Sometimes numbers are the best way to tell a memorable story. Think of famous stories with numbers in the titles. “The Three Little Pigs,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” and even “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” Many songs have numerical titles as well. Consider “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,” or “Eight Days a Week.” (Apologies if one of those catchy tunes is now stuck in your head.) Online, people love reading top ten lists. Maybe that could help us #FixLARoads.
Think about it…putting a number on things allows us to quantify issues–it turns emotion and subjectivity into fact and objectivity. For Louisiana’s roads and bridges, that couldn’t be more true.
Louisiana’s Roads By The Numbers
Here at the Louisiana Coalition to Fix our Roads, part of our mission is to educate Louisiana residents and lawmakers about the terrible condition of our state’s roads and bridges. So, we’re going to tell the story of Louisiana’s crumbling roads with numbers.
- 43: Forty-three bridges had to close in Louisiana in 2019. FORTY-THREE. How much worse does it have to get before we start to #FixLARoads? We need a special session in 2020 to address this issue!
- 48: The U.S. News and World Report ranked Louisiana 48th in the country for the worst roads and bridges. (That’s third-to-last by the way.)
- $706: Individual drivers in Louisiana could be facing $706 in additional vehicle damage due to the terrible road conditions.
- 3,347: The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) has flagged 3,347 bridges across the state as needing repairs.
- 3,563: From 2011-2015, 3,563 people died on Louisiana roads. That’s more than the population of Lutcher, Ferriday, or Jena. Fixing Louisiana’s roads and bridges would literally save lives.
- $26.4 billion: There is currently a $26.4 billion dollar backlog of road and bridge projects in Louisiana. That’s like having a loan you’re never making payments on—it’s only going to cost more the longer you ignore it!
- $1 trillion: Transportation Today reports that repairing the nation’s aging infrastructure could cost more than $1 trillion. That figure represents the country’s deferred maintenance costs for roads, highways, and other critical public assets.
What Does All This Add Up To?
So, what do all these numbers add up to? In summation, we need new roads and bridges NOW. Let’s #FixLARoads! Just one of these statistics on its own would be troubling. When you look at the whole list, it’s a crisis situation. What’s the next step? What can YOU do to make our state safer, less expensive, and more livable? Demand you lawmakers take action and call a special session to address this emergency. Write to them through our website and post on social media using the hashtag #FixLARoads. We don’t have time to waste!