Infrastructure maintenance sound like a mind-numbing topic, but comedian John Oliver examines just how dire the situation is for American roads and bridges.
On last week’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver focused his main segment on the perilous state of U.S. Along with dams, American roads and bridges are in a severe state of decay, and the only motivation perform fixes usually comes after something catastrophic happens.
Just last month, a Business Insider writer wrote about how terrible New York roads destroyed the tires of a car as he hit two potholes, an item I used to show modern wheel-tire combos aren’t suited to the dismal state of urban streets in this country. A lot of commenters couldn’t believe hitting such severe potholes would do such damage, but Oliver points to a situation where a cyclist in the San Francisco area was killed due in part to a gaping hole in the road.
There’s the fact that the Highway Trust Fund, the account used to pay for many road repairs in the U.S., is running out of money. But it’s funded by a gas tax that is unable to be raised without significant political backlash. And Congressional leaders are dragging their feet on finding alternative ways to get money for long overdue fixes to some of the most vital pieces of transportation infrastructure in the country.
It’s a good, if lengthy, segment on the situation. But the Edward Norton and Steve Buscemi cameos at the end are definitely worth you watching the entire clip.