h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are a lot of roads, which need upkeep because potholes form.

But what if our vehicles traveled a foot or so above the ground, buoyed by air jets? There could be stabilizers to even out areas where the ground is rough or full of potholes.

Just sayin!

Why not make the roads themselves of this resilient rubber in the first place?

How about making roads of breathable substances? Overpaving contributes to climate change.

The presence of one road in Great Smokey Mountains National Park has raised the temperature enough to make the nearby river water inhospitable to the trout, which are dying off.

Think what we could do for the planet if we could rid of an appreciable amount of asphalt and concrete.

Those are good points.

Rain runs off the surface of paved roads, but it soaks into gravel or dirt roads. The hazard of gravel roads is the deep pits after rainstorms. Could a way be found to keep the gravel together enough not to pit, but not so together that rain wouldn't sink in?

I'm not enough of an engineer to know, and that's a massive understatement. But the road past Hoggetts' farm is gravel. Recently, there was a flash flood that washed a lot of it out.

The county showed up with equipment and repaired it in no time.

The county showed a lot of grit.