[Speed Gibson,
Friday August 10, 2007 at 2:50pm]
That Which is Rewarded gets Done
In an era of paying young school children to do what they should do anyway, maybe we don't have the right incentive packages for droll tasks like road repair. Several have noted that politicians are geared toward announcing grants and cutting ribbons for new stuff, not refurbishing old stuff.
Maybe we need more ceremonies for maintenance, which dovetails with another theory of mine.
Too often it seems to me, we try to do maintenance on open roads roads and bridges. That is, we close or reroute a lane or two, but otherwise keep them partially open. Maybe we should just close them outright, get it done all at once and quickly, then reopen - with a ribbon cutting ceremony so the politicians can take some credit.
I'm talking about the big projects, like resurfacing, not restriping. This would be safer for the workers, too.
The I-35W bridge is gone, yet traffic isn't paralyzed as a few expected. A number of simple changes and some common sense by drivers is doing a decent job so far. Why wouldn't this apply to some other large projects? Just let people know in advance, close it, fix it, and yes, celebrate a little. I think this beats crawling through such a zone on the one lane remaining open.
Maybe we need more ceremonies for maintenance, which dovetails with another theory of mine.
Too often it seems to me, we try to do maintenance on open roads roads and bridges. That is, we close or reroute a lane or two, but otherwise keep them partially open. Maybe we should just close them outright, get it done all at once and quickly, then reopen - with a ribbon cutting ceremony so the politicians can take some credit.
I'm talking about the big projects, like resurfacing, not restriping. This would be safer for the workers, too.
The I-35W bridge is gone, yet traffic isn't paralyzed as a few expected. A number of simple changes and some common sense by drivers is doing a decent job so far. Why wouldn't this apply to some other large projects? Just let people know in advance, close it, fix it, and yes, celebrate a little. I think this beats crawling through such a zone on the one lane remaining open.