One Small Step for Humanity. One Giant Leap for…Potholes?

Conspiracy theorists take note: For conclusive proof that the pockmarked terrain of the historic 1969 moon landing was faked, look no farther than the average underfunded highway.

That’s the only off-the-wall takeaway from an otherwise incisive opinion piece last Saturday by the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s Drew Sheneman, tracing the familiar disconnect between the safe, reliable roads the United States need and our apparent unwillingness to pay for them.

“As we all know, the moon landing was faked,” he writes. “The broadcast that so enthralled the nation back in the summer of 1969 was not filmed on the lunar surface, but in fact took place on the pockmarked blacktop” of a familiar highway.  Please click here for the visual.

But behind the humor, Sheneman makes a serious point that should echo through Congress, state legislatures and city and town halls across the land.

“The continued opposition to the gas tax amazes me,” he opines. “Roads and bridges are not one-time expenses. They wear out over time because we drive big, heavy vehicles over them to commute to our jobs and move goods and services.”

If you don’t like the sound of a gas tax, Sheneman advises his readers, think of it as a user fee. “The more you drive and use the roads, the more you pay,” he writes. That matters, because “if those roads crumble and those bridges collapse, our economy goes with it.”

A user fee to cover the cost of the roads we use? That sounds awfully familiar! And what better way to tell the story than with a dash of humor?