RSB/2/21
Sponsored by Prajeeth Rajaram, Reagan Miles, Saksham Singh of Page High School
This legislation was filed in the Transportation category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | Section 1: |
| 3 | Terms: |
| 4 | Road Survey Division- New division of the TDOT we wish to create |
| 5 | TDOT- Tennessee Department of Transportation |
| 6 | Potholes- Irritating divots in the road that cause pain, car damage, and suffering |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Section 2: Statistics of Roadway Issues |
| 9 | Tennessee is ranked the worst out of America in the issues regarding potholes |
| 10 | “On average potholes cost about $3 billion a year in terms of repairs” |
| 11 | Nashville is ranked for worst pothole cases out of America |
| 12 | Tennessee has over 200,000 complaints about potholes` |
| 13 | In 2020, only seven claims out of 1,035 were approved by the Department of Transportation |
| 14 | A reported 400 vehicle collisions a week due to potholes |
| 15 | Average repair bill of damages caused by potholes is around $306 |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Section 3: Road Survey Division |
| 18 | Tennessee already has a maintenance division, which does repairs and upkeep on roads. |
| 19 | However, in order to create change, a wide scale survey needs to be done in order to analyze the |
| 20 | quality of every public road in Tennessee. |
| 21 | This will document the road, its current condition, and what needs to be fixed. |
| 22 | This can then be delivered to the maintenance division, who can actually carry out the repairs. |
| 23 | By having a detailed log of all the roads in Tennessee, not only will the Department of |
| 24 | Transportation have an easier time finding and planning repairs, but drivers can also know what |
| 25 | conditions they can expect on any road in Tennessee. |
| 26 | This aims to fix the current problems of the road ways in Tennessee and to create a strong record |
| 27 | of the current conditions and records of each road. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | Section 4: Logistics of TDOT |
| 30 | TDOT lacks the initiative to set an urgent emphasis on the call-for-action time in its issues. |
| 31 | A lack of a goal in funding and resolving for the care of roadways would highly result in issues |
| 32 | regarding the structure of the department. |
| 33 | Furthermore, issues would be needed to result in actions that are backed up by support of |
| 34 | different examples (financial, social, environmental, etc.). |
| 35 | Section 5: The addition of this division will cost approx. $20,000,000 allocated in the TDOT’s |
| 36 | budget. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Section 6: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed. Section 7: This act |
| 39 | shall take effect on April 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it. |
| 40 |