You are not alone

"Where did all these people come from?" was my thought while driving down Highway 1 Monday morning. Heading south past Solon, 17 vehicles in front blocked my path and 12 vehicles followed me. I was stuck. For me, a notoriously impatient driver, this is maddening. 

The Iowa Department of Transportation sheds some light on the number of commuters on our highways. Here are some facts:

• Interstate 235 in Des Moines near 42nd Street is the busiest spot on Iowa's roadways with a 2006 average daily traffic count of 113,000 vehicles per day. (The IDOT's most current numbers are from 2006.)
  
• The stretch of Interstate 80 between Highway 1 and Interstate 380 had a 2006 average daily traffic count of 46,200 vehicles per day. (That sounds low by my guess. It's surely higher two years later.
  
• The 2006 average daily traffic counts on Highway 1 were 5,000 vehicles per day between Mount Vernon and Solon and 8,200 between Solon and Interstate 80. (Some days, it looks like all of those vehicles are ahead of me on the road.)
  
• The roads maintained by the IDOT represents 8.2 percent of the total road mileage in the state, but those roads carry 61 percent of all traffic. (That makes sense, since we're a rural state.)
  
• There are more public road miles (114,194) in Iowa than interstate miles in the entire 50 states. (I could use another of road miles on my commute.)
  
• Iowa is 13th in the nation in the number of roadway miles. (We kick Rhode Island's butt!)
  
• There are approximately 39 miles of road for every 1,000 people in Iowa. (I want my share now.)
  

Now, think about all that when you pay taxes.