Your insurance is so expensive because New Jersey is very dense and very urban. Despite the urban environment that usually causes people to take public transportation, most in NJ still own a car. This means more accidents, more theft and more uninsured drivers -- all of which drive the cost up.

Our taxes are high for similar reasons. Move someplace more rural and your taxes will significantly drop -- but so will your services.

I'm in north jersey, just took my z out for a little session in the snow and it was great!
My usual spot was too much but I managed to find another one!
Just have to be careful for the snow that falls from the trees and branches!
Enjoy! :D

These are your shovel ready projects that the stimulus bill fixed.

:icon18:

Oh your close. I live in Passaic county.

Apparently you guys aren't paying enough taxes....LOL......

I used to live in Joisey, but got out in '98...

Our taxes pay for the 1 million cops that are everywhere. Thank God for that!

Potholes? Potholes?
 

Then don't come to New Orleans if potholes are a concern. We have potholes that can consume a 370 whole. Just look it as autocross experience. Who Dat!

I don't think they are that bad for me, but I've grown up with it so maybe I just don't realize it.

i find it hard to belive there are highways worse then memphis highways

You have potholes because your taxes arn't keeping up with the increase cost of labor and materials, and because of better fuel efficiency. In short, since more cars are running more fuel efficient these days and require less gas to operate (including hybrids that require even less or none at all) there is less taxes revenue being created since everyone pays a per gallon tax. (So really hybrids are using the road for free when running on no gas.) Every state gets a federal dollar match based on what they generate with state gas taxes and since each state is creating less tax revenue they get less of a funding match from the federal government which equals less transportation funding, which equals less road repairs, which equals that big a** pot hole you just hit this morning.

Expect things to get worse if state governments don't find another way to raise taxes for transportation. The gas tax is a thing of the past and won't work with the developement of alturnitive fuel sources. The best way would be to install GPS in every car and charge by how many miles you drive a year but obviously this creates privacy issues, but thats the best way to replicate the gas tax since it used to be the more miles you drove the more fuel you bought.

CN: fuel efficiency = less tax revenue for each state and its compounding every year so get used to potholes until the tax method is changed.

We have pretty good roads here in NC, but out car registrations (3% when you register/title) are dedicated "Highway use Taxes" which go to pay for that stuff (locally)

Yeah, vehicle registrations do go to transportation too but cover only a very very small portion of the revenue. The midwestern and Northeastern state's roads deteriorate MUCH faster then the southern states due to the freeze/thaw cycles which is the number one reason roads fall apart and thus the replacement cycle and O and M costs are much much higher. Thats why the southern states like NC generally have better roads.

Hell come to Dallas, our roads in the city limits are horrrrible! Pot hole central here, had my first bent rim 3 weeks ago........ughh. I recently saw on the news that pot hole/road repair is not in the budget this year....go figure.

there are a ton of potholes in the north east because "they" would rather fix them once. at the end of the winter, instead of fixing every pothole as they turn up, they just go in and do them in great numbers at the end of the season. basically, a pothole that formed in december and a pothole formed in march are likely to be fixed at the same time.

it makes sense. if you have a leak in your ceiling are you going to recarpet your floor every time it rains, or are you gonna wait till you fix your roof?

However, its still annoying and dangerous and "they" should fix all open potholes at least once a month.