Posted on 06/18/2018 8:13:18 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
No one has mentioned that the primary purpose of the interstate highway system when built was national defense.
Provide more oversight of the competitive bid process for highway repair.
Ensure those highways NEED repair and that it isn’t a vote buying scheme.
The history of national highways goes way back before the Federal Highway Aid Act of 1956 that established the U.S. interstate highway system. The first national road was legislated into existence all the way back in the early years of the 19th century.
They were pikers back then...
More like 60-75 million illegals.
The whole premise behind diversion of fuel taxes is to get people out of automobiles and onto other modes of travel, because of the overall cost of highways. However, in study after study, the cost in people miles traveled, of alternative transportation systems is much higher than in the passenger automobile. While trains do carry a lot of passengers, the cost per passenger mile far exceeds that of the personal automobile. Elitists dont like buses, but putting people on buses is much less expensive per passenger mile than putting them on trains. And those bicycle lanes. Their cost per passenger mile is exorbitant, and their riders don’t contribute a cent in fuel taxes! The automobile driver pays for all of these through fuel taxes! They’re the geese who lay the golden eggs, through state and federal, and sometimes local fuel taxes. And if the fuel taxes weren’t being robbed, the roads could be better maintained and upgraded.
Just rode Amtrak north to Vermont from NY city- the coaches are nice, but the tracks and signal stops are so bad that the train almost derailed twice and almost hit a truck coz the stop bar electronics was stuck.
-With all the Billions of Dollars $$$ You would think they would at least install NEW TRACKS!
Where is all the tax dollars going- they must all be corrupt Amtrak crooks if the tracks are not even safe.PS we were going 30 mph all the way and were always late.
I still remember the story of the company that got about $1800 per sign to advertise the construction project jobs that were displayed along the highways.
Of the $1.2 trillion, only $80 billion went to actual Public Works projects. The city where I worked at as the PW Director got $150,000 to repave a busy intersection. I was reluctant to take that because of all of the added regulations that came with the ARRA.
Deport the illegals and there will be less traffic and less wear and tear on our roads and other infrastructures.
Achilles heel:
“they should have to comply with existing planning and environmental regulations.”
If planning restrictions are not bypassed (i.e. climate change focus to force people out of cars), there is nothing “customer friendly” about being in gridlock due to political restrictions on properly-planned roadways.
However, the political system was just as corrupt a half century ago as now. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Daley, Wilbur Mills, etc., were just as corrupt as the current batch in power, if not as leftist. Yet the Interstate system was built in spite of the normal graft.
“Was that really the primary purpose of the interstate highway system, or did they just say that in order to justify spending Federal money on it?”
No, it was really the purpose. Eisenhower was faced with a choice of developing rail transport or creating the interstate system. Based on his observations during WWII, he chose the autobahn.
It’s much easier and quicker to bring a stretch of bombed-out road back into service than it is a stretch of bombed-out rail.
The irony is that solving transportation problems is actually easy. I do it for a living, and I always tell people that I could have done 90% of my job as a professional with a 10th-grade education.
The biggest challenge isn't solving the problem: its paying for the solution and dealing with political opposition -- much of it completely understandable because the solution is at odds with everything people want in a free society.
I'll fix any transportation problem you're dealing with right now. The only conditions are:
1. You have to give me the authority to tell you where you can live.
2. You have to give me the authority to tell you where you can work.
3. You have to give me the authority to tell you when you travel to and from work.
4. You have to give me the authority to tell you how to travel to and from work.
5. You have to give me the same authority over all of your travel -- including school, vacation, errands, etc.
Anyone who would accept such things belongs in a prison camp.
The first modern U.S. highway system came into existence around World War I. These are the roads you now see designated as the old Federal routes US-1, US-66, US-22, etc.
Interestingly, part of the political pressure for a national highway system in the early years of the 20th century was a general feeling in this country that the railroad industry had simply become too powerful. Most of the companies in the original Dow Jones Industrial Index were railroads, and the decades after the establishment of the railroad industry in the U.S. saw frequent widespread economic chaos due to railroad strikes and other service disruptions.
LOL, good points - and yes, definitely a pencil neck.
“I don’t think you’re right about that. The first modern U.S. highway system came into existence around World War I. These are the roads you now see designated as the old Federal routes US-1, US-66, US-22, etc.”
I don’t know if it’s accurate to speak of a two-lane road as “modern.”
The interstates were designed to allow the military to load up and move long distances at high speeds without interruption or incident. Load tanks and everything else on trucks that can do 90 mph without chewing up the roads.
Accommodation of aircraft is not as important as it once was, but it was still a design spec.
“He has a legitimate point. How is it that we’re OK with “tolling” when it comes to electricity and gas, but not when it comes to highways? “
Because, at least until very recently (if even), the tolling for utilities was not used to try to control behavior. For example, I can turn on my air conditioner at 4 in the morning, or 4 in the afternoon...and beyond that, my electricity rates are controlled, as opposed to these ‘contracts’ which often have NO RECOURSE when the private operator decides to ream the users (429 ETR in Ontario is a great example...something like 50 cents per mile now, way, way more than it costs to operate).
We went through utopian idea here in Texas and TOTALLY REJECTED IT...you’d think Pencil Neck could learn something from our reaction.
You are so right! It is frustrating to see a bad stretch of road just sitting there for years while a mile away a pretty sound stretch is being ground down and repaved. Not to mention when they build a nice new bike lane alongside a crumbling roadway that's being ignored.
...make that 407 ETR (in Ontario).
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