Editorial: Transportation spending now will save money later
By The Herald Editorial Board
The reluctance to own up to the real costs of transportation in Washington state — reluctance by state lawmakers and officials on down to the driver behind the wheel — are only adding to a backlog of maintenance, project delays and an ever-increasing bill of hidden costs.
When you add up the less visible costs of neglect and delay, says Roger Millar, the state’s transportation secretary, that under-investment is costing the residents and businesses of Washington state about $25 billion a year. Those costs are hidden, but everybody’s still paying, he said.
“That’s money that people are paying. They’re not paying it as a gas tax; they’re paying it in insurance rates; they’re paying it in car repairs; they’re paying it in inefficient business,” and in time lost sitting in traffic congestion, Miller said in a recent conversation with the editorial board.
And they’re paying it in the loss each year of some 540 lives and thousands of injuries in traffic accidents in which road condition and other safety issues are a contributing cause.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-transportation-spending-now-will-save-money-later/