Final Paper Draft 1 - Joe Mollica WRD 104 Evins Fall 2011...

Joe Mollica
WRD 104
Evins
Fall 2011
Road Construction is not as bad as We Think
The idea of caution signs, strobe lights, and bulldozers turns away many people, whether
they are driving the vehicle or a passenger; however it is not always a bad thing to notice these
things. Similarly, receiving the dreadful news that your train is late or your plane is delayed
infuriated commuters. All these revolve around the simple fact that this country is getting more
congested and literally falling apart all awhile the government and its subordinates lag behind.
The government needs to construct new roads or instill policies that reduce road usage and
increase the rate of repairing Americas failing infrastructure. Others have noticed this problem
and most have come up with logical, easy, and sometimes cheap ways to reduce this congestion
while traveling. Ever since the Roman Empire ruled the world, roads have been the single most
important asset any country or kingdom could have in its arsenal. Roads are arguably the best
invention of the Roman Empire. It was this development that allowed the Romans to stay on top
of the world for so long. However as times and people have changed roads seem to be falling
behind the never ending invention of new modes of transportation. Foot paths were sufficient in
the early years of man, horses were considered “all-terrain” for the time, but nothing compared
to the vehicles we have today. The fact of the matter is that roads need to change, and to do so
they need to be under construction. The whole point to construct better roads, or improve current
ones, is to reduce congestion and improve infrastructure to allow traffic to flow more smoothly.
The idea of having more roads sounds expensive and harmful to the environment but the

congestion problem out-weights an environmental argument, and with simple rules the
environment will not affected. To truly understand the pains of traffic congestion one must be a
commuter. Commuting is neither a right nor a privilege; it is a duty that most people accept for
the sake of their family or monetary reasons. To reduce the pain of commuting society must
embark on a never ending repair of Americans infrastructure. In other words the country’s roads
must, like bridges, be fixed continuously so that they continue to stay within reasonable usage
conditions.
To fully understand what is meant by the term “commute” one must know its definition.
Living in the city or within city limits is not considered commuting. Commuting is often defined
by time and distance. When considering working in the city, commuting compared to living in
the city is like comparing a gunshot to a paper cut. Living in the city and going to work is easy
and takes little time, thirty minutes max if you hit horrendous traffic. On the other hand
commuters take more than two hours out of their day just to get to work. An average person in
the city might have to take the El for ten minutes and then walk a block or two. The average