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SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 - "Here is a number that usually has people scrambling to pick their jaws up off the floor: each heavy goods vehicle (like an 18 wheeler) causes the same amount of wear and tear on roads as 9,600 cars. That is the number TxDOT uses to plan and maintain roads, where truck traffic is involved. That is a big part of my argument about why cheap food really isn't cheap, even if you are the most selfish, non-green, tax-paying consumer. Where roads are paid for by taxes (most everywhere in the US), we are all subsidizing truck traffic in proportions that far exceed the amount of fuel taxes those trucks contribute." -Gretchen Stoeltje, researcher for Texas Department of Transportation

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SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 - A researcher from the Texas Department of Transportation wrote to tell us something that all the food-miles pooh-poohers should know: "Here is a number that usually has people scrambling to pick their jaws up off the floor: each heavy goods vehicle (like an 18 wheeler) causes the same amount of wear and tear on roads as 9,600 cars. That is the number TxDOT uses to plan and maintain roads, where truck traffic is involved. That is a big part of my argument about why cheap food really isn't cheap, even if you are the most selfish, non-green, tax-paying consumer. Where roads are paid for by taxes (most everywhere in the US), we are all subsidizing truck traffic in proportions that far exceed the amount of fuel taxes those trucks contribute."

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