Are these two interests in conflict? America’s 196 million motorists want smooth pavement and dependably flowing traffic. About 20.9 million people actively bike, about five percent of whom (1 million) use their bicycles to commute to work. Yet, as scarce federal transportation dollars are divvied up, some call for a full 10 percent to be allocated to accommodate bicycles and walkers.
Is that a realistic allocation? Is this a “build it and they will come” strategy – and what tells us that those dollars would accomplish the goal, to get more people on bicycles and out of cars?
To look at some of the proposals for transportation reinvention, you might get the impression this is an epic battle of good vs. evil.
The discourse and rhetoric on the topic gets understandably heated. At stake are billions of dollars for highway repair and construction –which is woefully inadequate to maintain the already-built roadways that increasingly deteriorate with time. This can only get worse when finite government dollars are channeled to off-road, bike-friendly trails.
But the idea that these two interests are in conflict is an overly simplistic view. Many bikers also drive, after all. So just the same as there are people who both drive and bike, might there be solutions that serve both modes of transport?
There is in fact middle pavement, so to speak. Both cars and bicyclists have to want good quality roads. A pothole can inflict hundreds or even thousands of dollars of damage to a car. But to a biker, the wrong pothole at the wrong time is a matter of life and death. A large number of bike advocates want to see more car-free roads constructed expressly for bicyclists and other non-motorized, recreational modes of transport. Conversely, other bicycle advocates are adamant about not constructing off-road routes.
Schwarzenegger calls it as he sees it
Exactly how transportation dollars are spent will always be a political football, of course. But even an exercise advocate from a fitness-forward state sees the economic imperative for quality roads and bridges.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on ABC-TV’s “This Week” (2/21/2010), “If we don&#8217;t rebuild our infrastructure, we&#8217;re going to fall behind economically and we&#8217;re not going to be the number one nation anymore. I mean, right now, we are the most powerful nation, but it is because we have this great infrastructure that over the last 100 years, we have built, built and built. But in the last few decades, we have stopped maintaining that infrastructure and we have stopped building and expanding that infrastructure, even though there&#8217;s tremendous demand for that infrastructure.”
The Terminator obviously believes in the importance of good roads. So might most bicyclists, as it turns out.
We don&#8217;t want no stinkin&#8217; biker-only trails
The cycling advocacy group that takes the hardest stance against the construction of off-road recreational bike trails is Chainguard/ProBicycle (<a href="http://probicyle.com/">http://probicyle.com</a>). The all-volunteer group was established in 1973, and makes several bold declarations on its website:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Same Roads. Same Rights. Same Rules.™</li>
<li>Cyclists should expect and demand safe accommodation on every road, just as do all other users. Nothing more is expected. Nothing less is acceptable.</li>
</ul>
ProBicycle takes exception with other bicycling advocates who wish to see off-road, recreation-designated routes for bikers and other non-motorized traffic. The group basically promotes a utilitarian, “vehicular cycling” position that it puts at odds with what it calls the “American Toy-Bicycle Syndrome:”
The Toy-Bicycle Syndrome began in the 1950&#8217;s and is based upon the concept of bicycling as children&#8217;s play activity, which in fact it largely was in the America of 1950. In the 1970&#8217;s a fitness-crazed adult American public discovered the modern lightweight 10-speed bicycle and the &quot;bike boom&quot; began. Millions of cyclists took to the roads and panic set in with motorists and transportation planners that had long held the belief that bicycles belonged on sidewalks. Thirty years later, those same concepts prevail and control the American bicycling environment.
Worse than ignorance alone, the American public and transportation establishment base their beliefs and actions on a false foundation. Motorists and the vast majority of bicycle owners have no understanding of the concepts and safety of proper cycling and how easy it is for motorists and cyclists to coexist. Rather than working for the little that is needed to make vehicular cycling safe, easy and practical on every road, American bicycle advocacy, decisions and goals are invariably based on the toy-bicycle syndrome.
Going a bit further, the group asks, “Do you feel that 93% of federal funding for bicycle transportation should be used for shared pedestrian/bicycle paths and trails with less than 2% going for such things as education, sharable-width lanes and bikeable shoulders? Does your bicycle advocacy organization measure success in terms of ribbon-cutting ceremonies? If so, congratulations – you are a modern American &quot;bicycle&quot; advocate and you are well represented.”
