[junior 88 fan]

Michigan roads second worst in country | detnews.com | The Detroit News (http://detnews.com/article/20100330/METRO05/3300406/ - broken link)

I don't think anyone here will be surprised to read this. Good job Jenny. Just another mess for you to leave for your replacement in November.

[Jwo85]

Not really shocked. M-Dot's solution to fixing is to slop down some black chunky gunk and let the cars pound it down in the cracks. Instead of having one road person crew member sitting around talking on a cell phone, they could have that guy with a special tool to pound down that gunk at least.

[MrPrometheus]

Yes, I'm shocked. I would have thought for sure they would be ranked as the nation's worst roads!

Back around '91 I visited Michigan, traveling on my Honda 700 Nighthawk from Nevada. I was greatly saddened and embarrassed that my home state -- the place that put the world in automobiles -- had such crummy, broken roads!

There was a stretch of an old hi-way outside of Ann Arbor that had pot holes in it like every 20-feet, it was just awful. One would think that the politicians would see to it that some of the "stimulus" money would go towards putting people to work by spending the next 20-years or so doing much needed road repair work that has been neglected for so long.

[scolls]

Oh give me a break. The roads were terrible long before Granholm came along. In fact, Engler made a lot of cuts to the road budget.

Michigan has a lot of disadvantages when it comes to roads. First, It's the 8th largest state. The only state larger in the north is New York. That means that Michigan has to spend more salting and clearing road ways. Next, with the increased traffic and wheather, that leads to worse road conditions. Next, Michigan doesn't have any toll roads except for the Mackinaw Bridge. Chicago has a lot of toll roads and higher taxes. People in Michigan will ***** and moan if they increase gas tax or make toll roads.

Finally, Michigan is using the federal stimulus money for road projects. They are using as much as the federal government will give.

[MICoastieMom]

Scolls, I am getting worried;............ another post that I agree with! What is the world coming to? You did forget to mention all the freakin' truck traffic that SE Michigan has to deal with going back and frth into Canada. The Detroit crossing is the busiest in the nation, and the bulk of it is trucks hauling stuff in and out of Canada.

[RedJacket]

Like Avis, Michigan needs to "try harder".

[Tiger Beer]

Not surprising - it's a big state, with a large population, heavy winters, and kinda required to salt those roads often. It's also not the most economically prosperous at these times either.

Not surprising at all.

[scolls]

I actually read the article and PA had the worst. PA does not have the winters Michigan does and their main east-west freeway is a toll road. In PA you have to pay for their bad roads. Third was New York which again is a large state in a bad weather climate. New York City also does not have as bad of winters on average as Detroit. Also New York has toll roads as well. People will ***** either way. If they throw toll booths on 75 people will ***** and blame Granholm. If they leave the roads alone people will ***** and blame Granholm.

[Tiger Beer]

Come to think of it, I'd rather have some bad roads, than highways with tolls!

[Bluefly]

Why does Granholm get blamed for everything? I guess it's easy and lazy to just pick a figure head of the day and attribute all of the state's systemic problems to that individual.

Rest assured, Michigan's roads have been awful through both Republican and Democratic administrations, and going back many generations. Part of it is simply the weather, but not all of it.