Project 365 – Day 169
January 21, 2010
“A Road In New York”
I didn’t quite know what title to give this photograph… then I thought a very generic one would be perfectly suited for this post. I know I will upset some people by writing this, but I think the state of the roads in New York City is a real shame. Or its public infrastructure in general. While not so much in recent years, I’ve traveled a lot. The closest it’s made me think of when I first came and drove here is post-soviet countries.
I have a few theories.
So much traffic they don’t bother shutting it down to work on roads until they get so bad it’s actually dangerous to drive. I’m not kidding. Sometimes the potholes are so big they need to put traffic cones in them so drivers don’t go and ruin their cars.
Lack of budget. I’ve seen the building of a new one lane exit take over a year. I’ve seen workers paint over the rust of the Queensboro bridge. Everything takes money, I understand that. It’s just sad to see that public infrastructure is the last of elected politicians’ problems. They’re just patching things, not fixing anything. No wonder that sometimes things crumble. Remember the steam pipe explosion?
Use of poor – but cheaper – material to fight snow. Not all “salt” and “sand” is created equal. It usually isn’t natural anyway, and some of it can actually slowly destroy roads over time. A short term vision will lead to the use of cheaper materials, resulting in many cracks in the roads as you can see in this photograph.
Whatever the reason, I hope one day it gets fixed. People are a product of their environment… so they say. It tends to be true, and public infrastructure is a part of it.