With its somewhat sarcastic tone, Chainguard/ProBicycle appears to be a minority voice relative to the two-wheeled promoters. But cycling transportation engineer John Forester, author of Effective Cycling (1992, The MIT Press, now in its sixth edition), shares a similar philosophy on bikers sharing the roads with cars. His book provides practical advice on safe biking in traffic that otherwise intimidates many recreational cyclists. As one reviewer said, “The core of John Forester&#8217;s concept of Effective Cycling is that bicyclists fare best when they act, and are treated in return, as drivers of vehicles, with the same rights and responsibilities that motorists have.”
The Chicago experience
Of course it&#8217;s one thing for authors and advocates to take a position. But when the mayors of major centers of commerce put resources into bikeable cities, it&#8217;s quite something else.
Chicago, a hub of national transportation (shipping, rail, air and surface modes) for more than a century, is also rated as one of the nation&#8217;s most bike-friendly cities. This did not come about by accident. Mayor Richard M. Daley is himself an advocate, funding the city&#8217;s Department of Transportation Bike Program, which coordinated community organizations to create of more than 165 miles of signed bike routes (111 miles with dedicated bike lanes), and established 10,000 bike racks throughout the city.
Note that these routes are on existing city streets, over and above the recreational routes that exist along the city&#8217;s lakefront park system. Bicyclists co-exist with cars, largely commuting to and from work downtown. Between the years 2003 and 2008, bicycle commuting increased 377 percent, according to measures taken by the Mayor&#8217;s Bicycle Advisory Council.
In the famously pragmatic “city that works,” the car-bike shared roads are simply a practical way to reduce traffic and parking congestion.
The city follows a blueprint known as the Bike 2015 Plan, approved in 2006, which specifies “bicyclists&#8217; needs should be considered in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of all streets. Special attention should be given to bicycling whenever bridges, underpasses and expressways are constructed or improved so these facilities do not become significant barriers to bicycling. Road hazards such as potholes, broken glass and sewer grates that trap bicycle wheels should be identified on a regular basis and repaired quickly.”
In other words, bike-friendly policies are simply a layer of consideration in the construction and maintenance of vehicular-traffic roadways. Incremental costs are minimal.
Transportation For America Blueprint funding realistic?
A more mainstream effort supported by more than 320 local and state groups, 13 mayors, 45 state legislators and 105 national organizations and trade associations promotes separate bikeways where sharing vehicular highways is deemed unworkable.
The group assembled &quot;The Route to Reform: Blueprint for a 21st Century Federal Transportation Program.&quot; The document is sweeping and comprehensive, an effort to establish a coordinated voice of sustainability practices in transportation design and construction, with a decided focus on increasing alternative modes of transportation: rail, public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle. Overall, it presents a scheme to fund an increase in federal dollars dedicated to all transportation to about $500 billion over a six-year period.
To be fair, the blueprint offers schemes for increasing transportation dollars through such things as raising the federal gas tax, indexing the tax to inflation, transition taxation to vehicle miles traveled (from the current per-gallon structure), congestion pricing, a National Infrastructure Bank and per-barrel oil surcharges. Political feasibility of any of these remains a big question.
The plan criticizes how funding for different modes of transportation is in silos, lacking cohesion. It also proposes an “active transportation” program for bikers and walkers, urging that ten percent of funds be allocated to projects supporting these modes because, it says, ten percent of all transportation is currently done by foot or bicycle. The problem with the report is this figure is not supported.
Somewhat contradicting this number, at least on the bicycling front, are data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. In its report to the U.S. Congress regarding the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Program (SAFETEA-LU, the Safe, Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act), which provided funds to four communities to develop infrastructure supporting pedestrian and bicycle travel, the highest percent of trips by bicycle amounted to 2 percent. Walking was higher at 6.6 percent, but even if these numbers doubled over time, would it really require siphoning off 10 percent of transportation funding to accomplish it?
It is conceivable that through an educational program the percent of bikers could rise in these pilot communities. But by how much? At the low end of four cities studied was Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with only 0.7 percent of commuters choosing to bicycle, and 6.6 percent walked. Minneapolis scored higher with both bicycling (2.0 percent) and walking (17.6 percent), far above the four-city average; the city&#8217;s program includes 43 miles of dedicated bike lanes on car-streets, and 84 miles of off-street bike paths.
The Minneapolis and Chicago experiences are exemplary. Both did it with existing funding and a lot of community input.
The conditions of America&#8217;s roads – and pavement preservation dollars
Identifying a direction for how to spend scant transportation dollars could not come at a more crucial juncture. According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), one-third of existing major highways (Interstates, freeways and major roads) are in poor to mediocre condition. Urban roads, which carry two-thirds of all daily traffic, are in even worse shape.
