Rome’s potholes: Ancients better

All roads may lead to Rome, but when you get there the mean streets may swallow you whole. An Italian cocktail of chronic mismanagement, corruption, bureaucracy, neglect, heavy traffic, rare snow and constant rain has turned Rome’s roads into a modern ruin.

Goats graze along the historic Appian Way in Rome

The city has closed streets and reduced the speed limit in many places to an ancient Roman crawl. The potholes have caused accidents, hours of traffic and windfalls for tire dealers. The earliest Roman administrations seemed to care more about road maintenance. The Laws of the Twelve Tables, Rome’s first set of rules dating back to 450 B.C., included instructions to make straight roads 8 feet wide, stipulated what to do in case of water damage and decreed who “shall build and repair the road.”

Rome protected its streets by limiting chariot traffic and put a daytime ban on commercial carts. Julius Caesar fought to procure the position of temporary commissioner on the Appian Way. After Rome collapsed, urban planning fell by the wayside for centuries. In the past decade the city’s streets have become a patchwork of asphalt, cobblestone, gravel and rubble.