Brandon Blackmoor wrote:

How difficult would it be for a user to create this "road" effect in Inkscape?

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/26/91783/EvilSun/Gloucester.gif

Not difficult, but somewhat time consuming. The coastline could be 

autotraced, but the roads would be best redrawn. The railway line would 

take a little longer (there may be a clever way to make it with 

markers), and the drop shadow under the sign would have to be faked with 

gradients, or the blur effect.