As you’re driving through campus, the car in front of you suddenly disappears from sight. No, it’s not a tear in space, though your car might wish it was.

Instead, as you begin to plummet in yourself, you realize too late that it’s a pothole. On the bright side, perhaps your mangled car and body will provide enough filler for the next driver to pass unhindered overhead.

The moonscape that is the roadways of Massachusetts would rival any bomb-scarred battlefield. In what is perhaps the worst indictment of local roads, the potholes on Sunset Avenue adjacent to the Southwest residential area can actually be seen from Google Maps. That’s bad.

In an apparent stopgap measure, a truck was on campus last week pouring asphalt into holes on North Pleasant. But asphalt is fickle, and a wet winter day is not the best time to apply it. Not surprisingly, the passing traffic did little more than kick up a storm of pebbles.

Winter is harsh on road surfaces, of course, but the roads in this state are reaching a crisis. Some of the highways around town are in decent shape so the ability to construct a surface which holds up against winter weather is certainly present.

Outside of the long, snowy months, I normally ride a scooter around the area. It’s inexpensive and gets me where I need to go, yet the sorry condition of the roads has already forced me to avoid certain parts of town.

Worse still, the constant bumps and vibrations actually knocked my side mirror loose and sent the retaining bolt into the void. A trip to the hardware store fixed that, but my scooter is literally being shaken apart.

Sadly, it won’t be getting better any time soon. Along with road conditions, the state’s transportation budget has also reached a crisis point.

A report last year from the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission stated that “over the next 20 years, the cost just to maintain our transportation system exceeds the anticipated resources available by $15 billion to $19 billion.” That’s quite a shortfall and it doesn’t even address growth and new construction.

This phenomenon is not limited to Massachusetts. Infrastructure maintenance budgets all over the country are either in debt or barely scraping by.

This has left roads, sewers, water mains and other facilities crumbling in many major cities. Recently, there have been sinkholes in New York City and, even worse, the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people.

That might seem like a good call to action, but too many states are still waiting. For what, it’s hard to say. Governor Deval Patrick seems to be one of those playing the waiting game. He has formed a plan called MassTrans, which will merge some regional transportation departments in an effort to make the system more efficient. He has also suggested that casino revenue could help reduce the burden on the state.

Unfortunately, the details Patrick was supposed to deliver to the legislature in early February never came, and according to the Boston Globe last week, Patrick told reporters that “he was not close to completing the plan.” Meanwhile, the roads continue to crumble.

The fact that the state needs an infusion of money is no secret; the commission’s report also says that “virtually every transportation agency in the state is running structural deficits.”

And yet in December, the federal government withheld $1 billion in matching funds because Massachusetts had not set aside enough of its own money for infrastructure repairs. Lacking both money and a comprehensive transportation plan, Governor Patrick really needs to get the ball rolling.

Where does the University fit into these transportation woes? Many campus roads are in dire need of repair. Massachusetts Ave. and North Pleasant St. are the two worst streets on campus and also the two most heavily traveled.

North Pleasant St. has seen some heavy traffic from the two construction projects along it, but much of that traffic has instead used Stockbridge Road. At what point does North Pleasant warrant repaving? When we finally lose a PVTA bus?

With the end of winter weather still some ways away, drivers need to be prepared for even worse conditions. It’s no joke that some of these giant holes will soon be causing real accidents.

If you happen to find a side mirror and an Arizona license plate lying beside a campus pothole, please send in a spelunking crew. I’ll probably need some help getting back out.

John Gruenenfelder is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].