5 ms·
Dno. The roads here are way better than other places with lower taxes, it’s beautiful, the air and water are clean, and so on. Everywhere has plenty of things
by borski 3y ago
Dno. The roads here are way better than other places with lower taxes, it’s beautiful, the air and water are clean, and so on.
Everywhere has plenty of things to complain about. I’d like to spend less in taxes, always.
But at least it does feel, objectively, like we live in a mostly lovely place that actually does protect employees, have access to great healthcare, great roads, great charging infrastructure (relative to the rest of the US) and so on.
- borkt 3y agoWhat part of the state are you in with good roads? Sonoma county here, miserable roads
- borski 3y agoBay Area, but I’m from NYC, so my standard for “bad road” is relatively high - there are a lot of potholes right now from the rain, but in general they get fixed quickly, the roads are wide and many-lanes, and generally don’t do insane things like loop back on themselves or anything like that.
- kelnos 3y agoI disagree with this. I live in SF and the roads range from terrible to just-ok. And not just in the city; US-101 is just kinda ok (despite vaguely-regular maintenance), and many local roads I see in nearby smaller towns and cities (South SF, Daly City, Belmont, San Mateo) are -- at best -- just ok. Similar situation when I drive north toward Sonoma. A major issue in SF proper is that crews are constantly digging up parts of roads to work on pipes or whatever, and then patch them in a haphazard, crappy way. Roads get fully resurfaced rarely. As an example, there's a super nasty patched and re-patched and re-patched and re-patched section of 18th St (between Minnesota and Tennessee) that has been a nightmare for at least 4 years now. A section of Tennessee between 18th and 19th was resurfaced about a year ago (in part because there was building construction along the road that did heavy damage), but just this past week they were digging up a large section in the center of the road to do some work underneath, and when they patched it up, they as usual did a crap job, so the road sucks again. I grew up in New Jersey (80s) and Maryland (90s), and the roads were much better maintained in both of those places, Maryland especially.
- borski 3y agoI agree SF has shit roads. I do not find that to be the case almost anywhere else in CA. I’ll put it this way too: while I’m mindful of potholes, generally, I have yet to have a single issue popping any of my 21” thin sidewall summer tires on my >5500lb EV. My counterparts in the South have popped between 2 and 10 depending on who you ask. The answer each time is: hit a pothole. Some of that’s driving. Some of it is also just the roads. They’re far from perfect. But they’re better than most other states.
- ensignavenger 3y agoAnecdotal, but I have driven across a majority of US states, from Florida to Alaska (and also, on both the East and West sides of Canada) and haven't noticed any strong correlation between the quality of the roads and how high a states taxes are.
- lettergram 3y agoMost of what you’re driving on could be federal highways. I’m in the same boat, have driven just about everywhere and I haven’t seen any major correlation.
- alienthrowaway 3y agoI noticed an immediate degradation in surface quality on the interstate when I crossed into Alabama. Aren't the states responsible for upkeep using federal dollars? Some states are better than others at this.
- simfree 3y agoInitial roadway construction is using primarily federal dollars, but long-term maintenance is usually primarily funded by the state or local municipality.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoSince you mentioned Florida, the roads go from good to bad as soon as you cross the border into Alabama, which is a really interesting experience on the interstate. But yes, the roads are bad in Deep South states, although the taxes aren’t really that low either (just people don’t make much money to get much out of them).
- mandeepj 3y ago> But yes, the roads are bad in Deep South states Interesting! Quite contrary from the prevailing wisdom - snow and salt destroy the roads. Maybe they don’t make them well to begin with.
- SoftTalker 3y agoIt's because they don't have winter. Winter, freezing/thawing, and salt is what destroys roads.
- borski 3y agoTell that to Tahoe or any of the many mountainous regions of CA. :)
- asadotzler 3y agoTell that to Mississippi which has s*t roads and no winter freezing/thawing or salt to consider. Broke ass red states can barely afford to keep their roads passable for the most part. There are a couple of exceptions where the states are willing to starve their children to keep the roads up, but most red states fail at both feeding kids and maintaining roads. If it wasn't for the cash infusion from the well off blue states, the red states would literally be third world.
- wolverine876 3y agoDon't forget the world-class higher education system, with the two of the top universities in the world.
- borski 3y agoOh yeah, and spectacular public schooling - the state schools are top notch, as are many of the lower education public schools.
- geraldwhen 3y agoLA county school system is one of the worst in the nation and it costs nearly the most.
- borski 3y agoFair point. I don’t live in LA and was not aware of the school issues there. But by and large, CA does have great public school, and top-tier public universities.
- vondur 3y agoRoads in California are good? We must live in different states.
- nullc 3y agoMy experience is that the Florida roads are significantly better than the roads in the bay area. And Florida has no income tax and lower sales taxes than California.
- kelnos 3y ago> The roads here are way better than other places with lower taxes I live in San Francisco and absolutely disagree with this. The roads are garbage. And lest we think that's just a city thing, whenever I leave the city and drive out on local and state roads they range from garbage to ok-ish. My family moved to Maryland when I was a teenager, and the roads there were pristine (90s, not sure about nowadays). It felt like some section of some road or highway near me was always being resurfaced.