Why Aren’t More Roads Made of Rubberized Asphalt Concrete?

Over 240 million tires are thrown out every year in the U.S., and where do they go? According to RideLust, fewer than 7 percent get recycled, 5 percent are exported to other countries, 11 percent are burned for fuel and the rest are either sent to landfills, stockpiled or illegally dumped.  But, there’s a very eco-friendly and easy-to-incorporate use for all of these tires: rubberized asphalt concrete, a material made from shredded rubber mixed with asphalt.  RAC roads are known for making better roads that need less maintenance, yet it’s still not being used on all of the roads in the U.S.

From RideLust:

Rubberized Asphalt Concrete (RAC) does work better.

1. Using RAC clearly reduces road noise by as much as 85%
2. Applying a two-inch layer overlay of RAC can save $50,000 per lane mile compared to using four inches of conventional asphalt in the same application
3. An overlay of RAC can prevent cracks in underlying pavements from reflecting through to the surface of the new paving
4. RAC retains its original color better than conventional asphalt and markings remain more visible
5. Using RAC saves on maintenance costs, a properly designed application can last 50% longer than use of standard asphalt
6. RAC provides better traction and can reduce traffic accidents in poor weather

So, what’s the holdup? Lobbyists, as usual. The government is in charge of building the streets, and politicians choose the companies that get the contracts. The biggest corporations can afford the best lobbyists – the ones that will do practically anything to get big projects for their bosses. As noted by RideLust, there’s no incentive to use RAC even though it’s far more eco-friendly and superior to the materials currently being used for most roads.  Of course, using tires in RAC roads isn’t a miracle answer to all the tire waste in the world, but it can help.  Too bad greedy corporations are holding up progress, as they tend to do.

Link [RideLust]

Record Low Number of Drivers on the Road in ’08

Commuters are leaving their cars in their driveways and walking, riding bicycles or flocking toward public transit instead. This is great news to us, since it’s not only reducing vehicular pollution and lowering gas use, it’s also helping to reframe how people think about transportation. The government, however, isn’t as happy about it – specifically, the Federal Highway Administration. You see, the fewer drivers use the roads, the less tax money they get toward highways. This gives states an incentive to push driving, rather than encouraging the public to use mass transit.

From CNN Money:

As high fuel costs led many to rely on other forms of transportation, such as mass transit, and to cut back their miles on the road this year, the reduced driving also sliced tax revenue that would normally go toward highway maintenance, the FHA said.

The federal tax on gas generates 18.4 cents per gallon of regular gas sold and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, which gets pumped in to the federal Highway Trust Fund. Some states also add a tax of their own to fund various projects.

The FHA budget totaled $42.18 billion in fiscal year 2008. The Bush Administration has requested $40.14 billion for fiscal year 2009.

As Americans drive less, new ways are needed to fund the national road system, the highway agency said. Even though fewer drivers are using the highways, funding is still critical, party [sic] because of a backlog in highway projects.

In effect, since Americans are using public transit in record numbers, they’re diverting their tax funds toward trains, subways, buses and other forms of public transportation. Deal with it. Instead of constantly working on roads and highways, we need to start putting more money into public transit, whether the Federal Highway Administration likes it or not. This is the way of the future.

Link [CNN Money]
Photo credit: Flickr user jacorbett70

Blacktop Roads About to Get Greener

Signs of American progress on the green front are enormously encouraging. We may be way behind many other developed nations, but we’re slowly awakening from our Bush-induced idiot coma. One such sign is that we’re starting to clean up the process of laying down roads.

Wired’s Autopia blog has it:

There are more than 4 million miles of paved road in the United States, and 93 percent of them are covered in asphalt. Unless you’re backpacking in the wilds of Alaska or wandering the bayous of Louisiana, you are never more than 22 miles from a stretch of blacktop.

That’s a lot of asphalt, and a lot of energy needed to produce it - which is why Hussain Bahia wants to find a greener way to make the stuff. He’s a civil engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he says anything that increases asphalt’s recycled material content or cuts the energy needed to lay it down will have a big impact on the environment - and our pocketbooks.

“This is a no-brainer,” says Bahia, who has been studying asphalt for more than 20 years. “If any person involved in managing our infrastructure looks at the data, why would you spend more energy and money on something else?”

Bahia is part of a $5 million research program called the Asphalt Research Consortium, which hopes to, among other things, make blacktop more ecologically sustainable. One of his first goals is to develop “cold-mix” asphalts that require significantly less energy than conventional asphalt to apply.

Sure, it’s more economics than environmental concerns that’s spurring the change, but we’ll take it regardless! There is no reason why we can’t green up our roads, and it’s another baby step toward sustainability. Next we’d like to see more hybrid or electric public buses on those roads instead of cars… and bike lanes… and a national rapid transit system… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons