very busy all the time, or not so busy. Or you can say that the main roads are usually reasonably clear. Rory lives in a city in Scotland, but if you live in a big place like, I don't know, the capital of your country, you can say that the roads are super busy every day, and we have very heavy traffic. We have a lot of traffic jams, and the traffic is really intense. What else can we say? What other synonyms do we have for like, the roads are busy, heavy traffic?

R: Oh, they're jammed. They're gridlocked.

M: There are a lot of traffic jams. The roads are packed. The roads are gridlocked. So I say like the roads are gridlocked, right? Or the city is gridlocked.

R: Well, it could be both, really. The fact is that nothing is moving.

M: Gridlock? A situation where roads in your town become blocked. So everything becomes so blocked by cars that it is impossible for any traffic to move. People cross the road. All right? How do they usually do it? There are traffic lights.

R: Yes.

M: And pedestrians. So people who cross the road are called pedestrians. And pedestrians just push the button, and traffic lights, you know, regulate this movement. And there are like buttons, right? But you may not have buttons. But very often, in some places we have. Kind of you are about to cross the road, and then you like push a button, and then like... And then, like, off you go, green light. And what do you call this crossing? Is it like a zebra crossing? Is it crossing?

R: Oh, God. They all have different names. You have pelican crossings and all kinds of things like that. I just call them traffic lights that can be operated by pedestrians. I used to know the differences, but now it's lost on me.

M: The most common crossing is zebra crossing, or you can call it pedestrian crossing, is where you have a road and these white lines like zebra. Okay? So zebra crossing, pedestrian crossing, where you cross the road. And what do you call this, when it's not on the road, but you have to go down to cross the road?

R: It could be an underpass, I suppose.

M: Oh, yeah. Underground passage.

R: Yeah. Do you know? It's funny, we don't really have those in this country so much. I've only seen one in my local area, and it goes underneath the railway lines.

M: Okay, so an underpass, dear listener. A road or path that goes under something such as a busy road, allowing vehicles or people to go from one side to the other. So, yeah, an underpass is another way to cross the road when you go down. So there are underpasses and there are zebra crossings, okay? Yeah. But what about London? London is full of underpasses. No?

R: Is it? I don't know. It's got underground stations, for sure.

M: Yeah, underground stations, yeah, like the tube. But how do people cross the road?

R: I think they just use the normal ways that we were talking about, really.

M: Zebra crossing.

R: Yeah.

M: Okay, okay. Interesting. Yeah. And there are also like underpasses, so you go underground. But what if there is like kind of a bridge above the road and you kind of, you cross it, you go up, and there's a bridge, and you cross the road and you go down. Especially if it's a highway, what do you call it?

R: Oh, isn't that also an underpass?

M: No, but under you go down, but here you go up, and it's kind of a bridge.

R: Oh, an overpass.

M: No, actually, like an overpass or a flyover, is a bridge that carries a road or railway.

R: Oh, a flyover. Oh, yeah.

M: But it's not like for people, no? Yeah. It's not for people.

R: Couldn't tell you. Is it obvious that I can't drive?

M: You have a driver's license. What you're talking about?

R: I know, but other people drive me.

M: So dear listener, you should just, yeah, stick to zebra crossing and underpasses. All right, dear listener? Okay. And you say like: pedestrians usually use zebra crossings or underpasses. Or in my area, people cross the road whenever they want. Or in my country, people cross the road wherever they want, so in any place they want, they just go there. You know? There are no rules.

R: Well, there are, but I don't think they're enforced, really.

M: No, you can be fined if you cross the street in the wrong place.

R: Oh, no. I was meeting in my country.

M: Fine? Like you pay a fine.

R: Yeah.

M: You pay some sum of money. They can arrest you for this. Roads in your city might be in poor condition, which means you can say, roads in my city are dilapidated. Dilapidated means in poor condition, dear listener.

R: Fall into pieces.

M: And here you can talk about pavements. Pavements? You know this thing? We have a road and we have pavements for pedestrians. And there might be some potholes on the roads. What are they? This like pothole.

R: It's just a place where the material has come loose or has worn away over time, so it creates an uneven surface in the road and can damage wheels, or at least make travelling uncomfortable.

M: Yeah, so a hole in a road surface that results from gradual damaged caused by traffic. So pretty much if you see A horrible hole or something dreadful on the road with the material that the road is made of, you can say that it's a pothole. So in my city, some roads are in poor condition. Some roads are dilapidated. There are many potholes. There are numerous potholes. Like there are many potholes.

R: Or there is the occasional pothole.

M: There are cracks in the asphalt. Asphalt?

R: I think that's just the material the road is made from, to be honest.

M: Yeah. And if it's not of good quality, you can say that there are cracks in the asphalt. We have lots of road work, or we don't have much road work. People renew the roads, or they don't. They improve the roads, or they don't.

R: Or they look like they're trying to improve the roads, but they don't.

M: Some roads are very narrow. With lots of potholes, for example. Or some roads do need improvement. They are very dilapidated. Or for example, in the centre, the roads are of good quality, but in the suburbs, far away from the centre, many roads are dilapidated. So in poor condition. Many roads in my city need improvement. Like their condition is very bad. They are dilapidated. Especially in the suburbs, so not in the centre, but far away from the centre, in the suburbs or on the outskirts. Also, like, very far from the centre. And you can say that the roads haven't been built to last. So they built the roads for, you know, for one year, and then the roads get destroyed.

R: Or in my country, they're just constantly falling to pieces. They don't even last a year.

M: Yeah, roads are constantly falling to pieces, dear listener. Also, you can say that roads in my city are poorly planned out. And also, the roads could be made from bad materials, so the roads haven't been built to last. The roads don't usually last a year. And then they have to renew them. Yeah, but in general, Rory, in Scotland, like when you go from your town to another town, are the roads good?

R: They're fine. It's just it could always be better, I think. And of course, you have to remember, there are some places in the world that do not have roads, but I just feel like whenever they're trying to repair the roads, it's always so disorganized and inconvenient. But maybe this is not just true of my country. Maybe that's true everywhere.

M: Yeah, but you don't have severe colds, for example, in winter, and you don't have, like, super hot weather that could affect the road quality.

R: As far as I'm aware, not any more than it has in previous times, at least not yet.

M: Thank you very much for listening, dear listener! Hopefully, you have good roads, okay?

R: And if you don't, we've put you on the road to good vocabulary.

M: Rory, could you sing this song again? What was it like?

R: I don't know. All I remember is part of it is like, this is the road to hell, but I don't know the rest of the lyrics at all.

M: We'll get back to in our next episode. Okay? Bye!

R: Bye!

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