The country has invested $1.75 trillion in the public highway system – four million miles of roads, 660,000 bridges – over the past fifty years. Unfortunately, those roads are rapidly deteriorating with age, even while population increases have seen traffic loads jump by 41 percent between 1990 and 2007.
The best estimate on costs for just the “shovel ready” road and bridge repair is at around $64 billion. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 allocated only $27.5 billion for surface transportation, with another $48 billion earmarked for rail and public transportation projects.
So with a clear shortfall, what will happen to roads if allocations are designated to bikeways that don&#8217;t yet have bikers? When a dollar isn&#8217;t spent on pavement preservation, seven dollars will need to be spent in a few years. This is ugly math.
Can&#8217;t we all just get along?
Methods for road building and pavement preservation have fortunately gotten better in recent years, thanks in part to a program called the Strategic Highway Research Program–SHRP, funded by the U.S. Congress. From that program arose Superpave, an asphalt mix-design process that accounts for the differences in local conditions found in divergent climates and traffic loads. For each location, an ideal asphalt binder is prescribed, ultimately leading to greater resilience to traffic and weather.
Focused, creative thinking can sometimes yield great benefits. Continuing research will likely bring even better road building and repair innovations.
On the alternative transportation options front, one program stands out for its own kind of creative thinking. The Safe Routes to Schools program, established by federal law in 2005, provides for primary and middle school communities to develop strategies and programs that make walking and biking to schools more accessible. With national funding of about $120 million per each of the last five years, the program has fostered more than 4,500 local programs, many of which require no capital expenditure whatsoever. In those communities, simply sharing ideas with other school districts resulted in creative solutions in routing, crossing guards and other factors that largely increased pedestrian travel to as much as 15 percent of students (bicyclist levels were fairly constant at 2 percent).
One has to believe in innovation. The experiences in Chicago, Minneapolis and 4,500 school districts suggest it can be done.

Future Transportation Funding: Road Repair vs. Special Roads for Bicyclists

Pavement Preservation a Smart Road to Better Economies
A highway network is a lot like the human cardiovascular system. Good pavement and minimal construction zones keep a local economy moving, healthy and growing, but potholes and slow-moving construction projects are like plaque – they render regional commerce sclerotic.
This stands to reason. If a state or municipality is pockmarked by rough pavement, it is going to take longer to deliver goods in and out of the region. Delivery vehicles will be damaged more often (flat tires, bent tire rims, broken axels, etc.) and need more repairs. Labor and gas costs increase when traffic moves slowly – due simply to bad conditions, or lane closures during extended resurfacing projects – causing drivers and their passengers to endure more time per trip. When bad streets are all that connect consumers to a shopping center, the options to shop online, in stores elsewhere or not at all become much more attractive. The online alternative might come with a higher price if parcel delivery services (FedEx, UPS or US Postal Service) begin to tally and charge for the added costs of delivering in specific areas.
With aging highway and secondary road systems handling increasing amounts of traffic, this looks like a situation that can only go from bad to worse. The federal 2009 stimulus package will make a dent in repairing some of the roads, but even that infusion of money into the system can only repair a fraction of what needs to be done.
Where are the solutions? Ingenuity, particularly in how pavement preservation methods are helping reduce the cost of road maintenance, is America’s greatest resource. Many states, cities and counties are experimenting successfully with new products and methods because regional economies have so much to lose to bad roads.
Bad roads = Bad business 
The Road Information Program (TRIP), a Washington-based non-profit organization that advocates for policies that relieve traffic congestion, improve road conditions and enhance economic productivity, released a report in 2004 on poor road conditions in Virginia (“Paying the Price for Inadequate Roads in Virginia, the Cost to Motorists in Reduced Safety, Lost Time and Increased Vehicle Wear”). A primary conclusion is “the quality of a region’s transportation system is an important factor in where businesses and industries decide to locate, expand or downsize. A modern transportation system is of critical importance if Virginia is to capitalize on economic development opportunities.”
<blockquote>Ninety-four percent of the $123 billion worth of commodities delivered annually to and from sites in Virginia is transported on the state’s highways.</blockquote>
Anyone ever stuck in traffic knows this is no small point. If costs for a driver are $60 an hour, and increased commuter times due to road repair or detour routing adds 200 hours per year, multiply that for a business with a fleet of 100 delivery vehicles and that business alone will incur an additional $1.2 million each year. If rough pavement adds $300 per vehicle costs every 12 months, that’s an additional $300,000 in repair costs. If customers are dissatisfied with either increased delivery costs or delayed deliveries, well, the damage is even greater.
