I haven't seen this posted here yet

"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
03/30/2015 at 10:27 • Filed to: potholes

My mechanic showed me this last week. These are the things the DOT bosses need to be forced to drive through on a daily basis.

I'm not really all that curious as to why no one else seemed to be on that road either.

Absolutely nuts.

DISCUSSION (29)

Coty > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:32

Glad I decided to put my headphones in with a headache.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:34

looks like my morning commute :|

450X_FTW > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:38

Add this to list of many things I'm afraid to hit while riding my motorcycle. Seriously one of those potholes is going to swallow a front wheel an endo the rider, with DOT response being "driver error"

thebigbossyboss > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:39

Sad thing is I've been on some roads around here that are major streets like that lol.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:48

Erm, what...

my mind is just..

what.

E. Julius > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:48

At least in Michigan, the poor state of our roads pretty much comes down to people not wanting to pay higher taxes for them. MDOT and everybody else knows they're mostly terrible, but legislators are scared shitless to approve an increase, and a recent (though IMO greatly flawed) ballot proposal looks to be set for failure as well. Honestly we probably deserve shitty roads if nobody wants to pay for nice ones.

Svend > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:49

Some locals up and down the country (U.K.) have been going out and repairing the potholes themselves with at least one council body going out to check them and then approach the people who did it and say 'if you can get a qualification in road maintenance, we'll give you all the dry mix you need to continue'. Which was welcomed and that council now has a team of 37 volunteers doing temporary fixes as and when they can.

Reported five hours ago.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/f…

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Kinja'd!!!

Sara Griffin @cyclemor3 Follow

If they won't fill em after being reported.... #art #protest #cycling #saftey

1:49 PM - 27 Mar 2015

Sara Griffin @cyclemor3 Follow

I finished my project

2:02 PM - 27 Mar 2015

450X_FTW > E. Julius
03/30/2015 at 10:50

The lack of weigh stations being open, millions of tons of salt we dump, and our state having the highest weight limits around don't help at all either.

Bad Idea Hat > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 10:51

"I don't drive on those roads. Why should my tax dollars go to paying for those roads?

I've got a good job and a family and a mortgage, so why should I pay for some lowlife crackhead welfare queen to drive on my dime?"

- and thus, the sad end of our country, as it crumbles into dust before our very eyes.

E. Julius > 450X_FTW
03/30/2015 at 10:57

Very true. I just wish they would have approved the gas tax increase. It seemed like such an appropriate solution to the problem, but for some reason people seem to base their entire political opinions on gas prices. I don't see why they didn't just go for it considering most people probably would have just blamed Obama anyway.

Skamanda > E. Julius
03/30/2015 at 11:02

Wasn't the gas tax increase a bad idea because they didn't explicitly state that any of the funds have to go to road repairs? I thought that was the biggest problem with all of this. All the money can just be spent anywhere, and so it goes everywhere but the roads...

Skamanda > JGrabowMSt
03/30/2015 at 11:04

Don't get me wrong, that's a lot of potholes and all, but they aren't very big or deep in and of themselves. I dodge bigger ones that'd bottom out my car on a daily basis. There's probably 100 roads throughout metro Detroit that look like this, and unlike the one this guy's complaining about out in the sticks, these are in the city and surrounding suburbs.

E. Julius > Skamanda
03/30/2015 at 11:07

Perhaps in a specific iteration of the bill that was voted on. Speaking more generally of an excise tax on gasoline specifically designed to increase road funding, I think that is a pretty ideal solution. At the very least it's a better idea than increasing the sales tax, which makes no fucking sense.

450X_FTW > E. Julius
03/30/2015 at 11:08

People support legalized marijuana, so they need to put in action the Pot for Potholes program that was suggested not long ago. Legalized marijuana, tax it like Colorado does ( think it's 25%) and use the funds to fix the roads. Not to mention the even more millions the state would save by not punishing people for marijuana crimes anymore.

