Posted on: Wednesday, January 7, 2004

EDITORIAL
Potholes: Is O'ahu a Third World country?

There are, of course, degrees of backwardness. In some countries today, where the majority of roads have never been paved, potholes would be seen as a quality problem.

Consider Malaysia, a country of paradoxes, contrasting vast steaming jungles with a high-tech hub sporting what (briefly) was the world's tallest building.

Malaysia, writes Warren Kawamoto in a letter to the editor, experiences "daily monsoon thunderstorms for weeks and weeks on end. Traffic there is also three times worse than Honolulu, but the roadways there are perfectly smooth and pothole-free, suggesting that our gritty asphalt is defective."

No one in his right mind in Honolulu would suggest our streets and roads are "perfectly smooth and pothole-free." But are we willing to consider the corollary: that the sorry state of our roads marks us as backward?

This newspaper has been complaining about the bone-rattling, hubcap-spinning driving experience on our roads, city and state, for a long time now — even in the midst of droughts, when the asphalt was simply crumbling instead of dissolving.

One long-discussed explanation is a lack of money: In a period of tight budgets, maintenance is one of the first things to be deferred. Stretching out the maintenance cycle as a money-saver is becoming more and more evident with buildings and grounds as well as roads and highways.

Delaying these repairs, of course, only boosts the cost of making the fixes when they become inevitable.

But Kawamoto hints at another, more worrisome problem: O'ahu has just one asphalt mixing plant — a single source of road-surfacing material. That suggests that unless and until government decides to spend more for a better-quality product, there is no motivation to produce macadam that is less fragile and water-soluble.

There are cities in what until recently were considered Third World countries where not only are the roads in good repair, but utilities are reliable, with their wires buried instead of marring the scenery. Where beaches aren't fouled by raw sewage every time it rains hard. Where trains and subways provide comfortable and convenient transportation for those who can't afford cars.

Where decent, low-cost housing minimizes homelessness, and where healthcare is nearly universal.

What defines Third World? Are we entirely sure we're not living in it?