The condition of our surface transportation infrastructure is abysmal and disgraceful.
My brother's ex is an engineer who works for a firm engaged in evaluating / repairing / building bridges in the NY / NJ / CT tri-state area, and she told me that some of these bridges are literally falling down a piece at a time due to long neglect of the most basic maintenance, such as painting.
She especially urged me to avoid one bridge in particular, the Tappan Zee bridge, which is a very long bridge that traverses the Hudson River, connecting Westchester and Rockland counties in New York. That one, she said, is in such bad shape that she believes it's in unacceptable danger of immanent failure. But others aren't far behind, she says.
What really annoys me about all of this is that the tolls we pay to cross the bridges around here are astronomical. But almost none of the toll revenue goes toward maintaining the bridges. The lion's share goes to support mass transit -- which around here is run by the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), one of the most corrupt, inefficient, and wasteful agencies in the history of human government.
In the 60 years or so since the government took over the operation of mass transit in and around New York City, they've managed to transform the system from a once-profitable private enterprise to an epic boondoggle. Once upon a time, two private companies ran the New York City subway system -- at a profit. In fact, the system was so profitable that the City wanted to get into the game. They saw it as a source of revenue.
So the city established a third, government-owned company to compete with the two private operators, to hopefully put them out of business so the city could take over their operations. When that didn't work, the city denied the private companies a $.02 fare increase -- for something like 20 years -- until they forced them into bankruptcy (whereupon the City took over the system and raised the fare by $.05, rather than the $.02 that the private companies had requested).
More fare increases followed, and the system under government operation continued to grow more and more bloated. By the late 1960's, the system was essentially bankrupt, forcing the government to scramble for new funding sources (additional fare increases being politically unacceptable to the fed-up voters). Under city operation, the fare had already risen 500 percent since the private operators had been forced into bankruptcy. The quality of service also had declined, and the subways were so crime-ridden that riding them was considered an act of courage -- or folly.
NYC Mayor John Lindsay and NYS Governor Nelson Rockefeller believed that the best answer to mass transit's financial crisis was to take over the highly-autonomous Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which was run by Robert Moses. The prospect of getting rid of Moses made the takeover especially appealing, as both Lyndsey and Rockefeller detested him. The TBTA post was one of the dozen or so government offices Moses held -- simultaneously -- but arguably was the most important (and unarguably brought in the most revenue, most of which went into building new roads, bridges, and tunnels, and maintaining existing ones).
Robert Moses was no saint. He had his quirks and failings. By most accounts he was a bigot. He had little respect for the historical and social value of the communities he demolished. He had little understanding of the importance of ethnic and social subcultures. He also had no qualms about pushing his weight around and using his substantial power to force projects through to completion, despite often-overwhelming public opposition. Some of the tactics he used are believed to have bordered on blackmail.
All that being said, Robert Moses also was almost certainly the greatest builder in the history of public works. He had a well-earned reputation for doing the impossible. He almost always completed his projects on-time and under budget. He had a reputation for honesty and plain talk in his dealings with contractors, engineers, and planners. He was obsessed with details and had offices at all of his ongoing projects (a few of which have been preserved, and which I have visited) so he could make sure the work was being performed per specifications. Perhaps most notably, despite presiding over billions of dollars in projects (he built practically every park and major roadway in New York State), he's never been accused -- not even by his fiercest detractors -- of tapping the till or otherwise personally profiting from his service.
Needless to say, Rockefeller and Lindsay hated him.
To Rockefeller and Lindsay, getting rid of Moses was almost as much a reason to abolish TBTA's autonomy as was getting their hands on the agency's money. So in clear violation of the terms of the TBTA bonds (most of which happened to be held by the Chase Manhattan Bank, of which the governor's brother John happened to be the chairman, thus preventing a bondholder lawsuit), both the bankrupt NYC Transit Authority and the hugely profitable TBTA were absorbed into the State MTA, Robert Moses was ousted (he never received even the symbolic post he was promised on the MTA's board), and the TBTA's toll revenues were diverted from road construction projects to mass transit.
Nowadays, it costs as much as $10.50 to cross some of the bridges or tunnels in an automobile. Truck drivers pay much more. Almost all of the money goes to subsidize the mass transit system. Most of the projects to repair or replace roads, bridges, and tunnels have been stuck in the planning stages for decades. Invariably, the road projects that do get underway run way over budget and way behind schedule: It typically takes many times longer to resurface a road, for example, than it took to build it in the first place.
In the meantime, the bridges Robert Moses built are disintegrating, falling into the water piece by piece, due to decades of abject neglect.
-Rich
