It’s finally beginning to look as if we are getting some dialogue from government leaders on the long-neglected topic of our nation’s infrastructure.

Recent approval in Washington of a stopgap highway funding bill is a step in the right direction. Let’s hope that lawmakers can continue the momentum on this important issue when they return from recess.

My wife and I travel the snowbird route back and forth to Florida in a large motor home twice a year, and nowhere are the horrible road conditions in the Northeast more evident than from the cabin of a large vehicle.

We get spoiled, of course, driving the smooth roads of Florida all winter. And why not? They don’t have the deep-driving frost that plagues the northern states, though they still have as much or more of the heavy truck traffic that beats down the travel lanes of every major highway.

On our return trips back north in the spring, we notice only a gradual change in driving comfort until we get to Pennsylvania.

From there on, it’s a constant dish-rattling bumping and banging from highway and bridge joints. There are also large potholes, with New York, New Jersey and Connecticut being the worst.

And while there’s a very small chance of it, we can envision being one of an unlucky few who might plunge through a failing bridge to a tragic end. If that thought doesn’t make you want to write to your member of Congress, I don’t know what does.

I have to say, though, that the Maine and New Hampshire turnpikes are as nice as any of the roads we drive. Kudos to those agencies for their good highway maintenance, and we wish the other northern states would make that a priority.

Wayne Quint

West Bath