I feel like it's more at the metro area level than the state level. Cities that see a combination of heavy traffic, frequent salting & plow use, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles are going to have garbage roads. Chicago and Boston are at the top of my list.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Not sure about the state versus metro thing in Massachusetts but in Illinois it is state wide. If you drive through any of population 10,000 or less towns in Illinois the roads are littered with potholes and are crumbling.
No editing on my part. This is the actual new story headline:
"I used to play a driving game with my kids when they were small. Whenever we found ourselves heading south on I-75 approaching the border with Ohio, I'd ask them to close their eyes and, judging only by the sound of the car as it drove on the road, tell me the instant we had left Michigan.
They never failed to guess correctly. Michigan's roads have been so bad for so long, even a child can tell the difference."
I feel like you can do this on any state line transition though, even if they're both decent roads. They're never going to sound exactly the same because they were laid at different times (usually)
I'd do the same when I lived in Maryland and crossed into Pennsylvania.
Yep, same here. You can always tell when you cross into PA.
years ago, we could always tell when we crossed-over into iowa just from shit-tier freeways we'd encounter.. and it made no difference what direction and state we were coming from. which was a different experience than knowing exactly when you left iowa and ventured into omaha.. which was done by smell alone.
I drove through Nebraska one time, and the only thing I remember is how bad that state smelled. "Industrial Rot" was the best way I could describe it
Louisiana
I haven't been on the road a ton in recent years, nor have I driven every state, but I have driven at least some in every state from Vermont to Florida, across the entire American southeast, and down I-10 to California. In my experience, Louisiana was the worst.
South Carolina. Nothing ever gets repaired until it's on the verge of total collapse. When major repairs start they get dragged out for years so that by the time anything is finished another major repair needs to be done somewhere else.
Road construction has long been an afterthought in the state, along with all infrastructure. They're quick to put plants and industry in place, then have heavy trucks destroy what bit of road was left... Then take half a decade to decide that maybe they should have built the road first, but now have nowhere else to put it.
When driving on I-95, it's super obvious when you enter South Carolina. The road is shit, but then immediately good again when you cross into either GA or NC.
I feel like you could have led with that instead of making this opinion based!
I was just Googling after I posted and stumbled upon that. So, when I posted I was unaware of that article.
Illinois was tragically underfunded due to a combination of factors, many of them stemming from previously underfunded pensions. Roads are very expensive to maintain in a climate that has wild swings between far below freezing, and extremely hot and sun baked. 2021 (the year that your link was posted) was around the time that the funding crisis was being addressed.
https://idot.illinois.gov/transportation-system/rebuild-illinois.html
Illinois more recently has new actual adults running the state and is working to repair the underfunded problems of the past.
That being said - Most places that have better maintained roads have significantly lower temperature swings, and very stable land.
Every list I've seen is completely different, but none of them have Illinois in the top 10 worst. The most consistent result I saw was Rhode Island being one of the top 3.
My vote is for Belgium. Crossing the border from Germany or the Netherlands feels like entering a war zone.
As a european I'm glad to hear roads are shit over the pond too.
Hi neighbor! Wisconsinite here to throw our hat in the ring. I used to live on a residential road in the Milwaukee area that had a sign on either end that said "Rough Road". It was permanently installed. There were asphalt patches on top of patches that had been used to patch older patches. Half the patches turned to potholes, and then they ran out of patch money. But apparently had just enough left in the budget for signs.
I moved to across town to another suburb of Milwaukee, and the new street I live on partially caved in right beside my neighbor's driveway
Fellow Wisconsinite here (waves at new friend).
Honestly, as far as highways go, travel through Indiana. I have to take I-65 the entire length of Indiana 4 times a year as my in-laws live in Kentucky, and it is absolute crap. Every single over pass has a rough patch under it. I'm not sure if it is caused by water coming off the over pass, but every one has it.
Several years ago, truckers started boycotting Indiana truck stops, because the highways were so bad.
Now as far as local roads, yeah there are some pretty terrible ones. One road that I go on nearly every day, as it's one of the outlets for my neighbor hood, is owned by three different entities. Inside the neighborhood, the road is owned by the city and it is well taken care of. Where the city care ends, the county takes over for about 2000 feet and that is reasonable. Then there is a section about 1000' long that I'm not honestly sure who owns it and it is in HORRIBLE condition, until about 500' before a major road, where the county comes in again and that part of the road is in good shape.
TL;DR: One road, three owners and one owner doesn't do shit to maintain the road.
"Rough road" signs aren't so bad. "Deteriorating road" signs are when shit gets real.
"Paved Road Ends" is also fun.
Dirt roads are too common in my county to even notice that sign.
I remember when they had those signs permanently installed on I-94! It was the stretch through Brookfield, if I recall correctly. So, some things have improved.
Rauner blocked the state budget for years so there wasn't any money to fix roads. They are currently fixing all of the neglected roads and bridges now. There were bridges with chunks of concrete missing and exposed rebar that they addressed or are addressing first. They are currently repaving and upgrading the intersection of i57 & I74 for instance.
How is Alaska? It must be very difficult to have good roads there.
Depending on where you are there just aren't any roads, or the roads don't see heavy trucks so they stay decent.
Are there any states with good roads?
Texas.
We're verging on a being a theocratic petro-state, but (therefore?) we do invest in roads. Your average Farm-to-Market is nicer than the US highways in many places. Our crony-capitalist toll roads are mostly very nice to drive on too, smooth even up to 100mph, though you pay for the privilege.