I’ve long advocated for skinny local road standards and implementing “road diets” for existing streets. While often controversial, the idea of narrow streets just makes sense.  Streets largely determine the “feel” and livability of our neighborhoods. Narrow streets increase the sense of connection between those living in a community, decrease travel speeds, increase safety, decrease construction and long-term O&M costs, and dramatically reduce environmental impacts (for both stormwater and the “heat island” effect of asphalt). And to me, neighborhoods built around narrow street sections just feel right.

We are all keenly aware that the buying power of our dollar simply isn’t what it used to be.  But how often do we look at the buying power of our tax dollars? I imagine that most of us agonize about how much we individually pay into the tax system, but don’t consider how those tax dollars buy less and less as time goes on. Unfortunately, agencies at every level are dealing with the financial difficulty of less buying power, and many of them are dealing with declining revenues as well. That’s two trends heading in the same, albeit wrong, direction.

Transportation funding is one of those nagging topics subject to the same declining trends of buying power and incoming revenue. Whether we are thinking of state or local transportation funding, or funding at the national level, there are alarming trends that put the future of infrastructure, and the economy, at risk.

In my last post, I set the stage to talk about how we at MacKay Sposito use technology to assist our energy and transportation field work spanning multiple states and crossing many a remote area. At the end of that post, I asked folks what tool they use most to get from Point A to Point B and below are the results of that survey:

Many of us will readily admit to having anxiety when receiving press inquiries regarding a controversial project.  I am sure you immediately envision drawing a blank on live television.  Or in your nervousness you begin to talk and you realize nothing is ever "off the record."  Breaking into a cold sweat yet?  This doesn’t have to be a scary experience.  In fact, the advantages far outweigh the temporary heart palpitations.