A Chinese traffic jam, 60 miles in length, days in duration, is mostly amusing to the American observer.
A traffic jam of that magnitude wouldn’t happen here of course. It’s absurd. Cultural differences between the Chinese response and the easily imagined American response are amusing as well. The stranded motorists were, strangely, more upset with the price-gouging opportunism of the zealous converts to capitalism that sold them food, drinks and gas, than with the government that stranded them.
While we have no dystopian farce of weeklong traffic jams in the United States, our roads and traffic are nevertheless no joking matter.
In many ways the American infrastructure, the sinew and steel of our national body, is weaker now than it has been in a very long time.
Statistics from the Pew Research Center indicate that over a third of U.S. roadways are in “substandard condition,” which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has driven in cities other than Phoenix. Where roads are in better shape, they are often insufficient to handle the quantity of traffic that growing communities produce. This gridlock affects the economy: people who are stuck in traffic are wasting time and money.
A national program of road construction and maintenance should be a priority. Roads should be better planned and more efficiently directed. Variable tolls based on usage rates should be an option, and we should not be afraid to utter the dreaded word “private” in the context of transportation.
Traffic is only one aspect of a gathering infrastructural storm. As annoying as traffic can be, and as important as mobility is to an economy, there are still more ominous infrastructure concerns.
The last two presidential administrations’ misadventures in disaster response should be a potent reminder that crises often erupt where least expected and waiting until they happen to plan a response is a disaster on top of disaster.
Even in scenarios we should expect, our preparation is poor. A June report by the inspector general of the Justice Department painted a grim picture of our readiness in the case of nuclear, biological or chemical terrorist attacks. As Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal shortly after the report was issued, the report analyzed not our counterterrorism programs, but our disaster relief programs. Terror prevention efforts, while critical and effective since 9/11, depend largely on fortune and remain largely outside our control. Disaster relief efforts, on the other hand, depend on planning and are within our control.
One hopes the Obama administration is rectifying our unpreparedness, but if history is any guide, we will be prepared for the last crisis and not the next.
There is, of course, a philosophical point to be made here. If our government cannot ensure security, mobility and a stable power grid — its most obvious responsibilities — what can it ensure?
In the ongoing debate over the effectiveness of last year’s stimulus package, conservatives looking for an opening salvo should keep this mantra handy: roads and readiness. Defenders of the stimulus should have to point not only to economic recovery, which has yet to materialize, but also to measurable improvements in infrastructure and preparedness, which may never, if they are to justify the expense of the stimulus.
Beyond the pragmatic, what a nation builds often takes on metaphorical significance. The America of the 1950s was unquestionably a nation on the move. This relentless energy and sense of possibility is a Zeitgeist common to most American eras, especially necessary in this era of rumored decline.
While a roads and readiness project is an ambitious and critical one, it is also one that requires patience and foresight. These being some of our most neglected national virtues, we are unlikely to fully undertake it. But we should because we may regret it if we don’t.
Reach Will at wmunsil@asu.edu
