As the ice and snow begin to melt away, they expose one of the biggest banes of the Ohio driver: potholes.
Anyone driving on campus knows that the pothole situation on nearby streets is terrible. If drivers aren’t careful to strategically swerve to avoid them — much like something you’d see in a video game — they could lose a tire to the gaping holes.
YSU put in its best efforts to prevent the mayhem caused by potholes by filling them with gravel for weeks before finally replacing the gravel with asphalt mere days ago. For weeks, our cars were being pelted with little rocks, chipping at the paint, in addition to the risk of tumbling into the gaping hippopotamus mouth-sized holes that were ineffectively filled.
One of the worst roads on campus is Arlington Street, necessary to get into or out of the M70 parking lot. Driving on this road means hoping there are no oncoming cars and debating which would cause more damage to your car if there are: running into oncoming traffic or being eaten alive by the potholes.
The best way to tell a sober from a drunken driver in Ohio springtime is to look for who is driving in a straight line and who is weaving back and forth like a newborn fawn attempting to walk for the first time. The sober driver will be doing their utmost best to avoid the potholes while the drunken driver will be trying to focus on driving in a straight line, hitting numerous in their efforts.
Nothing makes a dying town seem closer to the brink of expiration than roads that bear the pockmarks of neglect and insufficient funds, manpower and will to live. It may cause some of us to question deep within ourselves how to keep our spirits high when we look down the road of opportunity and see only blemishes that are sure to wreak havoc on our vehicles.