MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel. This morning in Alabama, across the front page of the Huntsville Times, is this headline: NPR exaggeration revs up residents. It refers to a conversation that I had on Wednesday with George Mason University economist Russell Roberts. He says tax cuts would be a better economic stimulus than infrastructure spending. I said, it's argued that even if highway projects don't bring down the overall unemployment rate, they do leave you with good roads, to which professor Roberts said...
Mr. RUSELL ROBERTS (University Economist, George Mason University): Have you ever been to Huntsville, Alabama?
SIEGEL: Yes.
Mr. ROBERTS: Yeah, my parents live there now. There's a highway. It's about 12 or 14 lanes. Its stretches that way for about three miles, then it shrinks down to a sort of a civilized six. Why? Why is there this remarkable lake of asphalt? There is no traffic generating the need for a 14-lane highway or 12, whatever. It is just unbelievably wide. I assume some senator in Alabama that was politically powerful got that passed.
SIEGEL: Well, we heard from some indignant listeners in Huntsville. There was this from Dan Price. Imagine that: roads designed to handle the traffic flow. Enjoy your drive home on the Beltway, professor. My commute is now only 15 minutes. That was cruel. Well, we're joined now by the mayor of Huntsville, Tommy Battle. Mayor Battle, is there a 14- or 12-lane lake of asphalt in Huntsville, Alabama?
Mayor TOMMY BATTLE (Huntsville, Alabama): No, there isn't. We have about 105,000 cars a day traveling on that roadway, so it's a necessary part of Huntsville, and it's also one of our economic drivers.
SIEGEL: We're talking about Interstate 565 here.
Mr. BATTLE: Right.
SIEGEL: How wide is it at its widest?
Mr. BATTLE: At one point, it might hit eight lanes.
SIEGEL: Our guys have looked at the Google Map photos, you know...
Mr. BATTLE: Right.
SIEGEL: Of the stretch. What they find is, at its widest point, 10 lanes. And then if you add entrance and exit ramps, maybe you get up to 12 at some points.
Mr. BATTLE: Well, we kind of wish that it was as wide as Mr. Roberts was talking about because when it started to hit capacity at this point, 10 percent of our workforce works 30 miles or more from the workplace, and if you don't have a way to get people to and from work, you don't have that economic stimulus that you need for your community.
SIEGEL: I read that it was roughly a half-a-billion dollar project, completed in the early 1990s.
Mr. BATTLE: Yes, sir.
SIEGEL: Did a legislator from Alabama get an appropriation for that?
Mr. BATTLE: We fought long and hard to be able to get that. We were the largest city in America who didn't have an interstate connection. That highway borders the second-largest research park in America. It also borders Redstone Arsenal, which has 35,000 workers who work on missile defense in NASA, and it's very important to our community.
SIEGEL: Well, if it's - even if it's necessary, would it qualify as a nutritious pork?
Mr. BATTLE: I wouldn't say it's pork in any way. If you traveled on it during the day, it's almost to capacity right now.
SIEGEL: Mayor Tommy Battle of Huntsville, Alabama. Thank you very much for talking with us.
Mr. BATTLE: Thank you.
SIEGEL: And by coincidence, Russ Roberts is at NPR today. Hi.
Mr. ROBERTS: Good to be here.
SIEGEL: Or shall we call it the woodshed right now where you're visiting?
Mr. ROBERTS: (Laughing) Yeah, the sheepish Russ Roberts is here today.
SIEGEL: OK. Your reply to the mayor of Huntsville.
Mr. ROBERTS: Well, I'm looking forward to that speeding ticket I'm going to be getting next time I'm on I-565. I exaggerated. I feel bad about it. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that I-565 was an unnecessary road. I have no idea about that, and I exaggerated how wide it was. But the real question, which I think is the important question, is whether there is additional infrastructure available in the United States to spend money on that would be productive.
SIEGEL: That's the chastened economist, Russell Roberts. And if you want to see the Google map of I-565, the link is at npr.org