Streets Paved With Gravel, Not Gold

Writing for USA Today, Liisa Rajala, in "Tight Times Put Gravel on the Road," reports that some American communities have resorted to conversion of their cracked asphalt roads into gravel as a cost-cutting measure. The article sites a study by the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies that concluded gravel is cost-effective when traffic averages less than 200 vehicles per day. Even so, there are safety, dust, and probably other basic drawbacks of gravel roads. Now a Blind Bambi like myself, with "no-eyed deer" about much of anything, is certainly going to have little insight to add. That's not going to stop me, though, from sharing my viewpoint on the matter, which is somewhat conflicted on this potential trend. On the one hand, I am thrilled to see novel approaches being taken to weather the economic downturn in a way that lessens future public debt and/or makes additional money available for other necessary projects. On the other, however, I am discouraged that this seems to be yet another example of national infrastructure that is in decline. That national infrastructure that provides our transportation systems, utilities, communications, and much more, is both an important part of and a by-product from American success.