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The answer mostly is about when they built them. My guess is this was from the 50's or 60's on a lot of this stuff, when the amount of suburbs was still low whi
by pixl97 1y ago
The answer mostly is about when they built them. My guess is this was from the 50's or 60's on a lot of this stuff, when the amount of suburbs was still low which limited the costs of infrastructure spending on maintenance. Now we can't afford that because we have zillions of miles of roads that have to be paved and kept up for low tax providing single family homes. The density of these houses is too low to justify tunnels/bridges all the places we need them.
Then add in modern cost disease on top of it and it starts making sense.
- bluGill 1y agoRoads are nothing to governments budget. They are big to normal people but the cost is very small to any town and they are visible. That is why so much happens - - you can build them for cheap enough and get votes without spending much. Or you can appear to cut spending without touching the budget. Anyone who really cares about spending ignores roads while those who don't play games with that area to look like they do something without affecting anything
- QuercusMax 1y agoCitations please - road maintenance is usually a large part of budgets. You can't just build a road without maintaining it.
- neilcj 1y ago> You can't just build a road without maintaining it. Sure you can, just look at Indiana.
- bluGill 1y agoCheck out the budget of any government. Most publish it. public works are 5% in my community, plus 25% capital dept. I can't tell how much is roads vs parks, sidewalk, or water supply though. schools come from a seperate budget. at state and federal levels where most taxes go roads are even less.
- pixl97 1y agoRoads are a fair chunk of the budget, but health related expenses generally are far more. The problem is a car dominated city generates massive health costs. Walkable cities are healthier cities. Walkable cities reduce crashes both with other cars and pedestrians. Walkable cities reduce pollution and lower the amount of total road miles needed by their citizens.
- bluGill 1y agoI fully agree, but the fact remains roads are not that expensive in the grand scheme. Well they are not that expensive so long as the city isn't stupid about growth projections - strong towns likes to take some examples of cities being stupid and extrapolate that to all cities.