The state is eligible for around 15 billion in road construction from the infrastructure bill, and from what I've read it's supposed to be for megaprojects to improve quality of life. With that being said, I have my doubts the state will try to fix some of these roads because a lot of them are the way they are because of NIMBYs. In Pittsburgh there are people fighting to ensure that no bypass of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel gets built, and in Philly you have something like the Blue Route(not 76) that goes from 6 lanes to 4 because environmentalist made some sort of stink and the state caved and now there's constant backups. So a lot of our roads suck because they're kept shitty to appease a small amount of people.

Good question and to be honest I have no idea. I'm sure you and I agree that they should just legalize fully in PA, but until then we gotta make due with what we have. Perhaps you can "get" one of the conditions? For example, maybe have a doctor diagnose you with anxiety. I'm grabbing at straws here but I'm rooting for you(and anyone who wants one) to get it.

When was that? Mine was in 2020, when anxiety just got added to the list of qualifying conditions. I paid 50 for the card and had to pay two separate cash payments for two separate appointments to the doctor doing the prescription. It may have been less than 500, either/or I still love having my card. Haha

I had to pay about 500 total in cash when I got mine two years ago. I had a few friends and family get a card since then and I'm pretty sure they paid the same. Have you heard there's a "cheaper" way? It may have come down since then but I haven't heard anything about it. You will need to have a qualifying condition... luckily I had an anxiety diagnosis from 20 years ago that shows on my chart so all I needed to do was bring in a copy of such. Good luck....it's totally worth it

To be fair...Kilo's Kitchen was already taken

We're getting 15 billion for transit too .. separate from the 15b for roads and bridges. Pretty much everything will be improved or expanded,: roads, busways, rail lines, etc. From a carbon reduction perspective it's actually better to expand all forms of transit inward, including roads, because it also encourages economic growth to be inward as well. In this case the "induced demand" that some like to mention is used to the city proper's advantage as opposed to pushing the flow to the suburbs and outlying areas. When more roads, train lines, etc are built outward, the opposite happens and urban sprawl is encouraged resulting in large amounts of deforestation which has a worse impact on carbon reduction due to the increased fuel efficiency of cars and their ongoing transition to electric. In regards to regional rail, it's awesome that there are a lot of available rail rights of way already so hopefully the airport line and a couple other lines get built...with the type of money we seem to be getting it appears that may happen.

I think they should connect it to 579 and make it one route with the interstate designation. You can do it without expanding the footprint of the big interchange too. I assume there will be some significant changes to the highways given the large amount of money PA is eligible for(15b) in the infrastructure bill.

I always thought they should connect it to 579 and number the whole route as such. The 579 designation is way too short and if it were designated an interstate it would qualify for more federal funding

Based on everything you're saying I think people like yourself or anyone else with similar knowledge should remain loud throughout this whole process. It's absolutely incredible how a lot of our states busiest roads have been ignored over the years, and to read that they had the money to do the airport light rail line and didn't do it is very disheartening. I read in the infrastructure bill that the money being dispersed has to be for quality of life improvements...so it may be a test of how corrupt these decision makers can get.

From what I gather... because I was thinking the same thing too ..is that the money will be dispersed differently than it was in the past. Basically the state has to show the federal government the project they want they money for and it has to be approved....and the feds are encouraging megaprojects. So it's not, "here's your money do with it as you choose".

With that being said...I'm skeptical myself. We'll have a better understanding in five years as to what they'll actually do...and if it's little to nothing to help to the average citizen then we need to make them suffer consequences... whatever they may be. LOL

If the state is smart they would allocate about 3 of the 15 billion specifically for 76 mainly because that's actually the busiest highway in the state, and theres a toll capture potential of around 50 million a year if they add express lanes. As far as 28 it wouldn't get that kind of investment but it wouldn't need it either

This is Reddit, so most responses you'll get will be to ride a bike or take public transit. As a road 28 is extremely similar to 76 in Philly (Schuylkill Expressway) in the way how it's wedged between a steep hill and railroad tracks, so widening will be more expensive than normal because it involves either a lot of digging and cutting, or the road can be double decked which would likely cost about 100 million a mile.

The good news is PA is eligible for up to 15 billion dollars over the next 5 years specifically for roads and bridges (another, separate 15 billion is going to public transit). That's a huge sum of money that can fix a lot of our road problems in the state. Not sure if they'll do anything with 28 but the chances certainly increase with large sums of money being given.

Perhaps...either/or it sure has become society's problem, a problem that clearly grew over the last few decades and is reaching critic mass. As far as it being the responsibility of the person's family ... That's great if the family is responsible to begin with...or if they are indeed responsible but managing and caring for a mentally ill person is beyond their capabilities as it is for most ...or that the mentally ill person has a family to begin with

It's unfortunate that we have such a polar divide in our country because it seems we're experiencing the direct result of deinstitutionalization. Our prisons have basically become replacements for psychiatric hospitals and while most mental illnesses don't correlate to increased violence....some do and if a inmate suffering from something like schizophrenia has a violent episode they're gonna be met with the same type of force that a sane violent person would. This also seems to directly correlation with the homeless situations in many cities around the country, as far more mentally ill are navigating daily life among everyone else and not getting the help they need

This isn't a liberal/conservative issue, this is a legitimate national emergency. I think we need to bring back the psychiatric hospitals to the degree we used to have them, of course in modern form. Deaths from despair have been going up dramatically in recent years too, so I'm not sure what else we need to prove how serious this is.