Interstate Congestion

As most of you know one thing that trips my trigger is productivity. And boy this time I have got one productivity sink that we must remedy before it breaks us.

Have you been on the rural interstate highways lately? I mean away from the big cities?

What do you see out there? Lines and lines of trucks. And those trucks are the lifeline of our economy. What this country needs to do is to go three lanes in all rural interstate highways, "Give Ike 3". As President Eisenhower started the interstate system after seeing the strength of the autobahn in Germany we need to get out of the 1950's and into the new century.

If we put a $0.10 tax per gallon on top of the $0.05 we already have for highways we could build more than 20,000 miles of single lane expansions in ten years.

I would also suggest that a portion (maybe 1/2 cent per gallon) become a tax incentive for railroads to build NEW track. Not repair or upgrade old track, but to increase capacity by adding new track.

If we cannot move goods and services in this country because congestion is getting to us in the next 30 years we will have a collapse of this economy.

Now for all you environmental types, its not more trucks or cars on the roads, its making room for those that already are on the road to move efficiently and turn miles for the gallons of biodiesel or biofuels that will be burning. We are already limiting the efficiency of the transportation we already are running.

I am not sure how to start a movement to get legislation going on this, but I will take a crack at it.

When was the last time you drove on a rural interstate only to be caught in congestion way outside of any city?

Livingthedream
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