Blueprint America: PBS reports on infrastructure recently aired a segment on Zombie Highways, those federally funded highways that simply will not die. They highlight a $3B highway skirting Birmingham, Alabama that seems to have few fans, yet plenty of funding. It’s easy enough to point at a highway and declare “waste!”, but what needs to happen if there are to be fewer and eventually zero of these projects? As you may suspect, it’s not easy to kill a Zombie Highway.
I’ll spare you the detailed description of the various types of zombies and corresponding ways to kill them and keep it simple. To kill a classic zombie you must destroy the cerebellum or brain stem. The brain stem is to a zombie what federal funding is to a Zombie Highway. So all we do is kill the funding and we win. OK? Ready, set… Unfortunately just as a zombie is likely to take that arm you just cut off and whack you with it, highway funding is relentless. Watch the segment and then commit to helping change the transportation culture in our country for everyone’s benefit.
