All over rural America, towns are paving over dirt and country roads. Asphalt is easier to maintain, they say and less expensive. They don’t say that when roads are paved, there is generally twice as much traffic going twice as fast. In Vermont, one of the few states to have studied the elimination of dirt roads, the state found asphalt is twice as expensive to maintain, not cheaper at all.

In seems in this country now, the ideology is to simply always do what is cheaper – cut librarians in schools, cut art programs, expand classroom sizes, eliminate neighborhood schools, outsource jobs, lay people off, pave over country roads. There is something especially beautiful and restful about country roads. I respect and appreciate ours. When my neighbors ask me why I don’t like paved roads, I urge them to go to Northern New Jersey and smell the air and listen to the noise. There are no dirt roads there.