On the Road -- Updated

On the Road -- Updated*

    One of the advantages of being "on the road," especially if one is driving, is that of having time.  Highway signs flash by, the city you're headed to now just under 200 miles away...the three-hundred mile markers have finally disappeared.  City lights begin to appear, then fade away once again.  A small house way off in the distance (in fact, the only house for miles and miles), the seemingly endless expanse of trees or salt shrubs or single-lane roads that venture off into who knows where.  There was once a time when cars were much more fickle (although likely I was much younger and maintaining a car was low on my list simply because all of my money had to be saved for just using and fueling the car); a long drive then, one over six hours or so, was a nerve-racking experience.  To break down out in the middle of nowhere, to change a flat tire (in the middle of nowhere), to hear your car begin to sputter and gasp (in the middle of nowhere)...please, please, just get me to the next town or gas station (even if the bill was going to be through the roof).  But today, one can drive with barely a hint of such thoughts.  The cars and trucks roll on seamlessly, giving you time to just daydream or listen to the wind or music or whatever.

    It's a marvel, really, the hundreds and thousands of miles of roadways, especially when looking at the terrain you're passing through...mountains sliced open or carved away, barren stretches of sand or water, strips of large forests mowed down, exits clearly marked and gracefully sloping downward or upward, rest stops with bathrooms and running water, all hours from any sort of city.  How is it all done, and when.  It's something one simply expects and takes for granted.  I'm going somewhere and yes, I can drive there.  But you don't see (or at least I didn't) cars broken down or people flagging for help, or even hitchhikers.  It's as if these roads are now available only to those who pass the test, a large truck or those in possession of a newer car.  Everyone, tinted windows up, air conditioning on, fuel efficiency maxed out, tunes blasting.

    My old truck (my dad's, really) is a 1989 three-quarter ton Chevy, a monster of a piece of metal, simply built (open the hood and it's all there, the spark plugs a short arm's reach away, the oil filter visible, the distributor and points just waiting to be popped off and cleaned or replaced) and also virtually bullet-proof.  Should one of today's newer plasticized-metal cars crash into this old behemoth, all bets are off (with my mother's 2010 Camry and before that, Ford Taurus, one could simply "pop out" a dented bumper with one's fist).  As my mechanic used to joke with one of his clients who maintained that today's car still use the same metal as the old cars, he said, "True, but the old cars' doors are now the new cars' bumpers, and the old cars' bumpers are now the new cars' frames."  Of course, the price was that this weight had to be carried around and fuel mileage remained a miserable 15-17 miles per gallon, even if it's eight cylinders could haul full-lengths flooring (it's a long bed, able to haul 8-foot lengths) and a pallet of stone tile, each of what I did.  But my dad was meticulous about maintaining his cars, so again and despite the truck's age, I drove virtually care free (the car only had a radio and even that only worked now and then so no books-on-tape or satellite music).

    But back to the highway, the one I was staring at for hours on end (and will be doing so again in just a few days); it was a marvel, one smooth and well-marked despite the endless weight of vehicles that rolled by without end.  Each stop brought me new experiences, the meeting of a semi-truck driver fueling up at one of the regular gas stations (unusual since many of such trucks generally refuel at specific truck stops which have the height and width of bays geared strictly for the lengthy size of the cargo trucks...cars are generally not allowed to fill up at the trucking fuel stations).  Anyway, I was always curious at these forms of transport, for I could feel the pinch of my own $50 bill vanishing in an effort to return that fuel needle to the F or "full" position.  For this trucker, it would be $900 (although with lower prices, his bill to fill his truck has dropped in half).  For that price, he could travel 1100 miles on a full tank (so who was I to complain about my measly 689 miles?).  And he would have to maintain that truck (many truckers own their vehicles outright, freelancing for freight jobs to pay the bill); get stopped at one of the weigh stations scattered throughout our nation's highways and be told that his brakes or axles are not meeting the inspection and his truck is grounded).

