I'm not saying that it is necessarily the most rational thing, but short term expense is going to be the dominant concern, IMO. Many localities will find asphalt prices too high for anything but repair of the most crucial routes.

Deteriorating roads may actually be another way to discourage car use. As fewer and fewer people drive, there will be more and more pressure for car and truck drivers to bear the full cost of road and bridge building and repair. This could hasten the demise of well maintained roadways.

I would love to see a movement toward active de-pavement--tearing up much existing asphalt and concrete infrastructure and turning them into gardens and parks. I live a couple blocks away from a two-block stretch of city street where they did just that--tore up the street and planted trees, gardens, and lawns. It is a showpiece for the city, but oddly has not been replicated yet in many other neighborhoods.

I lived in Georgia for a while, and many older people there can clearly remember the first paved road that was made in their county. Somehow people lived for centuries in these counties without any paved roads for centuries. I'm not saying it was easy. But many of the same people also note some of the negatives that came with the network of paved roads--it was easier to get to the small towns, but also easier to leave them or drive through or around them, so most towns suffered economically and in other ways.

And bicycle only "streets"/paths should last almost forever if well built.

Amen. If some virsus caused all humans to become violently ill in the presence of ICE vehicles and if we then used Human Powered Vehicles (HPV) for local, personal transport - we could save oil for building and maintaining asphalt bike paths.

On the other hand, cobble stone and washboard gravel roads significantly reduce the efficiency of HPVs. I remember when most of Norther Minnesota had gravel roads - washboard roads - what a pain they were.