Hacker News Reader

Comment by fredophile | Hacker News Reader

The author thinks the city needs to spend a little over $18M per year just on roads. That would be about $1200 per year per house or $100 per month. Considering that their total property taxes are currently around $1700 per year in total property taxes that's a huge increase.

View on HN

To get to 18M number, author approximated that cost of repair 3.5 lane medium use road in industrial area (aka heavy trucks) to all roads in the town which just not make sense. Cost of repair low use residential 2 lane road which is majority of roads in the city is much lower and frankly nobody repaves local roads every 30 years - it just not needed.

In addition $100 per month per house is significant but if it's the only thing that make small town more expensive than dense city it's still does not make city that much attractive.

I think there is a flaw in the author's analysis: It's based on a fixed cost-per-length model. Not all roads cost the same to maintain. A downtown city street that gets heavy, continuous use will have to be repaired much more frequently than a sidewalk-less rural road that gets ten cars per day on its busiest day. City streets are also more complicated to repair, often having sewer pipes and electrical lines buried in close proximity, so are likely more costly to repair each time, too.

Did you read what they wrote? They clearly outline the flaws and limitations of the analysis. They say it’s just an estimate.

Right, but it doesn't seem like a very good estimate and their whole argument hinges on it.

The author obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this article. I’m surprised he let that rough calculation be the basis for so much of it. I haven’t looked, but I suspect it isn’t hard to find expected maintenance costs for various types of roads.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the calculation is actually hard to come by because no one wants to acknowledge the issue. They all know the number is going to be fantastically large and unable to be voted in. So, they just ignore it and let the town deteriorate slowly like most of the USA.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com