Based on the article this entire phenomena is justified in my opinion. It was paving every road when petroleum was dirt cheap that was unwarranted. The lower

Based on the article this entire phenomena is justified in my opinion. It was paving every road when petroleum was dirt cheap that was unwarranted. The lower costs of building/maintaining are the tradeoff for a lower traffic road. In terms of all the issues facing America today, paving every road doesn't seem like a very important one compared to the cost explosion in healthcare. Most of the problems the locals encountered in the article would be fixed if they replaced the no maintenance paved road with a low maintenance gravel road. When I grew up, my home was on a gravel road in Texas and we just drove slower once we got off the paved road. It was the cost of living in a rural area and we just accepted it. Eventually the road was paved but there were still unpaved roads all around me by the time I graduated high school.