This, of course, comes from someone who is concerned that our infrastructure is in bad shape, even though it may appear superficially not to be. Take a look at the Connecticut commuter train crash, which could be a poster accident for the cause.
Leave the accident’s cause aside for one moment, because it has not at this time been proven, so maybe it won’t make the poster. But consider the chaos for commuters in the North East corridor. People who can’t rely on trains anymore are using crowded roads, one way or another.
It would seem to be fair to say that adequate levels of investment in our transportation infrastructure has many goals, but one critical one is keeping roadways and rail lines maintained and safe and finding ways to expand them and address their efficiency. If we do not do that we should not be surprised if more breakdowns of this magnitude occur.
So, being careful, it would still seem reasonable to say that these are the sorts of breakdowns–and perhaps more importantly the levels of frustration and expense–that we can expect to become more common if we don’t update our transportation infrastructure system.
