The crackhead beltway strikes again. There is no real mystery as to why impaired drivers keep careening down 485 in the wrong lanes. It is by design.

Charlotte is saddled with the First World’s cheapest, barely functional beltway. Poorly lit — if at all — with sparse signage, cramped interchanges, too few lanes; it is wholly inadequate now, let alone in a few years. It is a road a crackhead would buy while trying to save as much money as possible for the important stuff, like crack rocks.

So what is the important stuff for state and local government? You tell me, I’m still trying to figure it out. But crack would explain a lot.