Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/128531
Lattatudes betterroads.com /BetterRoadsMagazine @betterroads Editorial Editor-in-Chief: John Latta Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Online Editor : Wayne Grayson Read All About It! Venice Roads Flooded! Online Managing Editor : Amanda Bayhi Editor Emeritus: Kirk Landers Truck Editor: Jack Roberts Construction Editors: Tom Jackson, Tom Kuennen, Dan Brown, Lauren Heartsill Dowdle editorial@betterroads.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Graphic Designer: Kristen Chapman Advertising Production Manager: Linda Hapner production@betterroads.com Construction Media Senior VP of Market Development, Construction Media: Dan Tidwell VP of Sales, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@constructionmedia.com Corporate Chairman/CEO: Mike Reilly President: Brent Reilly Chief Process Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Administration Officer: David Wright Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Alan Sims Vice President, Audience Development: Stacy McCants Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Director of Marketing: Julie Arsenault 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: betterroads@halldata.com Better RoadsTM magazine, (ISSN 0006-0208) founded in 1931 by Alden F. Perrin, is published monthly by Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC.© 2013. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Qualified subscriptions solicited exclusively from governmental road agencies, contractors, consultants, research organizations, and equipment and materials suppliers. Single copy price $5.00 in U.S. and Canada. Subscription rate for individuals qualified in U.S. and Canada $24.95. Foreign $105.00. Special group rates to companies qualified in quantities over five names. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. For quality custom reprints, e-prints, and editorial copyright and licensing services please contact: Linda Hapner, (224) 723-5372 or reprints@betterroads.com. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Better Roads, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Lattatudes_BR0513.indd 3 Q uick, what was the voter turnout for the Presidential election last year? The turnout for your latest Mayoral race or an election for another influential local official? The exact number is not important. The fact that it was very low is important. The rate was actually close enough to 58.2 percent, down from 61.6 percent in 2008. In the 1990s it dropped in the mid-50s. We take a lot of what is important in our public lives for granted. For example, we assume our transportation infrastructure will be there, we expect it will be the best in the world and we expect it to stay that way. And generally it is and it does. The Birmingham News is the biggest of West Alabama's regional newspapers. It recently ran a half page story with headline, "Bridge replacement plans draw questions," that begins like this: "The Alabama Department of Transportation's current proposal to rebuild the Interstate 20/59 bridges through downtown would make permanent alterations to nearby streets, and the idea has nearby residents and businesses fretting the impacts." It's a story about public participation in the workings of the DOT and in this particular project. This sort of story is reasonably common in newspapers; the newspaper is carrying out one of its most important roles by keeping the public informed about of vital issues. But as newspapers begin to be less and less of a presence in our daily lives does the fact that we take so much of our infrastructure for granted mean we'll just shrug if we see less and less of these sorts of stories? Yes, "online" is there to deliver information whether it is a notice of public meeting from a DOT or blogs from people in a neighborhood who are up in arms about what a DOT proposes. But will we go look for it? Will we take the time? Can we be bothered? There is a something of the "shiny object" model at work here. Social media is king, tablets are cool, a watch that tells you where you are so you don't have to look up and figure it out for yourself is increasingly a must-have. We have to promote the idea that the digital landscape is the new Town Crier and keeps the public informed about – or perhaps more importantly interested in – what is happening with our highways and bridges, and a place that lets them participate. There's an old movie ("So Fine", 1981) where an actor, new to Venice, wonders how all the roads got flooded. Let's hope we don't look up from our by John Latta, Editor-in-Chief jlatta@randallreilly.com phones one day and wonder how all our roads fell apart. Better Roads May 2013 3 4/29/13 3:57 PM