What Can Individuals Do About Rough Road Conditions?

Joe: 106.7 WIZN, it’s Billy Idol in “White Wedding.” Heard Aerosmith in “What It Takes” before that. I’m Joe Vega taking you through your Wednesday “Rock and Ride Home.” Earlier, I was talking about the absolutely atrocious road conditions in the state of Vermont, so I decided to get my friend Ben Barry on the phone from Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. You can call Ben at anytime at 1800LAW1010. You can also go online to 1800law1010.com. Ben, I was curious about what an individual, one person can do to help facilitate the fixing of the roads?

Ben: Well, the roads here in New York are atrocious, in some spots as well. But I think probably your best course of action would be to write to your local municipality, the legislatures, and complain basically. I think they probably get a lot of roadway complaints. But I think it’s very important for individuals, whether it’s a town road or a state road or whatever it may be, I think it’s very important for individuals who are living in those municipalities or who are suffering car damage, or just a very rocky ride to work, I think it’s…

Joe: Right, because it’s just killing my car right now.

Ben: Yeah, I think it’s important to report that to your local agencies, the Department of Transportation, you know, your mayor. It’s important to put the town, and the cities, and the state, on notice when there are problems on the roadway.

Joe: Again, does it matter if it’s a town road or a state road, or is the Interstate 89, for instance, who you’re going to write to about that?

Ben: Yeah, well, I mean, generally speaking, you want to write to the entity that controls the maintenance of that particular roadway. But it doesn’t hurt to write to your local administrators as well because they are the people who have open lines of communications with, for example, the state who might be maintaining, and building, and repairing, that particular roadway, that goes through that town, or city, or what have you. So I think it’s important to approach the subject from a number of different angles. Maybe write the same letter and copy your local guy in, and also your your state rep.

But it’s important that administrators and officials know about roadway defects, because a lot of times they just don’t know. A light will go out at a particular intersection and everybody in the area knows about it right away, and they may be the last to know. So it’s important to get those things fixed. Certainly causes accidents, causes wear and tear on your vehicle, certainly makes the ride to work aggravating, so let people know.

Joe: All right, so there you go. Good advice. Vermont, let’s get together and cause enough of a stink to get these roads fixed. Hey, Ben, thanks for coming on the program.

Ben: Thanks, Joe. Thanks for calling.

Joe: Ben Barry from Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. Again, you can call them at 1800LAW1010, or go online at 1800law1010.com. Mel Allen’s taking over from here. He’s getting music from Golden Earring, next.