The TRIP report elaborates further:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Ninety-four percent of the $123 billion worth of commodities delivered annually to and from sites in Virginia is transported on the state’s highways.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Businesses have responded to improved communications and greater competition by moving from a push-style distribution system, which relies on low-cost movement of bulk commodities and large-scale warehousing, to a pull-style distribution system, which relies on smaller, more strategic and time-sensitive movement of goods. The recent improvements in the nation’s logistics systems have made mobile inventories the norm, resulting in the nation’s trucks literally becoming rolling warehouses.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Trucking is a crucial part of Virginia’s economy, as commercial trucks move goods from sites across the state to markets inside and outside the state. Because of this, commercial truck travel in Virginia will increase by 51 percent by 2020.</li>
</ul>
In other words, economic forces are increasingly dependent on quality roads for delivery. In congested areas along the Eastern Seaboard, are states that are better at maintaining roads more attractive to businesses?
The report says those regions will definitely lose business if the roads are of poor quality:
<ul type="disc">
<li>A comprehensive 2002 Transportation Research Board report on the adequacy of U.S. freight movement capabilities looked at a region’s relative ability to provide a transportation system that minimizes traffic congestion and provides reliable freight movement. This factor alone can have a significant impact on job creation or loss to other areas.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Some production will move from the United States to other countries if congestion costs cause the United States to lose comparative advantage in some industries.</li>
</ul>
Such problems with roads, and their negative economic impact, are hardly limited to Virginia. Ohio, a crossroads state with about 65 percent of all U.S. manufacturing capacity within 600 miles of its borders (and 50 percent of population, the consumers of that manufacturing) has just as many challenges to its infrastructure as Virginia and many other states, according to data compiled by AASHTO, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The organization details how several states claim road quality is integral to their economic development:
<ul type="disc">
<li>California frequently ties transportation quality to “job creation and a positive impact on an average person’s daily life.”</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Minnesota promotes highway improvement and economic development with the tagline “Our future is riding on it.”</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Utah’s Chamber of Commerce in 2009 officially says, “A safe and efficient transportation system is foundational for Utah’s economic vitality, quality of life and growth.”</li>
</ul>
Almost all states face a Catch-22, however. Given the aging nature of the nation’s highways – and cash-strapped maintenance budgets from local, state and federal coffers due to the economic recession – how can states and local municipalities promote commerce in their jurisdictions when their roads are crumbling? Can this bad convergence of factors be averted?
Perhaps. Pavement preservation is one route. For every dollar spent on fixing small problems before they get bigger, between $6 and $7 are saved that would be spent on reconstruction, but how exactly does that happen?
Pavement preservation – the affordable way to keep economies moving 
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a division of the Department of Transportation, takes a strong position on why highways need to be preserved.
“The Interstate Highway System cost more than $129 billion to construct,” notes Robert M. Davies and Jim Sorenson, both construction and preservation engineers in the FHWA’s Office of Asset Management. “The cost to construct and maintain the more than 6 million kilometers (3.73 million miles) represent one of the nation’s largest infrastructure investments in our country’s history. Roads and streets are just that – an investment.”
Davies and Sorenson go on to say, “If we take a proactive approach in maintaining our existing highways, we can reduce costly, time-consuming rehabilitation and reconstruction and the associated traffic disruptions.”
Pavement preservation advocates tell us that best practices involves a variety of surface treatments that extend a road’s service life. These include:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Fog seals</li>
<li>Slurry seals</li>
<li>Chip seals</li>
<li>Cape seals</li>
<li>Sand seals</li>
<li>Rejuvenators</li>
<li>Micro-surfacing</li>
<li>Thin lift overlays</li>
<li>High-quality pothole repair</li>
<li>Crack sealing</li>
<li>Portland cement concrete joint sealing</li>
<li>Dowel-bar retrofit</li>
<li>Full and partial-depth concrete pavement repair</li>
<li>Milling and grinding</li>
</ul>
All of these are most effective when applied on a timely basis, before small cracks grow larger. For example, if any of the four indicators of road deterioration in a flexible pavement surface are present – presence of potholes, cracks, ruts or deformation – it is a trigger to use one or several methods for correcting the problem.
The most familiar pavement deterioration of course is potholes. Found in arctic and tropical climates alike, a pothole is a late-stage problem that begins with a simple crack that allows water accumulation under the surface of the road. If a fog or slurry seal was not applied in time, the pothole can still be fixed with hot or cold asphalt filler. Hot asphalt treatments are historically more common, yet incur expensive labor costs and are relatively ineffective over time. Cold asphalt treatments apply advanced technologies that are both easier to use and more effective, lasting several years after application. This is a marked improvement over hot asphalt treatments, which can deteriorate after only a few weeks in some circumstances.
