Californians are faced with the decision of repealing a gas tax that was enacted by the state legislature last year. The gas tax will raise billions of dollars which are allocated to general infrastructure spending. It is a $.13 tax increase on gasoline, $.20 on diesel and a slew of new fees. With this tax it is said that we would be able to get California roads back to where they should be.
But I voted for the repeal of the gas tax. Something I never thought I’d do. I’ll state my reasons after the history lesson about one of the greatest road systems in history.
The Qhaqaq Ñan, which in Quechua means the Royal Road, was the greatest road system in the 15th century. And I mean in the world. It is comparable to the Silk Road of Eurasia, although it was maintained much better. Reports of the Silk Road mention that it was in general disrepair and very dangerous. The Qhapaq Ñan was safe, easy to follow, provided lodging and postal service. It even had features that protected from the elements.
Image on the right: Map of the Qhapaq Ñan, source World Heritage Organization.
If you include the minor connecting roads, the network was about 40,000kms of roads. It connected almost all cities, huacas [holy sites], and ritualistic sites in the Inka Realm.
To maintain such a road system demanded millions of hours of man-hours each year. In the US we dedicate much less work per capita to our infrastructure and we wonder why it is in disrepair. Infrastructure requires a lot of work, and it should be a source of pride.
FIRST OFF, IT WASN’T JUST 40,000KMS OF KANSAS LOOKING ROADS.
The Qhapaq Ñan spanned from one end of the Inka Realm to the other. It went through the driest deserts in the world where no rainfall has ever been recorded and along the spine of the world’s longest mountain range and ventured into the world’s largest rainforest.
There were two main spines of the road, one along the coast and the other along the spine of the Andes. The roads went from Santiago de Chile to Quito, Ecuador. Both of these spines converged on at the midpoint at Cusco. The parallel spines were connected by a network of smaller roads.
Despite the difficult conditions, the road was smooth and mostly paved with either stone or a pavement similar to ours today. In places it was as wide as a 3 lane road. It had bridges spanning thousand meter drops, it spanned the second most arduous mountain range in the world and was in near perfect condition.
Conquistador Pedro de Cieza de Leon had this to say about it:
“One sees the Inka highway, which is as famous in those parts as the road Hannibal made through the Alps when he descended on Italy, and may be regarded as even more remarkable, both because of the great lodging places and storehouses built all along it and because of the great difficulty in driving it through such steep and craggy mountains. It is an astonishing sight […] a road fifteen-feet wide with a wall along it higher than a man and very substantially constructed. Through its whole length the road was level and shaded by groves of trees, from which boughs laden with fruit often hung over the way. And in the woods the trees were full of many kinds of birds and parrots.”
There aren’t any pack animals native to the Andes and so the Qhapaq Ñan was constructed solely for human, and the occasional llama caravan. Because of this they typically constructed the road to ascend and descend mountains without the use of switchbacks. Tthe Qhapaq Ñan rarely descended below 3,000 meters (10,000ft) because it was generally more arduous of a journey to walk through the jungle-covered valleys and steep canyons and so the road typically went along the high points and ridgelines of the mountains. One of the great obstacles that the engineers faced were the ravines and gulches that descended enormous distances, 1,000m was not uncommon. They had a variety of methods to cross such ravines. Along the more popular roads, they would build a straw bridge that could support upward of 15 tonnes. Along the less popular roads they utilized a zip-tie like system.
IT WASN’T JUST A SPECTACULAR ROAD EITHER. IT WAS READY FOR USE.
Image on the right: A small segment of the surviving Qhapaq Ñan scaling a canyon wall.
The Qhapaq Ñan was complete with inns (Quechua: tampus) and storehouses (Quechua: colqas) where one could retrieve any item that they would be able to retrieve at their house. These were built every few miles so that whenever a traveler was tired they could stop, sleep, eat, and be refreshed. Separate from this network of tampus, there was a postal service made by a network of relay runners made of young men aged between 17 and 21. They sprinted just over a mile to where the next one was stationed and passed on the verbal message or package. This network of relayers (Quechua: chasque) was complete with small lodgings for these young men that could house 2 of them.
There were military outposts, lodgings for the nobles, places for worship and much more. A traveler was always well cared for while traveling.
The road itself was kept as safe as possible. It was so smooth that one didn’t have to worry about tripping (keep in mind those chasques that were sprinting at full speed to relay their message. They couldn’t afford to trip), it was guarded against the elements, and had drainage. Due to the economic model of the empire, one didn’t have to worry about thieves.
To guard against the snow when the highway crossed the mountains the constructed stone walls to guard it against blowing snow. In the desert, they constructed tall stakes that no matter if a sand dune moved, one would still be able to find their way. Anyone familiar with the Silk Road will note that the deserts in western China presented a large problem because of the dunes.
