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Yesterday an AMTRAK train had to sit with all of it's passengers for 24 hours in rural South Carolina. Today the entire country was closed to air travel because of our antiquated flight control system. All over the country cities are dealing with lead water pipes.
We need vastly improved rail networks.. CSX has first dibs on almost every track and AMTRAK has hardly any of its own. The flight control system hasn't been upgraded in over 30 years.

Just wait until our pets heads start falling off!

(01-11-2023 02:20 PM)GRBRONCO Wrote:  Just wait until our pets heads start falling off!

Yep - it's been ignored for decades as our elected officials from both parties kick the can down the road. Now we're seeing the result, and (of course) the right is blaming Buttigieg. Like he could fix ALL of this in his first two years.

We'll see if they step up to address the situation, or if they continue to play politics with it.

Uh, they're going to play politics. It's been 15+ years since the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis across the Mississippi River collapsed. Nothing has really changed. We're just adding more crumbling infrastructure and 30-40 year-old computer systems.

Well, not to get too much into it, but...when you design an entire country the size of the US in service of the automobile, combine that with extremely inefficient urban sprawl and low density housing, and a population that refuses to accept a higher tax rate to cover massive construction and maintenance costs....this is what you get.

Americans have to drive everywhere because of terrible civil engineering in the 50s that embraced the new American way of life. Every American wants their own home, plot of land, two cars and a two car garage, etc...well someone has to pay for all those roads. And it's not just roads. When you compare say a clump of 5 large apartment buildings to a suburb of 10,000 individual single-family homes, think about the amount of infrastructure required to serve those communities. How many more lane miles of road, electrical lines, phone/internet lines, water/sewer lines, etc..will be needed to get these utilities to the same amount of people. A road that is built and maintained to serve 1,000 people costs the same as one that serves 10 people, relatively. And don't even get me started on parking lots. God I hate those things. I understand their necessity, but they are huge, ugly, expensive, non-producing, environmentally-damaging pieces of land to serve one purpose that shouldn't be needed in the first place. Every place of employment, store, park, venue, wherever...has to have one and most of them are mostly empty most of the time. So inefficient.

Soooo we need to accept that our nation (and others) will have to go through a radical change in land use, zoning, transportation, taxation, and more before anything gets better. The great irony is our massive infrastructure projects between the 1930s and 1960s are what built America into a powerhouse, but we maybe overbuilt and our failure to maintain and improve that infrastructure will be our undoing.

(01-11-2023 02:30 PM)MajorHoople Wrote:  

(01-11-2023 02:20 PM)GRBRONCO Wrote:  Just wait until our pets heads start falling off!

Can you say pretty bird?

This is what small government/refusal to pay any taxes gets you in a country the size of the US with 330 million people.

(01-11-2023 08:01 PM)BroncoFan2 Wrote:  Yep - it's been ignored for decades as our elected officials from both parties kick the can down the road. Now we're seeing the result, and (of course) the right is blaming Buttigieg. Like he could fix ALL of this in his first two years.

We'll see if they step up to address the situation, or if they continue to play politics with it.

While the infrastructure problem is not Buttigieg's fault, the appointment of Buttigieg was pretty telling. An administration that is serious about tackling the country's infrastructure problem would not appoint someone with no relevant experience to an important post as a political favor for dropping out and endorsing their campaign.

(01-12-2023 10:26 AM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  

(01-11-2023 08:01 PM)BroncoFan2 Wrote:  Yep - it's been ignored for decades as our elected officials from both parties kick the can down the road. Now we're seeing the result, and (of course) the right is blaming Buttigieg. Like he could fix ALL of this in his first two years.

We'll see if they step up to address the situation, or if they continue to play politics with it.

While the infrastructure problem is not Buttigieg's fault, the appointment of Buttigieg was pretty telling. An administration that is serious about tackling the country's infrastructure problem would not appoint someone with no relevant experience to an important post as a political favor for dropping out and endorsing their campaign.

He ran a city. That's more experience in infrastructure than a lot of people appointed to Cabinet positions. And when it comes to spending money on infrastructure, which party is more likely to say "we don't have the money for it", and thus prevent it from ever happening? Republicans. What's telling is that this didn't happen until a Democrat was in the White House and the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate.

(01-12-2023 10:26 AM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  While the infrastructure problem is not Buttigieg's fault, the appointment of Buttigieg was pretty telling. An administration that is serious about tackling the country's infrastructure problem would not appoint someone with no relevant experience to an important post as a political favor for dropping out and endorsing their campaign.

And what exactly was Elaine Chao? At least Pete isn't a national security risk. Chao has family business times in China=PRC!

(01-11-2023 11:18 PM)bronconick Wrote:  Uh, they're going to play politics. It's been 15+ years since the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis across the Mississippi River collapsed. Nothing has really changed. We're just adding more crumbling infrastructure and 30-40 year-old computer systems.

When I first read this post my thought went directly to the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. If this could happen in a major city on a major interstate in the United States, what other bridges are suspect -- especially in rural communities. I think about it often when I cross a river on a major interstate.

Infrastructure is like immigration, neither party really wants to fix it because it’s such a great talking point when running for office, they don’t want to give it up.

(01-15-2023 06:35 AM)Doo Wrote:  Infrastructure is like immigration, neither party really wants to fix it because it’s such a great talking point when running for office, they don’t want to give it up.

I beg to differ. Democrats actually want to invest in and improve our transportation infrastructure. GQPers, on the other hand, want nothing other than tax cuts for the rich.

(01-15-2023 09:34 AM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  

(01-15-2023 06:35 AM)Doo Wrote:  Infrastructure is like immigration, neither party really wants to fix it because it’s such a great talking point when running for office, they don’t want to give it up.

I beg to differ. Democrats actually want to invest in and improve our transportation infrastructure. GQPers, on the other hand, want nothing other than tax cuts for the rich.

I truly do feel sorry for you. But I realize it’s pointless to try to change your mind that they are both the problem.

(01-15-2023 10:06 AM)Doo Wrote:  I truly do feel sorry for you. But I realize it’s pointless to try to change your mind that they are both the problem.

Sure. The last bipartisan policy in the US is both Ds and Rs flushing money down the toilet on widening highways and promoting car ownership as the only real transportation solution in the US. Democrats are almost as guilty as Republicans there.

Other than that, I stand by my statement.

That’s about the answer I would’ve expected. You’ve been sold a bill of goods.

(01-15-2023 07:02 PM)Doo Wrote:  That’s about the answer I would’ve expected. You’ve been sold a bill of goods.

You should wake up already. Why don't you bother refuting my statement instead of crying about it?

(01-12-2023 08:36 PM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  

(01-12-2023 10:26 AM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:  While the infrastructure problem is not Buttigieg's fault, the appointment of Buttigieg was pretty telling. An administration that is serious about tackling the country's infrastructure problem would not appoint someone with no relevant experience to an important post as a political favor for dropping out and endorsing their campaign.

And what exactly was Elaine Chao? At least Pete isn't a national security risk. Chao has family business times in China=PRC!

(01-14-2023 11:58 PM)BroncoMD Wrote:  

(01-11-2023 11:18 PM)bronconick Wrote:  Uh, they're going to play politics. It's been 15+ years since the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis across the Mississippi River collapsed. Nothing has really changed. We're just adding more crumbling infrastructure and 30-40 year-old computer systems.

When I first read this post my thought went directly to the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. If this could happen in a major city on a major interstate in the United States, what other bridges are suspect -- especially in rural communities. I think about it often when I cross a river on a major interstate.

Chao was confirmed with only 5 negative votes from Dems.