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On a long drive across the country this summer I noticed something odd about construction areas. They put out cones to block off an area for construction many hours before the construction actually starts, and take them away many hours after the construction ends. Most of the time you drive by a blocked-off area, there is no construction actually happening there, though there are a lot of travelers delayed by these cones.
Now I’m sure they save some time by being able to put out and pick up the cones on some schedule and plan convenient to them, and it would cost more to put out and pick up the cones just before and after the construction. But I’m also sure that this extra cost would be far far less than the value of the time lost by the delayed travelers. Why do they make such inefficient decisions?
I don’t expect full efficiency from governments, far from it, but I do expect them to try to appear somewhat efficient to voters, and I expect them to try especially hard on the most visible choices they make. There is an awful lot that governments do that I suspect is inefficient, but it is usually hard to be very sure of that. But these crazy cones look like a very clear case which is very visible to thousands of voters who have little else to do at that moment but fume about their inefficient government.
Why are governments be so very visibly inefficient, and why don’t voters punish them more for it? We aren’t talking about some policy where emotions or moral considerations get people all confused and muddled, after all. This isn’t about race or gender or precious bodily fluids This is very simple and mechanical and obvious, for God’s sake. What gives?
Added: A serious WordPress error deleted this post and all 20+ comments!! I’ve just replaced the text, but not the comments.
Crazy Cones
(Just to clarify: The trucks had large blinking "-->" signs on their backs, and were moving about 15 mph.)
I have also wondered about the cones - whether we could stipulate in contracts the amount of time traffic could be blocked, with penalties for going over; or even contracts that would charge contractors for every hour of traffic blockage.
Recently I was angered because I spent a half an hour on 495, delayed in traffic that was backed up 10 miles by what turned out to be 2 large government trucks driving side-by-side around 495 blocking the 2 left lanes deliberately.
I suppose there was some reason for this, but I tried finding out who to call to complain. After visiting some websites and making some calls, I found one person who allegedly was at least in the chain of command for county traffic management. I called him that day and the next, and he never answered his phone or called back. He was not an elected official.
In my case, I just didn't know what elected official to contact who would have any connection with traffic management.