Could also make the builders of the roads put a warranty on them. Any damage to the roads they are responsible for X number of years.

E. Julius > 450X_FTW
03/30/2015 at 11:08

I would be in favor of that policy.

E. Julius > 450X_FTW
03/30/2015 at 11:08

The first policy I mean.

Skamanda > E. Julius
03/30/2015 at 11:11

Yes and no. I personally think the sales tax increase helps draw funding from people who don't directly use the roads. I know we don't have a LOT of people who rely on transit, but there are a lot of people who don't, themselves, drive. They still benefit from the goods being shipped around the state to stores and such. A gas tax only gets people who own and drive cars. People who live in areas they can walk around, or who ride bikes, etc. also pay into it with a sales tax increase.

Skamanda > 450X_FTW
03/30/2015 at 11:13

There are road warranties, they just aren't followed up on by MDOT.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/loc…

450X_FTW > Skamanda
03/30/2015 at 11:20

WTF! We need Wayne Brady in charge of MDOT to start choking some bitches

Skamanda > 450X_FTW
03/30/2015 at 11:23

Can we put him in charge of the Detroit City Council, too?!

E. Julius > Skamanda
03/30/2015 at 11:24

But in cases like public transit, the tax would be paid by the bus companies or whoever and they could shift the costs onto their users. Either way, though it may be eliminating some of the free rider problem from people who exclusively walk/use bikes/whatever, the fact that it's comparatively weakly related to how much the roads are used doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

In addition a sales tax is a regressive tax, so it would mean that the tax increase would have a greater impact as proportion of income on a low income person who walks to work than a high income person who drives. If we weren't such a road dependent state you could make the argument that this is what's needed to balance out free riders, but I really don't think the problem is remotely large enough for that to be the answer.

Maybe something like the toll stickers you see in some European countries would be a decent answer to this problem. These also have the effect of making it possible to shift some of the burden to the people who don't live in the state but use the roads, who are another group of people that benefit from our roads without paying for them. Less obnoxious, less costly, and simpler to implement than toll roads.

450X_FTW > Skamanda
03/30/2015 at 12:32

lordy yes!

Skamanda > E. Julius
03/30/2015 at 13:17

Oh, man. I can't even imagine the nightmare that would result if we tried toll roads... :D

None of the taxes are really fair to people with lower income. Perhaps a temporary increase in sales tax, plus an additional fee on vehicle registration, plus a longer term but slightly smaller than proposed fuel tax...The sales tax increase would front-load the program with funding to get enough extra crews hired to start the work, and the other two would help sustain them through the duration, as the sales tax went back to normal, easing the burden it added to people with less cash...

I dunno...none of the situations are ideal, and someone's going to have something against anything anyone can come up with. I just know I'm willing to pay my share to get our roads back to a usable, sustainable state. We've been behind the game for so long on them, it's embarassing. Now we can't even come close to playing catch-up on the ones that broke from 2-3 years ago...

E. Julius > Skamanda
03/30/2015 at 15:51

Yeah pretty much any scenario is going to be some ridiculous quagmire, although I liked your multistage plan quite a bit. Hopefully somebody comes up with something. Like you said, I'm fine paying my share of it.

pip bip - choose Corrour > JGrabowMSt
03/31/2015 at 04:05

which part of Australia is this in?

JGrabowMSt > pip bip - choose Corrour
03/31/2015 at 06:09

Michigan, USA?

pip bip - choose Corrour > JGrabowMSt
03/31/2015 at 06:18

seriously looks like some of our roads.

and we don't have snow every year to fuck them up.

JGrabowMSt > pip bip - choose Corrour
03/31/2015 at 06:27

Yeah, thats rough. Up here we just do a poor job paving. The snow doesnt help, but Im pretty certain its not as dramatic an impact as we make it out to be. The cold alone does a fine job of creating havoc.

thebigbossyboss > JGrabowMSt
04/02/2015 at 10:56

Meanwhile in canada.

Kinja'd!!!