Following the FOSS4G workshop, I attepmted to mimic the steps done for the Victoria dataset for a MassGIS statewide dataset.
After loading the data, I attempted to run the following:
SELECT assign_vertex_id('mass_roads', 0.001, 'the_geom', 'gid');
Initially, after about 5 hours, it gave up, complaining about a null geometry. I then deleted all rows from the table that had null geometry columns.
I then tried again, and let it run for 48 hours, before giving up and killing it. No indication of completeness was presented.
The dataset is available for download from:
ftp://data.massgis.state.ma.us/pub/shape/eotroads/eotroads.exe
A smaller shapefile (city level) loaded fine:
ftp://data.massgis.state.ma.us/pub/shape/eotroads/eotroads_49.exe