Once in a while, everyone becomes a speed-demon on the highway. Those who must drive East to West across the lower palm of Michigan know that it could be deemed “The Most Boring Highway on Earth.” There is nothing to see but roadkill, outdated billboards, and the Lion’s Den.

Personally, I allow myself 10 mph over the posted speed limit on long, open stretches of road. I diligently check my mirrors for the po-po and I follow all traffic rules. But no matter how high my driver karma is, I can’t seem to get a break here in Michigan. My ride back to Kalamazoo for the summer from my home town of Detroit, which usually takes two and a half hours, took over four hours. Moving from four lanes to one, in rush hour, in several construction zones with low speed levels, I swerved from side to side and drove on the shoulder just for kicks.

Travel in Michigan is a bitch. During the winter, there are severe travel advisories set in place for the whole state, warning about the hazards of driving on icy roads (not that anyone would know from this map, anyway). But heavy, frozen water is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dangerous driving here. Every season poses a threat to the roads.

For Michiganians, the idea of merging into one lane on a four-lane highway is almost a right of passage for summer driving. Come Spring, the construction workers immediately line the lanes with oversized, neon-orange barrels while trucks blink a bright yellow arrow like a sign on Broadway. This custom isn’t limited to the main highways, either—there’s no escaping construction on local highways, city streets, or any other possible route available.

With all the weather changes that the Wolverine State sees in half a year, let alone half a week, the alleged cause of the roads can be considered “uncontrollable unluckiness.” The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) takes advantage of the few weeks of sunlight to fix these roads, commencing summer’s Construction Season. The first step is clearing the construction path, regardless of how long the project will take, or how it affects the thousands of passing drivers. Michiganders, please add at least an hour to your commutes.

There must be a way to outsmart Mother Nature, right? According to a report by the non-profit organization TRIP, Michigan indeed would benefit from the transportation projects, altering the outstanding unemployment and the various types of drivers:

To achieve sustainable economic recovery, Michigan must proceed with numerous projects to improve key highways, bridges and transit routes. Enhancing critical segments of Michigan’s surface transportation system will boost the state’s economy in the short-term by creating jobs in construction and related fields. In the long term these improvements will lead to economic competitiveness by reducing travel delays and transportation costs, improving access and mobility, and stimulating sustained job growth, improving the quality of life for all Michiganians.

The lack of funds set aside for quality materials can be added to the list of blames. Fixing it is as simple as raising some money for weather-resistant roads. Sure, construction is inevitable, but if that work that was done could be done one time, there would be no need to risk the danger of construction on daily work routes. No one wants to suffer through the agonizing alternation between the accelerator and the break, but if it fills even a small pool of employment Michigan, anything is possible. As soon as residents tire of the potholes, it’s time to suck it up and pay some well-deserved taxes.

Once we clean up the roads, we can focus on entering the 21^st century. Firstly, Michigan should hire workers to maintain a website for real-time traffic reports, replacing this joke. Those who care enough to take small steps in the right direction ironically know their way around the internet far better than the actual MDOT. DriveMI holds a petition that strives for more taxes dedicated to better roads. Considering the radio has lost its place as a source of information, traffic notifications should exist somewhere.

traffic season foliage

Secondly, Michigan must adjust their public transportation system, another significant money saver. With less money thrown in the black hole of construction’s current state, more money can go to installing public transportation services that can focus on daily commutes, while reserving roads for longer trips, such as shipping truck routes. Building good roads is like putting money into education—this is an investment that creates undistorted solid ground, with more convenient transportation methods for everyone.

In the meantime, the drivers must keep their cool with the stop-and-go traffic. Watch how the traffic flows to keep the accelerating and breaking to a minimum. If you’re alone, find some good podcasts or make a good playlist, because you may be in for a long, monotonous road.

