The Road to Peace is Paved with...

March 12, 2025

 

Sorry—if you were thinking this was yet another person’s 2 cents about how to achieve Peace in Our Time, you’re going to be disappointed. This one is more about Peace in the Home.

 

Have you ever commuted on a noisy highway? Some stretches of road are quiet; other stretches are paved with different material, which makes the drive loud.

 

I come home from work, and my ears are raw from the sound of the road. That, in turn, makes me less inclined to conversation and, although I interact with the family, I’m thinking, “I just need quiet for a while!”

 

I wonder how many households would benefit from people not being crabby when they get home because of the road noise they dealt with on the way.

 

Another reason to invent better paving material.

 

 

Road Construction

 

July 11, 2022

 

 

I’ve been obsessed with road surfaces ever since I blogged previously that if women had designed paving methods, the materials used would have been lighter-weight but much more durable.

 

After that, the idea took hold, and I kept thinking, “Why isn’t someone developing a road surface as tough as Kevlar*, durable, resilient, yet easy for cars to travel on, and QUIET?”

 

Turns out that Arizona is experimenting with rubberized asphalt. So far, it seems good— Durability: Check. Noise reduction: Check. Easier and lighter to manage: Don’t know.

 

Bonus: It uses all those leftover tires that nobody seems to know what to do with.

 

It may be pricey, but the savings due to not replacing it as frequently, and the advantages of not disrupting traffic for road repairs, make it a good long-term investment.

 

I hope that this trend catches on. We’ve been paving roads at least since the days of ancient Rome. I think it’s time we updated our methods.

 

 

*Invented by a woman