Better Roads or More Jobs?

[Phi for All]

Everyone loves to complain about the roads. If they’re not full of potholes, they’re under construction. When they’re under construction, 80% of the guys are standing around while 20% do the work. It seems like when the end of a stretch of road is finished, the potholes start to appear at the beginning again. For drivers, there is a very small window of pleasurable driving experience after a road has been resurfaced.

 

It doesn’t have to be this way.

 

In Germany, home of the Autobahn (which is no different in concept than the Interstate Highway system in the US), they use asphalt just like most countries, yet they spend a fraction of what we pay per mile on road maintenance. They also have glass-smooth roads that last for many years without needing costly repairs. What’s their secret? They let the asphalt cure for 3 months before they let anyone drive on it. They divert traffic and drivers are made aware of alternate routes. After the asphalt cures it wears like iron and is pure heaven to drive on.

 

On one hand, road maintenance employs a ton of people, from the workers to the asphalt manufacturers. Letting us drive on fresh asphalt means less time waiting for our favorite roads to become available again. But we pay a lot in taxes and get terrible roads in return.

 

On the other hand, letting them cure would mean a huge savings in taxes. We’d also spend less on vehicle maintenance due to fewer potholes. And we’d have better roads to drive on. But we’d have to detour longer.

 

No matter how this is presented, it would quickly become a political issue. Which is more important in this matter, more jobs or better roads?

[Tesseract]

There are a few reasons why this dosnt happen:

 

1)Unless this is brought to congress or senate or even the president says something about it nthing is going to happen, there has to be an executive somewhere to start the reform process.

 

2)The people are concerned with outside politics nowadays, they complain about the road but dont take the initiative to do anything about it.Some people are concerned but most are to lazy or uninterested in the situation.

 

3)The process would take to long, people are nonchalant about the place their tax money goes they rush and are nonchalant about the money.They also dont want to wait or have any distractions from their daily work schedule, they want everything to be ok and taken care of.Especially in cities where its most needed like in New York.

 

4)The asphalt workers are not quite concerned about the qualty or urgency of their work, they get paid if they get the job done anyway.And its not exactly the best or most favourable work some diseases can arise from this kind of work and they have some very bad days (working in the sun).They also have to contend wiht the fast paced schedule.

 

I hope this dosnt seen negative I just see to many problems with this kind of work.Does anyone else have an opinion or will you let me have the last (and first) word.

[Sayonara]

I think the smilies make your post look so credible that nobody would want to argue.

[admiral_ju00]

I think the smilies make your post look so credible that nobody would want to argue.

 

i agree.