Over the past few months I’ve been at the forefront of Michigan’s budget battle witnessing first hand the bitter partisan politics that drive the Great Lakes state. Michigan is well known these days a the state that shut down two out of the past three years due to budget woes, but to say that partisan bickering is a purely Michigan problem would be false. It’s a horrible disease that is strangling our democracy and producing budget shutdowns in states like Michigan, California, and Pennsylvania, and producing lackluster results for citizens that deserve much better. It’s hard to find one root cause of these problems, but I want to focus on term limits and the major headache they’ve created for state legislatures across the nation as they struggle to understand their job and the powers that come with it.

A Purposefully Inaccurate, yet Telling Measurement of Partisan Alignment

At the end of the 1980s the idea that government was bad continued to ring out across our nation. The message of former President Ronald Reagan resonated with a new era of politicians. They found it disgusting that someone could make a career out of public service and civic duty and they were determined to change the way government worked. They were going to make government work for the people.

Noble? In some respect.

But as we’ve seen over the past fifteen plus years it hasn’t cut down on corruption. Instead states like Michigan, a state that passed term limits in 1992, simply created a revolving door of legislators. It didn’t end career cronyism; it merely created a set career path for the power hungry. Today, instead of getting to know the inner workings of the House or Senate chamber, our politicians merely act in a way that will get them elected to a higher office when their term expires or that will get them a cushy job as a lobbyist following their stint in the state capitol. Instead of weighing their conscious before a vote, they weigh their political capital. Gone is the day of bipartisanship, now reigning is a capitol catfight to the top. Any legislator that does get a hang of the system is either swallowed up in partisan games or merely swept out of Lansing thanks to the cap our state has placed on institutional knowledge.

I’ve read in many editorials that Michigan should cut legislative salaries and push a new budget deadline. These solutions won’t save very much money and the bottom line is that they won’t work because they will not create the environment that is needed to pass a budget. While term limits may mix up the legislature every two years, what they also do is block politicians from any opportunity to learn on the job or build any sort of coalition with other representatives beyond party label.

That’s the problem.

At a time when our state faces great crises our politicians must learn to work together. Unless politicians from both sides of the isle learn to cooperate with each other we will continue to see the partisan battles that have taken place over the past decade. If our politicians were smart, they would work together. If voters were smart, they would repeal legislative term limits.

Alexander Morgan blogs regularly at abmichigan.blogspot.com.

The Capitol Building--Lansing, MI

Just two years ago, I decided to attend Kalamazoo College, a small liberal arts school with big opportunities and a big price tag to go with it. While the average cost of attendance hovered just below $40,000 these past two years, grants from the college and my Michigan Promise scholarship have allowed me to attend “K” with minimal student loans.

With my stepbrother headed to school soon and a new baby brother at home, financial aid isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifesaver. Unfortunately, the state Senate failed to recognize the burdens facing me and many other Michigan students when they voted to eliminate the “Promise.”

The fact of the matter is that nearly 100,000 Michigan students rely on the “Promise” to defray the rising cost of tuition, room and board, textbooks and other fees. The state of Michigan created the “Promise” in 2006 to emphasize the need to increase the number of college graduates, and as of the last time I looked, that need has not gone away. In fact, one of the messages that resonated from the recent National Summit at the Renaissance Center was the need for a highly skilled and educated workforce. As Michigan continues to work toward a diversified economic base, education is the centerpiece of the 21st century economy we need to pull us out of the current recession and toward a prosperous future.

Cutting the “Promise” is not only cruel to those who rely on it most, it is shortsighted. If Michigan is going to move forward, the state must foster educational programs that produce the best minds in the world. We cannot hold on to our young people if we provide no incentive for them to stay in Michigan.

As students, we are always told that we are the future. Our state legislators need to reflect on what they are doing and realize they are putting Michigan’s future at risk.

The fight to “Keep Our Promises” has continued well into the summer. On July 15, the MSU College Democrats hosted a rally with Lieutenant Governor John Cherry, and in just a few days the SVSU Dems will host a similar event. If you could not make it up to Lansing for the MSU event, there is some great video footage posted on YouTube. If you’re on facebook, be sure to follow the developments of the “Keep Our Promises” campaign by visiting http://facebook.com/keepourpromises.

Alexander Morgan blogs regularly at http://abmichigan.blogspot.com/.