The Alternative

Traffic

Have you noticed all the wrecks at Highway 3 and Main Street in Hampton? No? That's because there haven't been any since the traffic signal died and was replaced by stop signs.

When we approach the intersection we look at the other drivers as if we coexist with them on planet Earth. How nice it is to know we can have a personal relationship with other drivers. Before, there was just a window with a profile speeding past. We stared at a light waiting for orders, and that took our attention off the other drivers and pedestrians.

I've heard the city has applied for a grant to install a new $100,000 (or more) signal despite the success of the present setup. A grant is the obvious solution because it is money we wouldn't spend if it were our own.

In Portishead, England the signals were covered by hoods and traffic flow improved by all measures with fewer accidents. That was even without replacing them with stop signs. People were more aware of their surroundings and so accidents were avoided. There was no racing to “make the light,” no waiting at the red for nobody to pass. What were congested streets became quiet and easy to maneuver for both cars and pedestrians.

This column is about traffic. As I travel about Iowa I'm amazed at the fantastic speed we can safely go over a land of soft black dirt or mud. I remember returning home from a wedding in Des Moines in 2008 and the lightning flashes made it look like we were on a Florida causeway all the way home at 70 miles per hour. Try that in mud. No, don't. The maintenance of these roads is also amazing. Machines literally eat the old road and spit out a new one.

But there is trouble in road land. The money is not flowing as fast as the spending. I've long been a proponent of a fuel tax to fund roads. It just seemed perfect. The heavier the vehicle the more they pay, commensurate with the use of the road. The tiny number of electric vehicles might seem like freeloaders in this scenario, but unless we allow even more subsidies of these wasteful cars, their numbers will not grow. We can deal with that later. The socialists would prefer an increase in registration fees or other taxes to punish those more successful than themselves. Is that any way to enable a prosperous Iowa? The DOT doesn't deserve any increase in funding.

When you pull off of the interstate into a rest area, have you thought you just woke up from a dream and found yourself checking into the Ritz Carlton? I tried without success to find out what these monstrosities cost. My state representative couldn't find time to do it and it doesn't matter. They obviously are ridiculous monuments to excess, rivaling the Pyramids of Egypt.

Surely these little Taj Mahals (as State Senator Dan Zumbach called them) couldn't amount to a hill of beans, right? The troubling part is that we would have to be fools to think this extravagance is limited to rest areas.

How about those LED signs across the entire roadway reminding us to buckle up, or whatever. I couldn't find what they cost either, but my state representative said they were put in place for traffic or weather warnings. Remember those little blue signs that said, “For traffic information tune your radio to 1670 AM?” Are these costly signs for people without car radios, another minor cost when figured into the big picture? No, another canary in the mineshaft.

There is more to all this than wasteful spending. The drive to “do something” about problems we should handle ourselves creates dependency and ultimately, stupidity. Is there really someone out there who believes we need a sign at a rest area that says, “No smoking on rest area grounds unless in enclosed personal vehicles”? Or gates to keep people off the interstate in extreme weather? What about the county or state roads? To really do the job right, we will eventually have an internet-based system that disables our vehicles to protect us from... who knows? Driving?

Our representatives in Des Moines are out to lunch. They don't give a darn about the money we send them. Like the traffic light in Hampton, most of what they spend is for self-aggrandizement, not to facilitate an orderly society. Their extravagant spending makes us more dependent, less likely to think for ourselves and more vulnerable and accepting of scams like highway funding that doesn't fund highways.

The cash wasted by the state could be better spent by individuals on their own needs. And if we have a problem with their spending, at least it's their money, not ours.

I have to wonder: With whom are our state officials lunching?

Any comments are always welcome at 4selfgovernment@gmail.comor through a letter to this paper. You can also follow other info and entertainment on Fritz's blog: www.alternativebyfritz.com