SAN FRANCISCO—A recent report by The Road Information Program (TRIP), a non-profit transportation research group, ranked San Francisco roads as the worst in the nation.
TRIP’s findings showed that roads in the San Francisco-Oakland area were more likely to be in poor condition than roads in other large and mid-sized urban areas.
San Francisco narrowly beat out Los Angeles as the city with the most roads in poor condition. According to the study, 74 percent of Bay Area roads were judged to be in poor condition, over Los Angeles’ 73 percent. Concord, Detroit and San Jose rounded out the top five.
Based on its findings, the group estimated that the condition of the roads cost each motorist in the San Francisco-Oakland area more than $1,000 each year in gas, time lost in traffic, crashes and vehicle maintenance.
According the most recent report, “the timing of maintenance and rehabilitation of road surfaces is critical, impacting the cost-effectiveness of the repairs ultimately the overall quality of a regional road network.”
Maintenance and rehabilitation, properly timed or not, were made difficult by a lack of federal funding for road and highway repairs. The lack of such funds was cited as the primary reason for the poor quality of San Francisco roads.
“The long-term preservation and maintenance of our national transportation system depends on federal investment,” said Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “We can do better than the uncertainty of short-term extensions. America needs Congress to fully fund a multi-year surface transportation bill.”
Will Wilkins, TRIP’s executive director, shared a similar sentiment. “With state and local governments struggling to fund needed road repairs and with federal surface transportation funding set to expire this month, road conditions are projected to get even worse,” Wilkins said. “Congress could reduce the extra costs borne by motorists driving on rough roads by authorizing a long-term, adequately funded federal transportation program that improves road conditions on the nation’s major roads and highways.”