Other successes with pavement preservation span the country:
<ul type="disc">
<li>Minnesota’s Department of Transportation (MDOT) uses mobile laser measuring technology to identify where repairs are needed. Other states that use similar technology are Rhode Island, Maryland and Oregon.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Washington State employs dowel-bar retrofits in aging concrete, which WDOT officials believe can add 10 to 15 years of use to 30-year-old concrete pavement.</li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li>Indiana DOT completed major pavement preservation projects on two interstate highways near the Indianapolis Speedway in less than two months each. To do this, they closed each highway completely – after an extensive education effort on the value of the approach – and collectively saved motorists and trucking companies about $60 million by when completing both projects a month in advance.</li>
</ul>
As with anything involving public funding, politics will always play a role in how efforts such as these move forward. As Utah’s former state House Speaker Greg Curtis once said when comparing new highway construction versus pavement preservation projects, there is no “glamour or ribbon-cutting” when potholes are filled or cracks are sealed. If only there were a visual way to demonstrate the billions of dollars those measures can save.
General wear and tear will ultimately destroy every road, just like life-long fitness buffs’ cardiovascular systems will eventually give out in old age. But with creative thinking, new technologies and communications that effectively sell the idea of the smart money in pavement preservation, it may be possible to put off such a day decades into the future.

Economic Dependence On Good Roads

<h3>Debunking 3 of the most common excuses to not address a pothole problem</h3>
Introduction:
We’ve all seen them, we all hate them, and we all know the damage they can do. Still, potholes all too often are left unattended, leaving commuters vulnerable to serious damages, and in turn, serious repair costs. Below are three of the most common excuses to not address pothole problems. All of the scenarios below are hypothetical, but are entirely plausible. Whether it involves repairing the pothole yourself or making a simple phone call to report the problem, the effort it takes to see that a pothole is addressed is almost always more efficient than the alternative. 
Excuse 1: It’s not on my property, it’s not my problem!
Julie is a business consultant, and as such she spends time driving all over the metropolitan area of Detroit. One day she was driving home from a new client’s office and taking a route she’d never taken before. As she was accelerating on to a highway, she struck a large pothole on the ramp. As her GPS dislodged from the windshield and her briefcase spilled all over the floor, she swerved nearly avoiding an accident. She cursed, but didn’t think twice about it because she is a busy woman, and, well, it wasn’t her problem.
Unfortunately for Julie, it was about to become her problem. The next day she was driving home from the same client’s office. Merging onto the same highway deeply engaged in a cellphone conversation, she ran into the same pothole again. This time, her briefcase toppling over was the least of her problems. Her car began to thud with every turn of her tires and sparks flew up into the foreground of her rear view mirrors. She immediately pulled over and called a tow truck to bring her car to the dealership.
By about the same time the next day, this time in her rental car, she received a call from the car dealer explaining a damaged tire, rim, and bumper would need to be replaced, costing several hundreds of dollars. Outraged about the damage, Julie called the city, placing the blame on them for not properly maintaining the roads. Julie argued that it was the second time she hit the pothole and that the damage was probably cumulative, so there was no way she should be liable. The representative of the city asked her then, “Why didn’t you report the pothole the first time?” Much to Julie’s dismay, the city told her they can only reimburse pothole victims of already reported potholes.
* * * * *
While some cities will assume responsibility for pothole damage and reimburse the victim, there are almost always stipulations for such a situation. First and foremost, a city willing to reimburse expenses of pothole damage almost always need to be aware of the pothole prior to the damage occurring. In other words, if a pothole goes unreported, the city responsible for maintaining the road is never made aware it even exists, thus will not assume responsibility. In addition, there is often a certain time requirement for the pothole to go unattended before it becomes a liability to the city, usually a couple of weeks. This means that a reported pothole must be repaired within that time, or it becomes a liability of the city. If damages are incurred outside of this time window, then the city would become responsible.
<blockquote>Even if the city fails to repair the pothole in a timely manner, simply having it be reported is often enough to make drivers not directly responsible for pothole damage, or the repair fees.</blockquote>
Just because a pothole isn’t on your property doesn’t mean it’s not your problem. While you might not be directly responsible for doing the repair yourself, reporting potholes means that you, and the drivers around you, will be protected in the future. Even if the city fails to repair the pothole in a timely manner, simply having it be reported is often enough to make drivers not directly responsible for pothole damage, or the repair fees. Overall, a simple phone call reporting a pothole could save you or one of your fellow drivers from paying later.
Excuse 2: Hey, I know how to avoid it!
