Road Warriors Make Nice with Talks

As much as political ideologues hate it, the middle of the road can be a worthwhile meeting ground for groups long at odds with each other.

Earlier this year, the Arkansas Truckers Association was pushing a failed ballot proposal to revamp the Arkansas Highway Commission with elected commissioners. But the truckers and the commission recently sat down together for a chat.

Truckers are correct in saying the Highway Commission needs to do a better job of informing people of its priorities — why it spends its funds the way it does.

And the Highway Commission also is right in saying that there are more road needs to be met than just those that satisfy the truckers.

When two sides that have exchanged a lot of harsh words in the past can come together to listen and reason, only good can result — for them and for the state. Many differences no doubt remain, but now both sides better understand why they do what they do.

The commissioners explained that the state has the country’s 12th-largest highway system but ranks 42nd in the amount of money it has to care for those highways.

Lane Kidd, who heads the trucking association, said the highways most traveled by trucks aren’t getting as much maintenance as they should. And he reminded the commissioners that the state’s 92,000 truckers pay 38.5 percent of all federal and state taxes that pay for Arkansas highways.

By the end of the session, truckers could see that the commissioners often find themselves between a rock and a hard place in having to choose between maintaining less traveled albeit vital roads or the Interstates and highways that are equally important to the trucking industry.

Unless there’s a change in the way the state pays for road building and maintenance, there always will be that need for balance — just as there always will be a need for communication between the highway commissioners and road users.

Despite all the current upgrading of the Interstates, big decisions remain on highway spending. The meeting was a start on the road to better relations.

Keep on Keeping on

We have flown since Sept. 11 and will again soon. All of our trips were scheduled before the attacks on America, but we won’t avoid future trips because of possible terrorism. We’ve been reassured by tighter security and sad to find other airports so empty.

Don’t let the cowards who hate freedom take more of ours away.