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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Half of the roads in the United States are in bad condition, and in some urban areas that proportion is closer to 60 percent, according to a report released by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials on Friday.
most of the infrastructure - highway/rail/etc. - especially in older cities, is in terrible repair. it's unfortunate that our country built itself up so much without thinking of how they were going to pay for maintaining it.
Yes they are crumbling. Well pretty rough anyway. But for the past several years I have heard nothing but the president vetoeing a highway bill every year. Seems like the feds are like the big corporations; they don't want to spend anymore money on this country. With all the war debt we've incurred in the past few years, I guess we don't have it or so they say. We will build Iraq and Afghanistan's roads back before we will rebuild our own.
Well that is what comes when you have been building them contiously since the early 1920's without stopping.P{eople want new raodways but don't want to pay for them. One reason for toll roads that are coming.
Keep in mind that much of the damage that is done to our highways is as a result of them getting town up by trucks. What our nation needs is to move the transportation focus from cars to rail. Shifting the primary means of cargo transportation from trucks to freight rail is both economically and environmentally more efficient.
As for cars, obviously the automobile is something that is part of American culture, and we cannot give up our dependence on it, but I'd like to see the car used as more of a tool for leisure activity than commuting. There's nothing wrong with taking a day trip to the beach, or even a cross-country road-trip. It's the fact that the car is used as a commuting tool that's a big problem. For older cities that were built up pre-automobile, this is more viable. However, many newer southern cities were built with the car in mind, and the result of that is tons of sprawl, and an environment that is unfriendly to mass transportation.
A shift to freight rail for cargo and mass transportation for commuters would tremendously reduce the stress on our nation's highways; the highways will still be there, but they wouldn't be suffering the wear-and-tear from overuse.
Well, PureNarcotic, I do believe you are correct that that is the transformation that needs to happen, but before it can be done, our ancient system of railroads needs a huge overhaul. I once heard that it can take a train two weeks in some cases to make it through the Chicago Metro area (READ: I am in no way bashing Chicago, just using it as an example of problems faced by rail systems ALL OVER the country. Believe me I'm not trying to start ****!)
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