TxDOT Leadership In Denial

By Roger Baker

The ability to build and maintain roads is down nationwide. US travel volumes for June 2008 are down about 4% nationwide, year over year.

The latest Federal Highway Administration data for traffic volume trends in Texas compare June 2008 traffic volumes with June 2007:

Texas traffic volumes on Rural Arterial Roads: DOWN 4.2%

Texas traffic volumes on Urban Arterial Roads: DOWN 3.1%

Texas traffic volume changes on All Estimated Roads: DOWN 4.2%

But TxDOT remains in denial.

They probably want to believe that the recent reduction in oil price can continue. The reality is that world oil production has been stagnant for about three years now and price has gone down only because of reduced demand due to the depressed state of the economy.

Oil must continue to become less affordable, independent of its price, because less and less oil is being produced per capita worldwide and there is no inexpensive substitute.