Frank owns a family grocery store. The store is as much of a historical landmark as it is the premier grocer of the small town; this being said, the old building and lot had quite a bit of wear. There are two entrances to the lot, one in the front and one in the back. Since most people who visit Frank’s grocery store use the front entrance, it is well maintained; the back entrance, however, is used mostly by employees and has several, large potholes. Frank hasn’t repaired the back entrance in years, because, “Anyone who would use it would know how to avoid the potholes.”
While Frank didn’t have many problems for several years with the situation, it only took one oblivious customer to spark a slew of problems for him and his grocery store. One day, a visitor to the small town decided to make a stop at Frank’s grocery store. Not familiar with the area, he accidentally drove by the main entrance. Being a quick thinker, the visitor turned onto the first side street he saw and followed it to the back of the store. Instead of turning around and entering where everyone else in the town would, he decided to enter through the back. Too busy being proud of his navigational achievement, he did not notice the unmarked potholes. As he entered the lot, he was greeted with a loud thud, and a flat tire. Further inspection found that he had also bent the rim, and so the entire wheel needed replacement.
Furious that his vacation had been put on hold, the visitor found the owner of the store, Frank, and sought reparations. Frank was sincerely apologetic, but with current economic conditions, he didn’t have the money to pay for the repairs out of his pocket. He explained to the visitor that no one in town uses the rear entrance and that he was really sorry, but there was nothing he could do. Still steaming over the situation, the visitor put on his spare tire and drove off.
Unfortunately for Frank, a few days later he received a letter from the visitor’s lawyer threatening a civil suit over the incident.
* * * * *
While Frank was sincere and sympathetic to the issue, the fact remained that he was openly aware of the potholes, but made a conscious decision to neither mark nor repair them. It was clear to everyone in the town that the potholes existed, though it never ceased to be a liability to Frank. Not realizing this, his “hope for the best” attitude about it landed him in a bit of legal trouble. Had the potholes been marked then repaired, this wouldn’t have turned into a legal issue. Not having much of a case, Frank would have no choice but to settle with the visitor. Instead of fixing the problem, which would only take a couple of bags of cold mix asphalt and an hour or two of his time, he ended up footing the bill for someone’s broken wheel, not to mention having to do the repair afterward, anyway. Ultimately, the “good faith” approach Frank took turned out to be more expensive to him in the long run because of the negligent maintenance of his store’s property.
Excuse 3: It’s way too expensive and will take way too long!
Celia is an elderly woman who lives by herself on a large lot in a rural area. While she remains active and keeps her house in order, since her husband’s passing, there have arose some maintenance issues, including a few potholes on the narrow, quarter mile drive to her house. Her son, Steven, makes a point to visit her at least once a week, and he makes sure to keep up the areas of the large lot he knows his mother can’t do on her own. When he noticed the potholes forming, he made sure to mention it to his mother, and while she thought it needed to be fixed eventually, money is an issue for her, and she was convinced she couldn’t afford the repair, even with her son doing the labor for free. Week in and week out, when Steven came to visit he would mention the potholes, and week in and week out, Celia would tell him the same thing, “It will be too expensive!”
Since neither of them actually knew the cost of repairing a pothole, that conclusion stood every time it came up, until one day Steven ran into one of the potholes, which at this point had grown much larger. Finally, he told his mother that he would pay for the repair before one of them did some serious damage. Much to Steven’s surprise, after a little research, he found the materials that best suited his job, a cold mix asphalt, were more than reasonably priced. So Stephen went to his local hardware store and picked up a few bags of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt.
Now that he had the materials, he just needed to find the time to work it into his exhausting 60 hour work week. Since he was so busy, and had only a couple of vacation days left, he kept putting it off. Like most uneducated handymen, reading the directions seemed to be the “easy way out”, and in reality, Stephen had no idea how long it would really take.
Finally Steven took a sick day on a Friday, of which he planned on dedicating in full to repairing his mother’s drive. He showed up at her house with all of the bags of EZ STREET cold mix and the tools the store clerk told him he would need. Realizing he wasn’t really sure what, exactly, he was supposed to do at this point, he read the package for instructions. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Steven went to work and ended up patching all of the several potholes before Celia had lunch on the table. Even more of a delight to Steven, the <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com">EZ STREET cold mix</a> resulted in a permanent fix that was ready for traffic instantly. In the end, Steven made his mother happy, and surprised himself at how handy he really could be.
* * * * *
While the case of Celia and Steven didn’t need to result in a disaster for them to address their pothole repairs, their ignorance to the repairing process prevented them from realizing how quick, easy, and inexpensive it really was. Fortunately for them, they were able to avoid a crisis by realizing that it needed to be fixed, no matter what it was going to take. Even more fortunate for them was the fact that it wouldn’t take much in money, time, or effort.
