California has some of the roughest roads in the US, study says. Which states have it worse?

Cortlynn Stark, The Sum
·2 min read
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California has some of the worst roads in the country, a new study found.

USA Facts, a nonprofit civic initiative that makes government data accessible, looked at the states with the best and worst road quality using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The data is quantified through the International Roughness Index, which measures the inches of vertical movement a vehicle experiences when traveling one mile at 50 miles per hour — essentially, how rough the road is. The higher the score, the rougher the road.

Here’s how it breaks down: A score of less than 95 inches per mile means the road is good, a score from 95 to 170 is fair and a score higher than 170 is poor.

Rhode Island had the largest percentage of road miles ranked as poor at 48% as of 2020, the latest data available, followed by New Jersey, Hawaii and New Mexico.

California had the fifth worst score with a third of roads in poor condition, according to USA Facts.

Here’s how the percentages broke down:

  • Rhode Island: 48%

  • New Jersey: 45%

  • Hawaii: 40%

  • New Mexico: 34%

  • California: 33%

The states with the best roads, or the lowest percentage of roads ranked as poor, were:

  • Tennessee: 5.4%

  • Wyoming: 5.7%

  • North Dakota: 5.8%

  • Oklahoma: 6.3%

  • Nebraska: 7.1%

Overall, 80.1% of roads in the United States were considered acceptable, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure issued every four years by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country a D ranking for its roads. It found 43% of public roadways are in poor or mediocre condition, using data from The Road Information Program, or TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit.

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