Roads & Gas Tax in Madison

Had an interesting talk today with a man at a shop that's doing the brakes on my VW Golf. He said that Wisconsin has the highest gas taxes in the country, or at least as high as any other State. He also said that kids raised here are told in school for years that Wisconsin has the "best" drivers and the "best" roads. Finally, he said that if you watch news stories on TV, when they have occasion to mention gasoline taxes, their stories frequently also mention that Wisconsin's roads are great (presumably because of all the gas tax money that is spent to maintain them).

Now, I've only been in Madison since early February 2007. I haven't taken the time to check out this man's comments, but I'll take them at face value for the sake of this rant.

Okay, I had to know. In 2002, Wisconsin ranked 4th highest in total "cents per gallon" charged. I don't know Wisconsin's ranking for 2007, but amount of "cents per gallon" charged is higher now, over 50 cents per gallon! Wow.

All one has to do is drive down Mineral Point between the Loop Fwy and Whitney Way to know that the money hasn't been spent here. Here's a short list of the places I've driven in the past few years:

New Orleans Los Angeles Dallas Houston Austin Phoenix Tucson
Albuquerque Portland, ME Boston Columbus, OH Indianapolis New York, NY
Seattle, WA St. Louis, MO Okla City And whole bunch of other towns ....

Mineral Point in Madison is in terrible condition. It is even worse when you compare it's condition to the neighborhood it is in.

The worst roads in the worst neighborhoods of Los Angeles are not as bad to drive on in my experience. Interstate 44 heading NorthEast from Oklahoma City was pretty horrible (are you listening, Oklahoma?), but I was driving a huge moving truck heavily loaded at the time. I imagine it would have felt better in a passenger vehicle.

Some roads in the historic areas of New Orleans were pretty darn awful (this is all pre-flood info), but one expects things in New Orleans to be awful...which is an awful thing to say. At least they have the excuse of having far less tax money to work with and far softer, sloppier ground that is unstable.

Madison is supposed to be full of well educated, involved citizens. Why are they letting the politicians get away with spending all that gas tax on something other than Madison's roads?

I'll withhold commenting on the quality of Wisconsin drivers until I've gained more experience with them.