Are your roads littered with potholes deep enough to blow a tire out? Find out if your city made the list for America’s worst roads.
After all, any driver knows the hidden menace that rears its head every spring: potholes. While the bird’s chirp and the sun shines, roads begin to crack and pull apart in the changing temperatures. What you may now know, though, is how differently roads are maintained across America.
While some people drive mostly for leisure, such as friends taking an ultimate road trip, many Americans depend on our roads and highways to get to work and transport goods. Must of the political onversation surrounding US infrastructure often involves public transport (or the lack thereof). However, private transport is tricky depending on where in the country you’re based.
Since America depends so heavily on its roads, it’s no surprise there’s two different standards used to define road condition: the International Roughness Index (IRI) and the Present Serviceability Rating (PSR). Using those measures, this infographic analyzes the condition of America’s highways, and the geographic distribution is somewhat predictable: the Midwest (subject to scorching summer and icy winters) and West Coast (liable to earthquakes) has many of the urban areas with the highest percentage of poor roads, while the temperate South and Florida have many of the urban areas with the highest percentage of good roads. In short, it looks like humans aren’t the only ones who benefit from sunny weather.