The beauty of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt is its ability to permanently and instantly fix a pothole without much money, time, or effort. A 35 pound bag of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt is only about $20.00 (USD) at a local hardware store, requires less than an hour to lay, and can be done by nearly anyone with tools that are probably already in the garage. If money or time are a concern with putting off a pothole repair, behold the ease and effectiveness of EZ STREET cold mix asphalt.

Pay now or Really pay later

Streets and highways are falling apart while local and state governments struggle with other budget crises. Yet our economy is dependent on ground transport of people and goods. The solution? Start with smarter potholes.
Spectacular events with roads and highway infrastructure have a way of getting our attention. For example, the deadly collapse of the I35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in August 2007 led to a lot of discussion – and finger pointing – on bridge and road safety.
<div class="flash-video">

</div>

What was clear is we’re not allocating enough money for infrastructure maintenance. Catastrophic consequences can and likely will happen again, just about anywhere.
The bridge was replaced just 13 months later with a safer, modern structure – at a cost of $400 million. But consider the tradeoff: Costs incurred when the bridge was out of commission were calculated by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to be $400,000 per day from lost bridge revenue, increased commuter times and the added burden on roads handling detoured traffic.
The Minneapolis bridge story illustrates a problem facing every municipality and motorist in the United States. Our society and economy are very dependent on the ground transport of people and goods. But there is another visible, costly, always annoying and sometimes dangerous problem – much more extensive but visually less spectacular – that faces motorists and governments everywhere. That problem is potholes, the first and most obvious sign of highway deterioration.
Just as with the Minneapolis bridge, people die from potholes. No national statistics are available, but reported incidents of fatal accidents attributed to blown tires and suspension system failures present a grim picture. (The landmark Hurt Report found in 1981 that roadway defects, which include potholes and pavement ridges, were responsible for two percent of motorcycle fatalities, which some argue has increased over time with further deterioration of roads.) The costs incurred by potholes to individual drivers nationally averages more than $330 for car repairs and as much as $700 for motorists in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the public expense for road repair and rebuilding is in the billions – and with the aging of America’s superhighway system, all expenses are projected to escalate in coming years. Add to that the distractions of municipal general budget deficits, a bad economy, fuel-efficient cars that generate less in per-gallon tax revenues for state and federal coffers and a “green” impetus to divert transportation money to public transit systems. It’s a perfect storm of highway and byway deterioration.
Maybe all we have in this scenario is ingenuity. Fortunately, some solutions are already in the works. New methods and materials are being tested in the road maintenance business, with promising results.
None of the fixes being tried will completely eliminate the billions of dangerous and costly potholes dotting the nation’s roadways. But as one director of a state department of transportation puts it, it begins by regarding roads as assets, not liabilities.
What about the stimulus money?
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 provides $48 billion for transportation-related projects. But of that, only $27.5 billion is designated for the restoration, rebuilding and expansion of highways. There are about 5000 “shovel ready” projects in all 50 states, but the cost of these is $64 billion.
That doesn’t take into account the approximately 210,000 lane miles of Interstate pavement, much of it already 50 years old, which could use repair not counted in that $64 billion figure. A comprehensive report from American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and TRIP, a national transportation research group, “Rough Roads Ahead, Fix Them Now or Pay for It Later,“ says that effective road maintenance should be undertaken at a cost of more than $80 billion per year by all levels of government.
Clearly the stimulus money has come at a good time. There just needs to be a lot more of it.
The report urges us to consider the resources used and utility of existing highways as assets. It says that highways, streets and roads have an estimated value of $1.75 billion. Their idea is instead of thinking of roads as expenses, consider them as assets worthy of protection.
“Asset management is a comprehensive approach to ensuring the most cost-effective return on investments for operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding transportation systems,” say the report’s authors. “It starts from the assumption that the nearly four million miles of public roads are a valuable national asset, essential to the vitality of the American economy.”
Which touches on why stimulus funding for road maintenance is about more than just the short-term hiring related to construction. Consider the freight industry and businesses producing goods that long-haul trucks carry: every Interstate mile handles 10,500 trucks carrying $25 billion in goods each day. Of all goods transported in the U.S, 80 percent of it by weight travels by truck. Large commercial truck traffic – the heaviest vehicles – increased by 50 percent between 1990 and 2007.
