Sick of potholes? Blame your elected officials who don’t care about your quality of life | Opinion

Of the many issues facing local and state government, filling potholes is a simple task any elected or appointed official can accomplish. Directing an agency to fill holes in the roadway is far easier than fighting crime, improving education, eradicating poverty, improving mass transit or other public sector initiatives. Results are measurable and constituents see and feel the benefits immediately.

I believe the condition of our roads directly correlates to how our local, county, and state government is being managed. If you want a snapshot of how government is performing, just drive the roads in each jurisdiction. Are our elected officials governing by paying attention to the quality of life and safety issues, as potholes are visible and easily fixed? If our public servants can’t repair potholes, then how are they managing the more critical issues?

Filling potholes is inexpensive and the best investment to keep folks safe and out of the repair shop. Also, if you fix a small pothole early, it does not become a crater later. The more we let potholes go unattended, the worse they become. It is the “broken window theory,” which is when the little things go unattended, larger problems ensue.

As a former senior official with the U.S. Department of Transportation and as the former commissioner of the N.J. Department of Transportation, I know many of our roads have become unsafe in the Philadelphia region, and it is putting the public at risk.

While at NJDOT, my first official act as commissioner was to attend a funeral for a DOT driver who was struck while rendering assistance to a disabled vehicle just outside Philadelphia. The driver, with a service truck, had every type of emergency lighting activated, and a car still managed to plow into his vehicle as it sat on the shoulder in daylight. Within a year, I attended a funeral for a state trooper who was parked on a shoulder with emergency lights activated and was struck. A blow out from a pothole puts anyone in the same situation as the DOT worker or the state trooper. As a result of the dangers when stopped on a shoulder, New Jersey implemented the “Move-Over Law” when emergency vehicles are parked on a shoulder with lights flashing.

During the winter of 2017, I began noticing how bad the roads had become in my township and surrounding area. Last year, I was driving my car on I-476, I was in the center lane traveling at 55 miles per hour behind a truck. As my son and I crossed I-76, we hit a massive pothole that blew out two tires. I called to report the pothole and was connected to the state police in Philadelphia. The operator knew the location and told me they’ve been getting calls for several days for the same location. Driving 600 miles per week on average, I passed the location where I had the blow out for almost a week and it was not unusual to see at least one car on the shoulder disabled from the same pothole.

Locally, many of the roads have gone from fair in 2017 to unsafe. Numerous potholes on main arteries and secondary roads after the winter of 2017 were never repaired and to me this is a lack of governance, management and accountability. Anything on the roadway or shoulder, including, potholes, that can cause a vehicle to swerve, brake, or become disabled is an emergency situation, particularly on a highway. When dozens of vehicles become disabled from a pothole at the same location, or potholes are left unattended for months or more, government is not governing and not working for the public good.

This past year was the worst of my 45 years driving as my daily commute is I-476 the PA and NJ Turnpikes. In addition to the blowout on 476, my family experienced three separate incidents requiring two new tires and one rim. We’ve replaced three windshields from stones on the roadways. In December, an employee driving my car hit a pothole on the NJ Turnpike. The employee wasted a day at the dealership, and I spent $469 for a new tire and $80 for a taxi, and was two hours late for a meeting. I have receipts and insurance claims for more than $15,000 for a year of driving in Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Potholes are a quick fix. If our elected officials cannot accomplish filling potholes, then I wonder what, if anything, they are actually accomplishing. If we can get the politicians to start fixing the potholes, then perhaps there may be hope to fix the more difficult issues facing our towns, cities, and state.

James S. Simpson is chairman Victory Worldwide Transportation. He’s the former New Jersey commissioner of transportation, the former federal transit administrator of USDOT, and the former commissioner of NY State Metropolitan Transportation Authority.