    All of this was part of the massive highway system developed way back in the days of Presidents Roosevelt (the latter one) and Eisenhower (although presidential candidate Clay --one of our many forgotten aspirants for the job-- was credited with first wanting some sort of connecting system for farmers to get their goods to market), a highway system that by all respected sources is rated at a D (with an F being an absolute failure).  As reviewer Elizabeth Drew wrote on reviewing a series of such books on our highways (A Country Breaking Down which appeared in the The New York Review of Books), nearly a third of our roads and highways are "in poor or mediocre condition."  Why?  Part of this is of course due to funding (in the U.S., highways are primarily funded by a tax on gasoline, the reasoning being that those who use the highways should be the ones paying for such improvements and maintenance; all of this, however, is again controlled by Congress which hasn't raised the tax since 1993 causing the U.S to have the second lowest gas tax in the world).  Since increasing the gas tax is not up for debate with our current Congress, funds have to be sought elsewhere, such as the Federal Reserve's emergency fund.  Says reviewer Drew: The highway program will obtain additional funds through a reduction in the amount of the dividends the Fed pays to banks (which own stock in the Fed).  These provisions amount to unprecedented intrusion in its activities.  The Fed is supposed to be independent from political interference...Other sources of funds to pay for the highway bill are to be derived from selling millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has been used in the past for various purposes, including sales to decrease the deficit.  The Republicans blithely assume that the oil would sell at about double the current price, and they also nurture the hope that putting the IRS’s job of collecting delinquent taxes in the hands of private collection agencies would result in more federal income that could be put toward improving highways and other transit projects. 

    All of this commentary resulted from Congress recently passing a five-year $305 billion funding bill, which will admittedly make but a small dent into repairing our highways.  Says Drew: This was the longest-term highway bill passed since 1998 and the thirty-fifth extension of an authorization of highway construction since 2005.  Some of the extensions of the highway program approved by Congress lasted for only three months.  The previous extension was for just over three weeks.  Such practices don’t allow for much planning of the construction or repair of highways and bridges and mass transit systems...Our political myopia has put us in actual physical danger as we go about the mundane business of getting about.  We let essential structures and facilities deteriorate or go unbuilt.  A politician is more likely get in trouble with constituents for spending federal money than for not spending federal money.  Moreover, as a rule Washington politicians, whether in office for two or four or six years, aren’t keen on spending for something that doesn’t have a near-term payoff—perhaps a structure that they can dedicate and even get their names inscribed on...The water pipes underneath the White House are said to still be made of wood, as are some others in the nation’s capital and some cities across the country. 

    But then along comes our budget newsletter from our rather small city of 35,000.  Repairing one sidewalk curb to be wheelchair friendly costs an average of $2300 (279 curbs were found to be non-compliant); 31,000 feet of storm drains needed clearing; re-asphalting the roads would be $80 million (off the table so only those roads that need repair would be considered), repainting the street lines and repairing our over 1700 sidewalk and crosswalk ramps would likely be another $1 million (their study did find that the newer zig-zag offset pedestrian crosswalk, each with an 8-inch high curb and island, provides an extra measure of safety for people since they have a place to wait in the center of the street should traffic prove too congested); plus there were over 2200 street signs, many of which needed repairing or strengthening.  Phew...and that was just our small city.  It made me think of the hundreds of miles I had traveled over the highways, carefree and confident that should something happen, a patrol officer or a city would eventually appear.  Speed limit signs were highly visible, there were no potholes or cracks that would cause my car to swerve out of control, the sides of many parts of the highway were nicely landscaped (in many cases, they appeared nicer than my front yard efforts), and despite the high winds and blowing dust, there was almost no discernible litter.  How much did all of that cost?  If the budget for my small city's road system was so large, what was the cost for our nation's highways?

    Ah well, it was time for me to hit the road once again, to make my close to 700-mile drive back to my mother's home (and back again, and back again, and back again).  And quite likely, it would prove to be another carefree drive, highway-wise and car-wise.  For me, it was yet another aspect of life that I take for granted, recognizing that in many parts of the world, cars and roads are in far more need of repair, and that what we may grade as a D would be considered a welcome luxury in many areas.  A paved road?  A dependable vehicle?  A repair station or highway patrol officer coming by within the hour?  All of this would be close to unimaginable in many parts of the world.  Air conditioning and music?  Time to think, to daydream, and not a time to worry.  It is one of the many freedoms we need to remember and be thankful for, those of us who have it whether in Germany or Iceland or Shanghai.  We are making headway on these drives, meeting new people and new sights and new experiences...and we are so, so fortunate.  And part of having all of that carefree time is reflecting on all of that...

*Apologies for originally listing Henry Clay as a President; in fact, he was close to being elected as an aspiring candidate but failed to win the office.