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Let's hope local councils and state road authorities were paying attention last week.
The day after a Russian missile slammed into a Kyiv intersection, leaving a huge crater, it was fixed. Filled, resealed, operational.
In. One. Day.
No delays awaiting the dead grey hand of bureaucracy to file engineers' reports, risk assessments and whatever else gums up the works and keeps the gravy train rolling. It was just dealt with.
In contrast, eight months after the first rains arrived where I live, the potholes down my street are still there. And the road into town still resembles a shell-pocked byway in the Donbas. It hasn't been raining missiles here, just water. Yet for some reason the council seems incapable of fixing the roads.
Sure, it occasionally sends out a road crew to drop some tar into the holes, stamp it down and move on. Along comes the next shower and the holes open up again.
Two of my tyres have fallen victim and I count myself lucky. Fortunate, too, to have avoided collisions as oncoming vehicles veer onto the wrong side of the road dodging disaster. The motorcycle rarely gets out these days because an encounter with a pothole could easily be fatal. After all these months, the council has only now started placing signs warning of the danger ahead.
Eight months to place some signs compared to one day in Kyiv to fix the world's biggest pothole. If a country at war can do it, a country at peace could surely do better. It makes the blood boil. One can't help wondering if the millions paid out in pothole-related repairs since February are contributing to, excuse the pun, inflation and eroding productivity.
There's another mystery. In Thailand a couple of weeks ago, during the monsoon season which delivers an extraordinary amount of wet stuff every year, I was struck by the absence of potholes. I could understand it on the big tollway from Suvarnabhumi Airport into Bangkok but the regional roads in Krabi Province were also remarkably pothole-free and buzzing with motorcycles.
Could it be that in this country we are rubbish at building roads? You know, all-weather roads that can withstand trucks, traffic and rain. Could it also be that some of our councils spend too much time debating issues beyond their remit such as the Voice to Parliament, net-zero and Palestine but not enough on their core responsibilities like roads? I know in my part of the world, the poor state of the roads has been an ongoing issue through drought, fire and flood.
It's often said local government should focus on the three Rs - roads, rubbish and rates. I think in this interminable La Nina we can safely expand that to the six Rs - roads, roads, roads, roads, rubbish and rates.
PS: A round of applause for Fiona, who has been nominated for a Walkley Award for her cartoon about homelessness which ran in The Echidna a few months ago. It's a privilege to work with such a talented cartoonist.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Have you lost a tyre or damaged your car because of potholes? Are councils and road authorities too slow to fix them? Do we just build rubbish roads in this country? Or is it unfair to blame councils for the lunar landscapes our roads have become? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- Australia's new $9.6 billion infrastructure injection won't drive inflation, the Albanese government says as it prepares to hand down its first budget. The federal government will pump money into rail and road schemes, including $2.2 billon backing Victoria's Suburban Rail Link.
- Australians' appetite for electric vehicles is increasing year-on-year, with the market share up 65 per cent in 2022, but it is still only just above 3 per cent of new car sales. The ACT leads Australia with 9.5 per cent of all new car sales being electric vehicles, data from the Electric Vehicle Council shows. The ACT drew with NSW as leading the nation in terms of government policy to incentivise EV use. The council scored the two jurisdictions 8/10. Tasmania was at the back of the pack with 3/10.
- The Bureau of Meteorology has published its climate outlook for November to January and while the end of La Nina is now in sight, it won't be until early 2023. The bureau says rainfall is likely to be above median levels for most of the eastern half of Australia, with the highest chances of rain occurring in November.
THEY SAID IT: "Life is a journey that must be travelled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations." - Oliver Goldsmith
YOU SAID IT: Praise all around for Garry's Friday musing on things that annoy us.
From Stephanie: "I too have spent a number of years being a grumpy old man but in 2017, after discovering the truth about my hermaphrodite beginnings, I transitioned to the girl I should always have been and things have improved somewhat. However, the two car-related failings hit a raw nerve as I believe there is no excuse for poor driving. The parking is one thing which infuriates me every day and the next time I tell someone 'FFS, buy a car which you can drive' will certainly not be the first. The other car-related annoyance is, as you mentioned, indicators: I understand the concept of cutting manufacturing costs and screwing every last dollar out of the people who drive Landcruisers, Prados and Hiluxes but to make indicators seemingly an 'optional extra' is a bizarre move."
Ian urges calm in the face of idiocy: "People tend to respond more helpfully when I am pleasant. I have a friend who goes straight into attack mode when confronted with what he considers the slightest obstacle, and consequently the shutters go up, services are denied, credit cards cancelled, etc. It may be a trope from the '70s, but cultivating a sense of 'zen' results in a smoother path through life. Which is what I tell myself after every apoplectic stroke-inducing rant I have every time I see Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan, Craig Kelly, or Pauline Hanson talking crap on the telly."
Brenda says: "Ah, the old Index Finger Amputation Syndrome (IFAS), well known in medical circles; the bigger the vehicle and the ego behind the wheel the more common the affliction. Those of us of a 'certain age' remember the arm out the window technique. Straight for right, out and up for stop, out and down for left. Then a little yellow piece of plastic was installed along both sides of the vehicle operated from inside, switched for left and right turns. Now it's a mere flick of the index finger. Time for everybody to do the right thing, be safe and courteous on the road. So unless people truly suffer from IFAS, just give that indicator the finger."
"Welcome to the club of grumpy old bastards," says Bob. "Unlike you however, I have no intention of changing my ways. I will continue my crusade of trying to educate those masses of selfish, mindless idiots by pointing out their shortcomings."
Kevin says: "I was the founder and president of MACFA - the Mean and Cruel Fathers Association - which meant I could tell my complaining kids that I just had to follow the rules. My wife was not impressed when I founded MACHO - the Mean and Cruel Husbands Organisation. But she got me a T-shirt printed with GOGO when I started it - the Grumpy Old Grandfathers Organisation. Cranky old blokes of the world unite!"