Save money. Rip up some streets.

Gravel is cheaper than asphalt, and well-graded gravel is easier on cars than potholed asphalt. With worsening summer temperatures speeding up road decay, and worsening road conditions heating up fiscal debates from Capitol Hill to City Hall, is converting some roads to gravel a way to help climate-proof your town’s finances, free up taxpayer money for more pressing uses, and actually improve driving conditions? Towns in Vermont, Wisconsin, Texas, and elsewhere are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by unpaving, rather than repaving roads.