Now this may not be the sexiest issue around but it is one that impacts just about everyone in Memphis. The conditions of our roads, in some parts of the city is not just bad, in some areas it's downright horrible. If you do not believe me, take a little jaunt down Park ave, between Airways and Getwell or Appling between Stage and I-40 sometime. The conditions of our roads causes damage to motorist's vehicles, "damage to tires and vehicle suspensions", accidents and results in the public basically paying twice for the same things, as their taxes pay for the maintenance of these roads then they have to turn around and pay for repairs and wear and tear on their vehicles at a rate higher than they would if driving on better paved roads..It also bears mentioning that Memphis's status as a trucking and shipping hub places higher levels of Road wear on our streets than under normal circumstances.
".[41] According to a series of experiments carried out in the late 1950s, called the AASHO Road Test, it was empirically determined that the effective damage done to the road is roughly proportional to the 4th power of axle weight .[42] A typical tractor-trailer weighing 80,000 pounds (36.287 t) with 8,000 pounds (3.6287 t) on the steer axle and 36,000 pounds (16.329 t) on both of the tandem axle groups is expected to do 7,800 times more damage than a passenger vehicle with 2,000 pounds (0.907 t) on each axle."-Wikipedia.
"Failure to maintain roads properly can create significant costs to society, in a 2009 report released by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (USA) about 50% of the roads in the USA are in bad condition with urban areas worse. The report estimates that urban drivers pay an average of $746/year on vehicle repairs while the average US motorist pays about $335/year. In contrast, the average motorist pays about $171/year in road maintenance taxes (based on 600 gallons/year and $0.285/gallon tax)."Wikidepia
One of the main problems stems from the fact that road repaving is done on a time based interval instead of a need based model. Thus our current system fails to adequately address road condition in the areas that need it the most. Why should anyone care?...well despite Rep Cohen bringing home some much needed bacon ,Cities are largely being screwed in stimulus dollars for road construction by the states. Screwed
Now a simple suggestion...
In Pennsylvania, the State Department of Transportation has launched a pretty innovative plan to make street paving services more efficient. It's called videolog
Videologging involves a truck equipped with a series of cameras that take a series of pictures of the roads that the truck drives over. These photos and the software that accompanies them will allow Public Works to better know the exact level of deterioration of all the roads within the City of Memphis. More to the point by using GIS software and computers that the city already has Public Works can pinpoint Streets in need of repaving and set up a system to repave roads based on need and will be able to do this more efficiently, cheaply, and easily.
From the PDOT website.
There are two key benefits gained by doing VideoLogging; first there is a reduction in time for some personnel to have to drive to the field for accessing field data and conditions, this can now be accomplished from a computer anywhere there is Internet access and second hiring of field crews to do manual distress ratings of the mainline surface conditions is no longer needed.
This proposal may not lower your taxes, but it will save Memphis motorists and professional drivers alot of money in repairs make our government more efficient and save money, and in time make Memphis road conditions the envy of the region. And you know what they say about a penny saved...
In fact, it might be interesting if someone went out to the voters of the Park and Getwell area and urged them to not vote for any candidate that would not commit to improving road conditions in their area. Now, if only someone would go out and organize people to do that...
Friday, July 10, 2009
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8 comments:
You really think you're going to get the creative class to move here with better roads ;)
LOL well...to be honest with you....I'm more concerned with stopping the bleeding. Memphis needs to get back to the fundamentals of providing quality services for our residents. This makes Memphis a better city to live in, which in turn curbs the tide of residents leaving for suburban areas. This increases the tax base, which in turn helps attracts business. We don't need silly and short sighted pilots, or expensive and useless gimmicks or stadiums. We need to focus on improving the quality of life for all our residents, that will attract new residents and economy opportunity.
We seem to be obsessed with maximizing our pros instead of minimizing our cons.
We only got like 2 pros. Maybe we should minimize our cons. We have a bumper crop of those.
LOL
Programs like this can be mandated by a mayor but the main thing is for the mayor to appointment bright, enthusiastic, and imaginative directors. In this case, it would be a really good public works director. They often come from career people but I'm not sure they there are many of these types left at City Hall.
The next mayor may have to find someone outside to come in, get things moving, and train good managers to work on a better infrastructure maintenance program.
Then the mayor can concentrate on long term vision that he or she is supposed to be doing.
You'll get no argument from me on the need to appoint good managers and directors. However, I think we do still have some very bright and imaginative career people working in City government in many departments. The problem is that the current work environment in city government stifles the abilities of these creative and competent individuals. People are discouraged from bringing bad news to their superiors. Innovative suggestions are not followed through,and at times there is little or no accountability. I say while we should bring in some "new blood" we also need to unchain the bright and competent folks we already have. Another problem is that the city spends waaay to much money on outside consultants, because many departments are unaware of their own capacity. In fact i know of at least a half a dozen cases where consultants were called in and paid large sums of money to basically state the obvious. Those same reports could and in some cases have already been done by city employees and the University of Memphis for a fraction of the cost.
Brad,
Consultants are normally used, especially by public entities, to provide political cover, i.e. "we had to do it, cause the experts said so."
When I was at the University, a consultant was hired for a project for my department. They spent a million dollars and all we got was a shoddy product that embarrassed us all. In the meantime, employees were being paid 10-15% below market.
There you have it folks...make sure to ask the candidates about their management styles, and their views on our over reliance on consultants.
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