Road funding is an interesting topic especially if it is to remain non political. One of the primary means of funding is the gasoline tax, with the ever increasing fuel efficiency of vehicles and a small percentage of cars using the grid there is less and less tax generated income from fuel sales. With more vehicles on the road the demand for more lanes puts the question to decision makers, more roads or fix the old ones. The population of people and number of vehicles on the road is overwhelming. I am old enough to remember the creation of the original interstate system, it was nice, 70mph, no traffic, no congestion and a Stucky's at every interchange. There are a few miles of the original I-75 in Michigan, concrete well worn and heavily patched. I have a picture of my dad standing next to the governor of the great state of Ohio doing the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Ohio Turnpike. At supper that evening he proudly announced that the day will come when the toll booth's will be removed and it will be free. That never happened, they built new toll booths doubled the tolls and started siphoning off the profits. I guess the bottom line is we the people need to make sure the highways are properly funded and the funds are used for highways.
|