Sunday, November 05, 2006

What is it with NC roads?

I have driven a lot of miles in my lifetime. I have been all up and down the eastern seaboard and a few trips out west. My job keeps me on the NC highways a lot. I must say that I have never seen a state with more litter, debris, and roadkill than North Carolina.

Just a few minutes ago, we drove home from Patetown (north of Goldsboro) to Selma and we saw a lot of litter, one dead fox, three dead cats, three dead raccoons, one dead deer, and one dead squirrel. I have never seen a state roadsystem that allows roadkill to stay on the side of the road as long as North Carolina does. I have literally seen carcasses stay on the side of the road for months and never be picked up. This is absurd and needs to change.

A lot of the litter is not necessarily litter but debris blown off trucks. I have seen garbage trucks, dump trucks, and semis have debris blown off them and all over the roadways. I have also seen pick up trucks full of debris lose some of it. This seems to be how most of it happens, as most of what I see is not just something thrown from passing automobiles.

Why are there no real thorough efforts to clean up the roads from debris and animal carcasses in this state? Once in a while, I do see prison work crews bagging litter and every once in a great while an "Adopt a Highway" crew. However, they don't pick up dead deer, cats, dogs, and the like. We need to do better. This state wastes enough money on stupid stuff that we can make the effort to do better.

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