Garcilaso de la Vega said concerning them:
“In every valley when the road came to the fresh river sides with their groves of trees, which, as we have said, normally extend for a distance of a league, they made thick mud walls on either side nearly forty feet apart and four or five bricks deep; and when the road left these valleys it was continued across the sandy deserts, where stakes and rods were driven in so that no one could miss the way or stray to right or left. And this road also runs for five hundred leagues, just like the mountain highway.”
Such an endeavor would be difficult even today. The Inkas, however, were a bronze age civilization. They worked without pack animals so no horses, mules, ox, or the such, they literally carried everything they moved. This included moved earth, stones, tools, and wood. Such an endeavor as building the Qhahaq Ñan could be considered almost impossible if not from a labor point of view, but also because of the expense.
SO HOW MUCH DID IT COST? MILLIONS OF MAN-HOURS ANNUALLY.
Although the Inkas likely kept records of the exact amount of time required for the road, those records are long gone. If they were found they would be nigh to impossible to translate due to the uniqueness of their accounting system of quipus. The Inkas didn’t have a monetary system and instead had a labor quota of 2 months per year that each family was tasked with fulfilling. This system was a method called mit’a.
I don’t find it outlandish to suppose that this empire of 10 million people devoted around 72 million hours of work to the Qhapaq Ñan, annually.
An infrastructure is expensive. The empire sanctioned several cities to be built who’s sole purpose was the maintenance of the highway.
The end of the Inka Trail (Qhapaq Ñan that goes from Cusco to Machu Picchu) as it emerges in Machu Picchu.
The people didn’t shirk from the duty of working on the royal highway. If it was time to build another road they viewed it as a way to attain more glory.
Garcilaso de la Vega tells us of a time where the people voluntarily built a new road for the Sapa Inka (Emperor) because of his victory. He makes it sound like it was a source of pride for them.
“The Indians therefore thought it fitting to build a new road for his triumphant return once he had reduced the province of Quito, and they made this smooth, broad highway the whole length of the mountain chain, cutting through the rock and leveling it wherever necessary and filling the ravines with rubble. In some places it was necessary to raise the surface fifteen or twenty times the height of a man, and this road runs for a distance of five hundred leagues. And it is said that when finished the road was so smooth that a wagon could have run along it, though since those times […] The difficulty of the feat will be appreciated by anyone who watches the labor and expense of leveling two leagues of mountain road in Spain between El Espinar near Segovia and Guadarrama, a task that has never been completely finished in spite of the fact that it is the route continually used by the kings of Castile.”
OUR MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE IS AMAZING, IT’S TRUE, BUT THE CONDITION OF IT CAUSES SHAME RATHER THAN PRIDE.
We see from the Silk Road, the Qhapaq Ñan, the Autobahn, the infrastructure of previous empires, that infrastructure is key. It’s not a nice thing to have, it’s key. And it’s expensive.
Let’s take a more Inkan view of our modern infrastructure and be proud to make it better because an infrastructure should be a source of pride, not shame.
You can still experience parts of the Qhapaq Ñan, the famous Inka trail that leads from Cusco to Machu Picchu is part of it. In the coming decades, we should see more because UNESCO designated the whole Qhapaq Ñan as a World Heritage Site. They are working on re-discovering the routes, restoring parts of it, and trying to understand the full significance it had on the world. I could argue that the Qhapaq Ñan gave Europeans an idea of what a good system looked like. Since the US road system was inspired by the Europeans, by only a mild stretch can I state that the Qhapaq Ñan played some influence the freeways.
Now finally why I am against the gas tax as it stands.
It unfairly affect the lower income people. The people that have to commute the furthest in California and the population that has the worst MPG cars are the people hit most by this tax. They are the lower income people, often minorities. It doesn't provide them an alternative either.
The gas tax doesn’t give much in way of public transportation. California is trying to become carbon neutral on a very aggressive timeline. Public transportation is key. Once again the government passes up a great opportunity to fund a decent public transportation system. This hurts the lower income populations again.
Last of all, it’s a bandaid on the infrastructure problem. The billions of dollars that this tax will raise would do lots of good, I understand that, but it’s not going to provide California with a world-class infrastructure. It will merely make it acceptable. That’s not enough.
If they had a gas tax that was higher, say around $.50-$1.00 it could provide public transportation for those affected by it. The tax would also push cars off of the road. If that was the deal, than I would support it. With the money raised, California would be able to built an infrastructure system that would be an example for the rest of the world that follows California’s lead. Yes, it would be expensive, but it could be as innovative and identifying as the Qhapaq Nan was for the Inkas.