We're about to have a great big giant discussion about roads, on the county and local level. The state maaaaaybe. I doubt it but maybe.
In almost every discussion about roads I've seen people seem to be missing a major point. Everybody agrees that the reason why the roads are so bad the money isn't there to do much more. People are trying to get more funding out of the tax payers but nobody wants to say the thing nobody wants to hear.
FIXING BAD ROADS COSTS MORE THAN MAINTAINING GOOD ONES!
People seem to hear it but not understand it. So let me explain.
Fixing something costs less than replacing it so ideally you want to fix things as you go along rather than waiting waiting so long that you can't. On an aggregate level for our road system what this means is that fixing the mostly okay roads is going to cost less fixing the really rotten ones. Everything costs money. So if you do decide to fix the worst of the worst there is less money in the pot to maintain the alright ones and eventually they won't be so alright.
If we want long term transportation improvement. A true fix rather than a patch. Than ironically we need to put the money into patching...and resurfacing. Doing so will save money and make those desperately needed road reconstruction projects more feasible in the future as we won't be playing wack-a-mole for the next 20 years.
But people look outside their door and want Greenfield reconstructed yesterday.
We're going to have a road funding initiative. I have no idea how it will look or how things will turn out but so far the tone is that the money will fix your street. That's not how I see it. At least not completly.
In the meetings I attended I got the vibe that at current funding levels the city could barely maintain current pacer rating. Even at 4 million a year which is more the city's current levy levels the road's Pacer rating decreases over the long term.
Without more money we're hosed. Despite what people think I'm a cheap bastard. Either way this thing goes I don't like that nobody wants to hear that the most efficient way of spending the money, the way that gets us to the best place in the shortest amount of time is going to be a little painful and anything else is going to spread out the hurt over more time. So let's get it over with, sit down and take our medicine.
And now because freaky carnival imagery at the wack-a-mole metaphor made my mind go there. The Extreme Ghostbusters Intro. That show freaked me out as a kid. Eh Killer Clowns is still on my list.
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