By G.R. Whale
My buddy's CJ has a tag that reads "Wut Road?" After driving on a loop of fresh blacktop, which used to be a good driving road before the pave job, it made me realize "Wut Road?" is a question that could be asked anywhere.I used to think the problem wasn't the quality of the road surface, but the silly low-profile tires equipped on many of the newer vehicles. Yes, cars and trucks are supposed to handle better with these tires, but when they started becoming available on SUVs more than 10 years ago, the lone sport/utility with 15-inch tires on a multi-vehicle test scored the highest average in handling and ride quality. More recent road tests show that the advantages of low-profile tires don't always outweigh the negatives.
But it wasn't the tires, bad shocks, or the ever-heavier new models causing the problem. The Interstate highway system just celebrated its 50th anniversary, but I don't see what's to celebrate: Road quality is far from where it should be here after 50 years. And "here" could be anywhere in the U.S. In a 2003 study, the Surface Transportation Policy Project found nearly 70 percent of urban and suburban roads were in "less than good condition," begging the question of how to define "good." In Michigan a few years back, a good road meant one that could last more than another two years.You may have seen trucker surveys about which state has the worst highways, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Michigan frequently make the list. In another study of roads and funding in 2001, the percentage of urban and suburban roads not in "good" condition ranked California and Missouri first, and worst, at 91.9 percent. Michigan, Massachusetts, and Arkansas were all in the 87-90 range (Georgia ranked best; the average was 68 percent), and California and Utah had the largest increase in percentage of poor roads. What stuck out in this survey was that Massachusetts had actually improved its roads slightly, though recent troubles with the Big Dig might skew the numbers in a survey taken today. Virginia was notable, as it spent the least money in repair per mile of "not good" road ($11,289) but still improved things. West Virginia and South Dakota also bettered their highways without huge spending, while states with fairly good roads spent $100,000/mile or more.
Naturally this opens the spending debate, and the road builders have one opinion, the government another, watchdogs another, and all involved seldom agree. However, general consensus is that over the long term regular maintenance is the most economical method for road upkeep. According to the Michigan DOT, a new state road should last 27 years without maintenance and 40 years with routine care, and it costs five times less to constantly keep a road in good condition than it does to ignore it for years and do a substantial rebuild. Last time I checked, it's still recommended that a Michigan resident budget $250 a year for car repairs related to poor roads.
Yet new roads and expansion continue while maintenance gets deferred, especially in those areas where expanding a road is written into the law as "maintenance" and not the new construction it really is. I concede that a neat new eight-lane boulevard to a shopping center might bring more revenue, but what if the residents don't want to get there via the 92 percent of the roads that are in poor condition? California was recently identified as the state with the greatest disparity between the "haves" and "have nots," and you can practically see it in the roads. I'd like to see how much money road builders spend on lobbying. These are the same guys who complain that there isn't enough money for repairs and maintenance, because states aren't spending enough. I'd like to see fuel, registration, license, and road taxes spent on roads with some accountability to avoid budget-drainers like the Alaskan bridge to nowhere. And I'd really like to see what bozo approved and paid for the local repaving job that turned a perfectly good two-lane into a desert dirt-like washboard with a yellow line down the middle.
Wut Road, indeed.