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Why does Budapest have better roads than Michigan?

Michael Gil
/
Flickr
Credit user Michael Gil / Flickr
/
Flickr
Potholes are a familiar obstacle on Michigan roads

We talk to Jack Lessenberry about what he learned on his trip to Central Europe.

Drivers can all agree: Potholes are a fact of life here in Michigan. But does it have to be that way?

Jack Lessenberry’s recent opinion piece for Dome Magazine, Why Budapest Has Better Roads, examines Central Europe’s approach to infrastructure.

The difference, he says, would be shocking to Michiganders. “I drove hundreds and hundreds of miles on roads in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, former East Germany, without seeing anything we in Michigan would call a pothole,” he says.

Lessenberry tells us that despite needing to completely reconstruct their economies after the collapse of Communism, they’ve figured some things out that we in the States haven’t.

“They believe that if you’re going to have a thriving economy,” Lessenberry says, “you have to have good roads.”

Read Jack Lessenberry’s column in Dome Magazine and listen to our conversation above to learn more about Central Europe’s infrastructure and economy.

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