While it may not excite, anger or frustrate Pennsylvanians in the same way as many of the topics addressed in Sun-Gazette headlines — as they are reading the articles or discussing the news of the day with friends and family — we suspect most motorists and even passengers in our region have, at times, found traffic to be an angering or frustrating experience.

For this reason, we believe everyone can appreciate the efforts of city leadership, featured in recent editions of the Sun-Gazette, to improve traffic safety in Williamsport.

We specifically believe Williamsport’s taxpayers can appreciate the focus on using state grant money rather than dipping into our municipality’s already-in-demand general fund for these improvements.

And while we often advocate — and will continue to advocate — for prudence in government spending, maintenance of streets and roads and enabling motorists to use our streets and roads to conduct their busy, tax-paying lives is very clearly a legitimate function of our state and local government.

It might not generate the bombastic statements or level of passion that many other issues confronting our nation, society and communities do. But as pedestrian of an issue as it is — and yes, that pun is intended — it is an important issue nonetheless.

In that regard, it is similar to two, more important issues our Wednesday editorial touched on — the need to attract more jobs and more affordable housing to our region. Likewise, our city officials, county commissioners and region’s legislators have thankfully prioritized these two issues.

Our society and our communities may well be better off if our public servants spent more time as Mayor Derek Slaughter and his team do and as our county commissioners and lawmakers Joe Hamm, Jamie Flick and Gene Yaw do — on simple, quality-of-life issues that might not galvanize or excite partisan bases, but rather serve the infrastructure and needs of the entire community.