[JGatti]

These road conditions on my route to work are the worst I have ever had to deal with IN MY LIFE. I'm 43 years old and I'm sick of pot holes and bumps that nearly launch my car off the ground. I'm hardly a world traveler but of the place I have been we have the worst roads hands down, second to none.
I know I can't be alone on my opinion and there has to be a lot if not everyone in the state groaning about the roads. So what's the answer? What are we willing to do? I'm not a fan of higher taxes, and would never want higher gas taxes. I know if they raise it 5 cents a gallon it's a little here a little there, but 1- it add's up fast if you drive a lot. 2- I can't help but wonder if it all would always go to road work. Personally I'd prefer a flat rate tax on my check IF...... IF it was 100% going to fix the damn roads. I want a little box that say's -ROAD TAX-
In the last 2 years I have lost 2 rims and 4 tires to pot holes. That's $120 each for tire/rim and 2 of my tires were almost $100 each. I'd rather them take a few extra bucks and fix the roads then be stranded and then raped at the tire dealer.

[michmoldman]

I would go along with a tax but a guarantee that the money will go for roads....but a guarantee means nothing these days. I dont know a whole lot about politics...but is there someone just in charge of what money and where goes for roads? If not...there should be, and if there is/was such a person...they should also be in charge of coming up with ways to pay for better roads. Hell....I dont know, a special lottery where money goes just for roads...a donation jar at every store? I live on a dirt road that is very busy that they talk about paving every year. Its only 1/4 mile long right by all the schools so it is used heavily. Right now it is nothing but a 1/4 mile long mud bog filled with 6" deep holes EVERYWHERE! You can only use one side of it...its bad! You are right...I am sick of the roads also....but whats even worse are the roads they just redone a few years ago already need it again.

[JGatti]

Crazy as it sounds I think it would be cheaper to go back to dirt roads and have fleets of road graders out there grading them twice a week LOL. Of course keep the freeways paved and anything with more than 2 lanes turn into a toll road. lmao

Seriously though if they put together a volunteer crew to work on paving crews I'd do it one saturday a month if it helped. Something HAS to be done. They are way out of hand.

[zthatzmanz28]

I am all for raising TAXES to pay for what the fuel tax should already be paying for. Higher license fees, higher fees all the way around at the secretary state, and start adding a few toll roads.

[canudigit]

What would I do for better roads? Well...speaking as someone who hit a rain-filled pothole that looked like an innocent puddle a couple of days ago and got a bent rim and broken wheel cover out of it, I know what I would be willing to do...MOVE!

My dh is pressuring me to leave Michigan and darn it, much as I love this state, Michigan just keeps giving me more and more reasons to listen to him and jump ship.

ITA with the pp who said that guarantees mean nothing. If they raised our taxes with a promise to "fix the roads", the money would simply be diverted to pay for something else and we would have nothing to say about it, resulting in more money being sucked out of our pockets for the same old substandard infrastructure.

[Coldjensens]

I would do a magic trick or maybe a summersault (that could get messy)


Fixing the roads is not free, it has to be paid for. It is very very expensive. Some of the roads are so bad that the pavement needs to be torn out and replaced. Some were not ever built right to begin with and they need to be completely re-done including the sub grade.

Part of the problem is that te gas tax funds were taken and applied elsewhere, mostly for schools I am told. If the gas tax was put towards roads, it woudl generate something like $500 - $600 million a year. that is a good start, but not enough to fix our roads. However there is quite a bit of matching funding avaialble from the Federal government. There will still have to be an increase in some tax or fee, or possibly tolls on the roads. They may also have to close some roads or make people in sparsely populated areas pay for their own road maintenaince. That may be unfortuante and some may scream "unfair!" but it makes no sense for us to continue to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain roads with two or three people living on them.

Tolll roads are expensive to build and the State does nto have the capital. They could try private public partnerships which have worked in other states, but there are quite a few difficulties there as well. That may only be practical for the 94 and 75 freeway as in any event. PPPs do nto have to be toll roads. They can be a long term design, built maintain contract where payment is based on usage (New Mexico did this). They can also do a PPP as a toll road, but they may have problems converting an existing government owned road to a private toll road.

However if they take that money fromt he schools, then how do the schools keep the doors open? Either way, we are going to pay for it somehow.


There is no easy solution. Somehting has to be done, and some means must be developed to pay for it. Whether it is tolls, taxes, or fees, people will scream about it. Personally i favor toll roads where the peoiple who are willing to pay for a pothole free road can use it and the ones who do not want to pay for a pothole free road can use whatever the state can afford to provide. Some people will argue that it is unfair that poor people will nto be able touse the pothole free roads because they are poor. However it is not a better solution to leave all of the roads filled with holes becasue it is unfair to have nice roads for only most of the people. That makes no sense.

[kimba01]

I agree about "no guarantees". I would think that with all the money they pull in for the lottery, the schools should be standing tall! The potholes are horrendous and downright dangerous. Not only for those hitting them but for those who swerve to avoid them!

[michmoldman]

I keep hearing we have the worse roads anywhere. How are all these other northern states keeping their roads in good shape?
As for helping pay for road repair/replacement... companies pay big money for advertising, how about any big company who wants their name painted on a road as advertisement...put in money for road repair (plus to pay for their name to be painted on the roads). I know we have billboards, but who really looks at them anymore? At least if their name was on the road you would have to look at it....plus we could get rid of some ugly billboards.

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by michmoldman

I keep hearing we have the worse roads anywhere. How are all these other northern states keeping their roads in good shape?

They're not. We do not have the worst roads by any stretch of the imagination. I've yet to see some rednecks sitting up lawn-chairs and coolers by the "really big" potholes and bumps to watch cars get airborne or wreck a tire like I saw in the Northeast (happened every single year I lived there). Anyone who has driven around Boston on 495 in the last 20 years can tell you that 95% of roads in MI are a dream to drive on. States in the Northern tier all have a problem with road surfaces, especially in large cities with a lot of traffic. In the rural counties around my area, the roads are in very good shape. Difference is that we don't have a lot of the traffic most other areas do when the roads are their most vulnerable to potholes forming.

I wouldn't be in favor of raising more taxes to fix the roads, I would be in favor of giving the road commissions the taxes that are already collected and supposed to be earmark for them instead of siphoning those funds off for other areas of Gov't.

[alleyyooper]

Get rid of one house in Lansing, make them (one left) pay for their own health insurance like thousands who live in Michigan and cut their pay by 25%, Only pay a partial pention if they are over 60 and spent the whole of their term limit in office. Make the Lance Armstrongs wanabees who ride bikes on our roads for free pay a fee of $200.00 per year for the right if they are over 18 years of age and under 65. Any polition in Michigan caught in a imoral act should work every week end for life patching pot holes.
PA's roads make most on Michigans look really good. same thing with Montana too. You can see the ruts in I 94 as you enter Montana from either direction.

Al