Looking at the safety side of this argument goes beyond potholes damaging wheel rims on cars and trucks. More than half the nation’s school children, about 24 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade, ride in 450,000 buses 180 days of the year. Every 20 seconds a fire department sends one or more vehicles out to respond to an emergency. Ambulances make about 164,000 trips per day in the U.S. Deteriorating roads, including potholes that seemingly appear out of nowhere, slow their trips and sometimes are directly responsible for tragic accidents.
These incidences of human safety and economic costs are concentrated in urban areas. It’s the cities and suburbs where road conditions are the worst. It’s also where populations are expanding fastest. Utah, particularly its metropolitan areas, had a 47 percent population growth over the last two decades, leading to a 71 percent increase in miles driven; unfortunately, highway capacity grew by only 4 percent.
A hopeless situation? Not entirely.
Get your pothole priorities straight: Spend $1 now, not $7 later
The old saw, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” never had a better example than road maintenance.
Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk L. Steudle puts it this way: “It is important to slow the rate of decline in the good road so that it stays good rather than slipping into fair or poor condition.” He calculates that spending $1 to keep a road in good condition prevents spending $7 to reconstruct it once it has fallen into poor condition. Taking the asset management approach, “It isn’t a computer software program, finance and accounting practices, or a pavement preservation program,” Steudle says. “Asset management includes all that and more.”
The mechanics of road construction and eventual pothole development illustrates this. A new road is generally asphalt pavement layered over crushed stone on top of soil. When cracks occur in the pavement the soil layer erodes, leaving gaps or holes. Freezes, thaws, heat and heavy traffic create shifting and then buckled pavement. Traffic on top the buckling cracks the pavement further, creating potholes that grow with time (this is why potholes often appear overnight, even though in the sub-pavement the process begins days, weeks or months beforehand).
<blockquote>Catching pavement cracks before they allow moisture to seep into the sub-base is very helpful in preventing road deterioration. But in a world of scarce dollars, that’s not what often happens. Instead, a “worst first” approach is often employed. This is where the most potholed, buckled and impassible streets are given priority attention.</blockquote>
Catching pavement cracks before they allow moisture to seep into the sub-base is very helpful in preventing road deterioration. But in a world of scarce dollars, that’s not what often happens. Instead, a “worst first” approach is often employed. This is where the most potholed, buckled and impassible streets are given priority attention. Such streets are simply non-functional, the roads that generate the most phone calls to city streets departments and local politicians. This then becomes the $7 fix, where $1 spent weeks, months or a couple years earlier would yield better road conditions and a lot less motorist/taxpayer anger.
Technically speaking, preventive measures take several forms:
Data collection: Know the conditions of roads, using advanced tools such as the “pathway profilers” in use by the Nebraska Department of roads to assess the severity and extent of pavement distress.
Data assessment and resource allocation software: After road and bridge conditions are gathered, that data can be analyzed by software such as the dTIMS CT program employed by the Utah Department of Transportation. This helps the department prioritize where preventive maintenance will be most effective even while alerting them to where the most advanced problems exist.
Sealers: Chip, slurry, fog, crack and joint seals applied early to new cracks keep pothole-inducing moisture from the sub pavement. The Oregon Department of Transportation expects to save $16 million per year with its chip-seal preservation program.
Advanced pothole repair technology: Where traditional hot mix pothole fillers are often expensive, inefficient and ineffective – failing in a matter of weeks, sometimes never really working at all – new technologies are emerging that change the equation. An article in Tennessee Public Works magazine (January/February 2002) reported on the experience of a public works director in Millersville, TN, a suburb of Nashville. He tested <a href="http://www.ezstreetasphalt.com">EZ Street brand cold asphalt</a>, which can be applied with less surface preparation – including in standing water –across a wider range of air temperatures. The product can be applied more quickly than traditional hot mix, with greater work crew efficiency, and it lasts longer.
The mix is more expensive per ton, but creates cost savings over time, says the city streets chief: “I did the math. If it cost 10 dollars to patch a pothole one time, and I had to patch it 12 times a year, then 20 or 30 dollars to patch it once a year would save me both labor time and material costs. Using this product we are able to do a better utility cut and do it faster. We can cut a road, pack the sub grade, and apply EZ Street and not have to worry about it coming out of the hole.”
As it often happens, smaller states and municipalities are willing and able to try new methods for addressing public works challenges. When those methods prove effective over time – as many already are doing – larger entities with more roads and bigger bridges would be wise to follow their lead.

Policy & Funding

Future Transportation Funding: Road Repair vs. Special Roads for Bicyclists

Economic Dependence On Good Roads

Pay now or Really pay later

More potholes, less money – but smarter fixes for crumbling roads