The United States’ crumbling infrastructure is costing every driver hundreds of dollars each year. Our team at QuoteWizard analyzed new numbers from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), and we found that deteriorating roads and bridges cost the average driver $556 every year. Even worse, if you live in California, Rhode Island or Mississippi, you’re paying almost $1,000 a year for road repairs. And Arizona roads rank as the 15th worst in the nation.
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The high costs are a direct result of a combination of what the FHA considers non-acceptable roads and poor bridge decks. The more non-acceptable roads and poor bridge decks a state has, the more drivers are paying. For example, In California, 35% of roads are non-acceptable and drivers pay an average of $862 per motorist in taxes and fees. In North Carolina, though, 14% of roads are non-acceptable and drivers pay only $336 per motorist.
States with the best and worst roads
To find out which states had the best and worst roads, our analysts ranked each state based on a composite score of these factors:
• Percentage of non-acceptable roads
• Square miles of poor bridge deck
• Associated but not used in the rankings is the annual cost per motorist
States are ranked 1 to 50, with 1 being the worst overall road infrastructure and 50 being the best overall road infrastructure.
Here are the 20 states with the worst roads
Cost to drive in each state
When our analysts looked at the cost of aging roads, they found two things to consider: the cost of repairing the road and the cost of repairing your car.
The table below shows how much drivers in each state are paying for road repairs. Drivers in Oklahoma, California and Rhode Island pay the most, while drivers in Georgia, Oregon and Tennessee pay the least.
What’s not included in the table above is the cost of repairing your car. On top of taxes, it’s estimated that driving on poor-condition roads costs motorists $120 billion in vehicle repairs and operating costs. According to our findings, that’s an average of $533 per driver. Infrastructure funding for repairs and maintenance.
Another view of Arizona roads
In a different study, Arizona’s highway system ranks 23rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the 25th Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is a six-spot improvement from the previous Annual Highway Report, where Arizona ranked 29th.
Arizona’s best rankings are in structurally deficient bridges (3rd) and maintenance spending per mile (5th).
Arizona’s worst rankings are in urban fatality rate (48th) and overall fatality rate (47th).
In safety and performance categories, Arizona ranks 47th in overall fatality rate, 3rd in structurally deficient bridges, 31st in traffic congestion, 10th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 37th in rural Interstate pavement condition.
On spending, Arizona ranks 17th in total spending per mile and 26th in capital and bridge costs per mile.