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Some Facts About New Hampshire’s Infrastructure:New Hampshire has approximately 17,000 miles of state and town roads, turnpikes and interstate highways. There are 3,795 bridges in the state. As of 2010, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation plowed more than 800 lane miles of roads and put down 180,000 tons of salt for snow and ice control annually.The state was given a “C” grade by the American Society of Civil Engineers for the condition of its roads and bridges. New Hampshire was rated among the worst in the country for the poor condition of its bridges by Transportation For America. On average, bridges are older in New Hampshire than those in the rest of the country. There are hundreds of bridges on the so-called “red list,” which means that the bridges have major structural problems and need to be repaired or replaced.The state also has a poor record when it comes to public transportation. New Hampshire has no comprehensive rail system and is rated 42nd in terms of investment in public transportation according to the State Department of Transportation.The majority of New Hampshire’s infrastructure funding comes from vehicle registration fees and gas taxes. The state takes out fewer bond loans than other states and considers its funding a “pay as you go” system. The gas tax, the lowest in New England, has not been raised since 1991. The 2011 Legislature did away with a motor vehicle fee increase. That change has meant more $30 million a year in cuts to DOT.The $800 million expansion of I-93 from Salem to Manchester began in 2006, but has been delayed several times because of a lack of funding. Supporters of the expansion say it will update one of the country’s most congested highways and bring needed tourism revenue to the more isolated and less economically robust northern part of the state. Traffic on I-93 has increased 600 percent since the highway was built in the 1960s and approximately 80,000 cars now drive on it each day.Summary provided by StateImpact NH

6.18.15: Overcoming Stage Fright & The Bicycle's Contentious History with the Road

Will Marlow via flickr Creative Commons
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Aphonia, flop sweat, mic fright. Call it what you will, stage fright can be crippling for some performers. On today’s show: a pianist delves into the history of performance anxiety, and her own struggle to overcome it

Then, between recent spikes in bicycle commuters and bike-friendly infrastructure, arguments over who owns the road are commonplace, but hardly new. We’ll take a look at the bicycle’s fraught history with pedestrians, automobiles and even horse-drawn carriages.  

Listen to the full show

A History and Memoir of Stage Fright

Sara Solovitch joins us to talk about her new book, Playing Scared: A History and Memoir of Stage Fright.

WOM06182015A.mp3
A History and Memoir of Stage Fright

Watch Joe Kowan talk about how he overcame stage fright.

Stagefright

Edith Savitsky has a budding career in show business, but it was cut short by stage fright. Producer Steve Mencher has more.

You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.

The Battle for Bikes on the Road

James Longhurst is associate professor history at the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse – in his new book Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road, he reveals how the social and legal status of bicycles was debated even in the years before the automobile.  

Related: 150 Years of Bike Lane Battles

James has also created a playlist of videos he came across while researching bicycle history. 

WOM06182015C.mp3
The Battle for Bikes on the Road

On the Bly

With the help of historians Joyce Chaplin and Matthew Goodman, BackStory producer Nina Earnest has the story of journalist Nellie Bly’s 1889 race ’round the world against Elizabeth Bisland. This story comes from the BackStory episode "Speed Through Time: The Changing Pace of America."

You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.

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