Crude Numbers: What It Won't Cost To Fix Michigan Roads

A couple of times on in this blog, I have mentioned either friends and relatives or my own pothole related car repairs. Thousands of dollars between just a half dozen or so people. 

The Michigan legislature agrees it will take about 1.4 Billion dollars to just get a start on Really fixing Michigan roads. And then about that much each year for the next 5-10 years to get them up to national standards. They have historically been spending only a small fraction of that, neglecting one of the jobs we hired them to do.

And they continue to arrogantly refuse to fund a fix to this huge problem in spite of the proof that Michigan citizens want and are willing to pay for road repairs. To have what people in other states have. Good Roads.

Lawmakers here say we don't want higher taxes (translation: 'If I raise your taxes you wont vote for me and I'll lose my job.'). Yet polls say we ARE willing to pay for better roads. That would mean among other things, lower auto repairs. So what would that get us?

Let's say each of us pays on average about $100.00 less a year on bad road related repairs to our cars, and take a portion of that savings if we get good roads and put it back into road repairs. Is that a reasonable number? Well consider this: Several well researched reports have stated that Michigan drivers pay an annual average of $538.96 in bad-road-related repairs, the highest among motorists in the Great Lakes States. But get this; One report I found, a TRIP report by the National Transportation Research Group released in January of this year stated in it's summary "Deficient roadways cost Detroit area drivers $1,600 annually, Lansing area drivers $1032 annually, and Grand Rapids area drivers $1,027 annually for a total of $7.7 billion statewide. Costs will rise and transportation woes will worsen without a significant funding boost.". The full report can be found here.

That is a crap load of money! Just look at MY bad road related repairs in the last 6 months, just about all front end parts busted by bad roads -

PLEASE MAKE IT STOP !!

What would we get if we took just a portion of that money, less NORMAL wear and tear related repairs and put it toward repairing and improving Michigan roads?

Here's what I read in an article by Rick Haglund titled A Tale of Two States: The Road To Prosperity.

 

        "In fiscal year 2013, Minnesota spent $502 per capita on transportation from state taxes, more than double the $223 per capita Michigan spent that year."

What's that got to do with car repairs? Again in the article Mr. Haglund said:

"What about Minnesota? You guessed it. Motorists there pay an average of $369.25 in repairing damage caused by poor roads, the lowest in the Great Lakes region, according to a White House report."

So, it won't cost us As Much in car repairs if we Fix Our Roads. And we can take some of that savings and put it back into fixing and maintaining our roads, something most of us in Michigan want to do. It just makes sense. In the end we all save money, improve business (businesses save on vehicle repairs too and tourism benefits), have less stress and plain feel better about our Great State of Michigan. Something I can not say right now about our negligent - self-serving legislators (my good opinion).

To sum it up. It won't cost us as much to Fix Our Roads as it does now to keep fixing our cars! Period.

Just sayin'

Drive Careful,
Will