If you have done much traveling in the nation by automobile or other such surface transportation you have no doubt driven on roads, which were in a state of disrepair. Recently the United States Congress and Senate voted on a huge bill $286.4 billion transportation spending bill, much of which is going to the repair and/or resurfacing and repaving of these roads, highways and interstates. When retired folks buy motor homes to see America, they often put a hundred thousand of dollars into a vehicle and put hundreds of thousands of miles on that vehicle in less than five years. These vehicles after traveling around our great nation, the greatest civilization ever created in the history of the human endeavor, are rattled apart and become as much in a state of disrepair as the New York Toll Roads which they may transverse. It is criminal for our government to stand in front of us and purport they are managing our great infrastructure with any seriousness, while we watch our roads fall apart. It is good to see the highway bill with such huge dollars behind this promise, but is it enough? Perhaps we need to put more modern technology into our vehicles so they may travel over these roads, rather than rely on the government to properly maintain them; a task they are failing at. Even with the huge bill, can we actually trust them to get it right? One must wonder. I propose an industry self-policing policy which will reward those motor home, SUV and automakers who put their vehicles thru bump tests of their vehicles. Testing the suspension, interior furniture and appliances after driving over thousands of miles of bumps. The reason for this comment is after personally visiting every city in the United States over 10,000 population and putting some 750,000 miles on several vehicles it is apparent to me that the roads are so bad that there is no vehicle which can withstand them. In a typical motor home, things rattle lose. The outside trim needs constant scrutiny. The muffler system, tie rods, suspension, etc. all need constant pre-flight checking before the each trip; electrical wiring rubs up against body parts and often causes fire, shorts or prevents things both inside the motor home and outside in the vehicles electrical systems. Since we cannot trust our government to maintain the roads or stop extorting money on toll ways from us citizens, we must look to industry to build stronger vehicles, which can run on the roads in their current state. We test vehicles for crash tests, fuel economy; why not a bump test? Having literally destroyed two well-built motor homes, which were at the top of their category in durability, it is obvious to me that we need a better way to build motor homes and vehicles and a much better strategy to properly maintain our roads. Think on this. |
