Are our roads getting worse?

[Bowti]

We just finished our 4,000+ mile snowbird annual adventure, which left us feeling like our roads and interstates are worse than ever. It doesn't look like our government is able to keep up at all with road repairs. No wonder our tire discussions go on for ever.

What do you think?

[jdb7566]

John&Joey wrote:
"Are our roads getting worse?"

YES, even some of the toll roads are bad, and we're paying directly for those.

The purpose of charging a toll to use a road is to pay the salary of those collecting the toll. Has nothing to do with upkeep of said road.

[leggy]

At least in my state an issue I see is "prevailing wage". Any government funded project force the contractor to use these rates for employees. I'm not saying that people don't deserve good pay, however, I think the bidding could be more competitive and therefore more projects being done with the same money.

[lakeside013104]

jplante4 wrote:
Much worse. Zero spending on infrastructure. Fuel taxes are going to things other than roads. The fed only gives out highway funds for repairs, upgrades are on the states' dime. Traffic volume up, available tarmac down, it's a mess.

Here on Cape Cod, they spend millions on bike paths that get used by a handful of people for 3 months a year and the roads are falling apart.

This may sound political but it's just a fact of democracy. All we have to do is stop voting for incumbents until they start doing what we want. If they don't vote in term limits, let's do it ourselves.

This was accurate and well said.

Lakeside

[Ralph_Cramden]

gbopp wrote:

Tom/Barb wrote:
But the toll roads in the US, There is no excuse, they were meant to be self supporting.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is required to give the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $450 MILLION every year.
Turnpike tolls are going up and Pennsylvania has the highest gas tax.
But the roads are getting worse.
It makes you wonder where all the money goes..

450M is chump change and would build about 10-12 miles of new 4 lane highway if you were lucky on flat terrain with no bridges or interchanges. The PA turnpike blows much more than that building unneeded screen walls, along with the commissions nepotism, bid rigging, and 50+ year record of corruption. They should eliminate the turnpike commission and blend it into PENNDOT and that's no peach either but is the lesser of two evils.


This is a good one.

It's a doosey be sure to click the link and read the exit questionaire.

[Paul_Clancy]

Of the western states I have visited regularly the one that gets a prize for great roads .... Oregon. The others need to find out what they are doing and do that. My back thanks you Oregon tax payers.

[valhalla360]

goducks10 wrote:
It's called infrastructure spending. Politicians always run on spending money for it. However the money never seems to get appropriated for it. With the latest tax cut I highly doubt it will get done in the near future.

Income tax has never been a significant source of highway funds, so the tax cut is not related to this subject.

Yes, inflation adjusted spending has been going down over the last 10-15yrs.
- The vast majority of highway money comes from fuel taxes and in most states, it's been years since there has been a significant increase. When gas prices jumped from $1.50, you saw people cut back on driving and switch to more efficient cars. Since the gas tax is per gallon and not per dollar, that means fewer dollars coming in.
- Highway construction is very dependent on oil prices. It takes a lot of fuel to do construction work and the asphalt in asphalt concrete comes from oil...So costs to build have gone up dramatically.
- You also have costs rising due to new rules. One example: 15yrs ago, I would have told you a typical traffic signal modernization would cost about $75k. This year in the area I work it's closer to $250k. A big chunk of that is meeting ADA requirements but also other rules that have come online that increased costs significantly. You will find similar issues throughout the industry.

There isn't a good answer. It's politically difficult as opponents challenge new taxes and while it's really a small part of the problem there is enough real waste to let them make a politically viable case against raising the taxes...

...until it gets so bad enough that something must be done...problem is when it gets that bad, it will cost far more to fix than if you get ahead of the problem (greasing the bearings on your trailer axle is a lot cheaper and easier than replacing them)

[Tom_Barb]

Government is like a sponge and money is water, the bigger government gets the more money it requires, and the bigger it gets the bigger it needs to be.

we must find who in the swamp has guts to pull the plug.

[Aridon]

It is easier down south. Few if any hard freezes, less traffic volume and the roads are relatively new.

There are a lot more cars on the road, the gas tax hasn't risen in 23 years and vehicles today are far more efficient so more miles and less fuel. Please don't pretend that you don't see the problem with that.

Folks generally don't support tax hikes. We can afford to bomb and build roads in other third world countries more readily than taking care of our own infrastructure.

The money simply isn't there now with already 1.4T debts every single year. Around double what it was when the people that are currently spending the money were complaining about the other guy's spending.

How fiscally responsible.

[RAS43]

BB_TX wrote:
Depends on the state. Texas does a pretty darn good job of keeping up the highways. Some other states not so much.

Totally agree! Just traveled from Denver to Houston and back to move a relative and found even secondary roads to be better then some of Colorado's primary highways.

[DutchmenSport]

Yup! Yep! For sure! Yes!

[gbopp]

Tom/Barb wrote:
But the toll roads in the US, There is no excuse, they were meant to be self supporting.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is required to give the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation $450 MILLION every year.
Turnpike tolls are going up and Pennsylvania has the highest gas tax.
But the roads are getting worse.
It makes you wonder where all the money goes..

[BB_TX]

Depends on the state. Texas does a pretty darn good job of keeping up the highways. Some other states not so much.

[MDKMDK]

Tom/Barb wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:
Yup. And it's not just yours.

I can understand Canadian roads being bad this time of year. Frost heaves and all that.

But the toll roads in the US, There is no excuse, they were meant to be self supporting.

OBTW we should have a political page where I can rant. 🙂

I agree, some of your worst roads are pay-per-use, and our roads are just bad because we're not very good at roads.
Yes, a specific political venting page would be useful. Not like anyone on this forum has any political leanings or opinions?:B

[Tom_Barb]

MDKMDK wrote:
Yup. And it's not just yours.

I can understand Canadian roads being bad this time of year. Frost heaves and all that.

But the toll roads in the US, There is no excuse, they were meant to be self supporting.

OBTW we should have a political page where I can rant. 🙂

[Tom_Barb]

gbopp wrote:

downtheroad wrote:
Yes, they are getting worse....and this thread will probably turn political and the pot hole will be filled with popcorn and disappear.....

Yes, the roads are getting worse everywhere. And it's almost impossible to talk about road repairs without getting political.
So enjoy it while it lasts.

Yes this is very true. Yet the the present administration says they want to fit it. they catch all kinds of Flack.