Posted by common_sense on July 18, 2008 at 9:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Rest stops are so not needed anymore. Most people stop & rest at McDonald's or some other fast food restaurant on most any exit.

Those who are involved in police chases & lose their tires, resulting in their wheels gouging grooves in the pavement, should be billed for repaving, as well as any other damage caused by their stupidity (guardrail repair, etc).

I'm just sayin...

Posted by PHiers on July 18, 2008 at 10:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Rocks blow off of the large construction trucks, tractor-trailer rigs routinely take exit and entrance ramps too fast and hit the guard rails, construction debris ends up all over the sides of the road, etc, etc. The state, county, and municiple authorities should be collecting higher fines for all of the above whenever possible. The taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill to pay for the damage to our roads caused by wreckless drivers.

Posted by pompusmaximus on July 18, 2008 at 10:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"rest stops are not needed anymore"?

Have you even drank a bunch of coffee on a road trip? Rest stops have saved me from having to use a bottle.

I think the 18 wheelers are whats causing so much ware and tear of the roads. I can't recall the exact number but one 18 wheeler causes about 50 cars worth of damage to the road.
(somebody doublecheck those numbers please). Anyway, we shoudl probably start revitalizing are railroad system to cheaply transport large goods to markets.

Posted by common_sense on July 18, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I've drank plenty of liquids on a road trip. I also pace myself, so I don't have to stop much. As most exits have some sort of fast food establishment or car-friendly truck stop (Pilot), I still maintain rest stops are antiquated & a drain on taxpayers.

I'm just sayin...

Posted by Zod on July 18, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Phiers, you do not know what you are talking about.

When trucks wreck, you will see a recovery crew. You do not see a tow truck driver with a broom. You see a recovery crew. The reovery crew is paid to clean the mess. They charge on average $60 per person, per hour for the clean up too. The next time you see a load turned over you should think - "There goes $5000 dollars" as more often than not, it's close to that amount.

There are hefty fines for debris originating from truck loads. It's already law. What you should be referencing is law ENFORCEMENT.

Posted by Zod on July 18, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)

It's funny that a California study was cited at the end of this article saying our roads were subsidized. Our roads are not subsidized. California's are subsidized though.

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary...

Posted by 512c on July 18, 2008 at 11:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)

In Europe they have places to pull over on the highways, every 10 kilometers or so, with a phone. The trucks are always on the right far lane, unless they need to rarely move over.
Here that is the law, but often times, we rely only on trucks to move shiny new crap around, so there are too many trucks, and most wrecks are caused by mixing our transportation system and our shipping in the same stew.
I am starting to Hate the trucks, as they constantly risk wrecks being in a hurry.

Posted by wjhamilton3 on July 18, 2008 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Most of the half penny sales taxes collected in Charleston is being used to construct roads and most of that money doesn't come from gas, but is charges on retail sales of goods. In Mt. Pleasant we also use the hospitality, food and beverages taxes for road construction. None of that is gas tax. Finally the town of Mt. Pleasant has been using the general tax fund for road construction which comes from real estate and business license taxes. All of this is a subsidy to the private automobile. On top of this most of the actual work done by the fire and police departments and the majority of their equipment is being used to police the roads and respond to accidents. Finally a lot of what EMS does is responding to automobile accidents. All that is paid for from general tax funds.

The Asphalt and Petrolium industries are buying a lot of science and research at the moment, but each private automobile in the US is getting subsidized to the tune of about five thousand dollars a year. You amy read stuff on the internet to the contrary, but everybody is paying for the roads, not just gas tax money. Federal gas taxes have been falling behind the actual expendatures for decades. Local governments have been paying a bigger share. Mt. Pleasant is a classic example of what has been happening. Some state and federal money is being used as well, but more and more is being obtained from local, not gas tax sources.

Given the large numbers of people who can't drive due to disabilities, age, legal problems and cost, this tired argument that the roads pay for themselves really needs to be dismissed at this point.

Posted by devon991 on July 18, 2008 at 11:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)

How about everyone that's on the road pays what one truck has to pay to use the roads. The federal gas tax on a truck is $0.10 per mile to use the roads. We drive our cars for free on the roads. Not only are truckers forced to pay sales tax, local tax and federal tax by just purchasing fuel, they are also forced to pay every quarter that 10 cents per mile tax as well. How would most of you like to do that? We don't because the trucks put more wear and tear on the highways, that is why they are forced to pay that fee. How would most of you like to pay the fee they pay for just getting their tags every year? Not including the dreaded property tax, it cost's an average of over $2000 per truck just to be registered. Think about it the next time you see a rig going down the road and how good the 4 wheelers have it.

Posted by ginj on July 18, 2008 at 12:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

The reason there isn't enough money to maintain the roads is the State Legislature uses the gas tax as they see fit to help pay for their pet projects. The Federal Gas tax, which is suppose to be redistributed fairly amongst the states, is more often than not sent to those states with the most powerful Representatives or Senators. Just look at West Virginia for example who has far more interstate highway miles per capita than we do. It's well beyond time for our elected officials to realize IT'S NOT THE GOVERNMENTS MONEY - IT'S OUR MONEY!!!!!

Posted by drp7773 on July 18, 2008 at 2:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I think these cost are way out of line, prisoners clean the sides of roads, only a little gas cost, 255,000 for mowing what once a month tops maybe once every 2 months, again tractors are paid for and the county worker salary is not that much , so we are talking gas right for the tractor.come on 255,00 thats BS and guard rail repairs are usually caused from an accident and usually these vehicles are still on site when the cops get there which means insurance companies should be paying for these repairs......I think its AUDIT time and a total investigation in this dept and managers. Sweep the roads , I have never see a truck sweeping the interstate and I travel I-26 35,000 to 45,000 miles a year when are they swept????

Posted by PalmettoDP on July 18, 2008 at 8:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Right on, ginj

The last federal highway bill had an earmark (read, "pork") to relocate an intersection in my hometown of Bamberg. Granted, it's a lot nicer now, but that money would have been better spent on projects of regional or national significance (such as interstate widening).