Posted on 07/02/2013 6:41:55 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
California's highways continue to rank among the worst in the nation -- a sorry distinction the state has held for more than a decade.
The Golden State's highway system is ranked 47th among the 50 states in overall highway performance and efficiency in the latest annual highway report by the Reason Foundation. That is a slight improvement for California, which ranked 48th in the two previous studies and has ranked in the bottom 10 every year since 2000.
Only Alaska, Rhode Island and Hawaii have worse roads, while North Dakota, Kansas and Wyoming have the best and most cost-effective highways.
"I've noticed a lot of paving over the past few years, but there are so many roads with so many potholes," said
Mark Lin of Stockton, who commutes over the Altamont Pass to the East Bay. "Interstate 580 is like driving in a Third World nation. It needs fixing bad."
Progress has been slow in California, which spent $679,000 per mile on road maintenance and other highway upgrades. That's a significant increase (24 percent) in per-mile highway expenditures over 2008, making per-mile spending in the state nearly five times the national average. But with 18,260 miles, California's highway system is the 11th largest in the nation and carries the most traffic of any state.
Not only are California's interstates full of potholes, they are also jammed -- 80 percent of the state's urban interstates are congested. Minnesota has the next highest percentage of gridlocked interstates, with 78 percent deemed congested.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
STATES WITH WORST HIGHWAYS
50. Alaska
49. Rhode Island
48. Hawaii
47. California
46. New Jersey
45. New York
44. Connecticut
43. Massachusetts
42. Minnesota
41. Colorado
Source: Reason Foundation
Maintaining the transportation system is very expensive. It diverts precious dollars away from the much more vital priority of buying votes to keep incumbent politicians in their cushy jobs.
I drove across my county and back on Sunday and I think they have every damn road in the county torn up. Looks like they’re wasting money on bike lanes everywhere.
We drive I-10 from California to Phoenix. A blind guy could tell when you reach Arizona by the change of road conditions.
On the other hand, California is right up there among the leaders in aggregate taxes.
I was just over there and drove all over. I was thinking it was tragic because California used to have the best in the nation. The lack of maintenance was incredible.
Why is it the more taxes you pay, the less you get in return?
This sounds exactly like my county in Colorado. The biggest traffic impediment since I moved here has been all the road tear-ups. At various times, some parts of the county have been nearly inaccessible due to multiple, simultaneous road closures.
Same with the bike lanes. This county is the worst I've lived in for road cycling. Marking bike lanes makes the Agenda 21 types who don't actually know how to ride bikes feel good; but they're counterproductive to their stated purpose. Marking bike lanes prevents motor vehicle tires from sweeping the surface clean, the marked lanes fill up with debris, and the cyclists are forced to ride in the auto lane to avoid it.
Gas taxes alone are a nightmare. Local, state and fed combine to over a dollar per gallon. We have the highest gas taxes in the country, after an increase effective yesterday.
Yeah, laugh if you all want to, but we’re going to have high speed rail between nowhere and nowhere. How can you beat that?
Gas taxes in California were just raised again, making it the highest gas taxes in the nation. It’s something like $0.73 cents per gallon.
Think of all the revenue being brought in, in this manner.
So they waste it on subways, bus lines, and other wasteful spending that can’t pay for itself. Charge taxes on tickets to subways and buses. If they can’t support themselves fine. If they can’t, then let the illegals walk.
Most of our bus system is merely a way for undocumented Democrats to get around. Let em walk.
Spend gas tax receipts on what they were intended for, our highways.
California has too many Third world people that gladly use its 1st World infrastructure but cannot generate the money or social conditions to maintain a 1st World infrastructure. If these Third world people could create 1st World conditions they would never have left their homelands.
The spend nearly $700k per mile annually yet their roads are among the worst. Just the usual government efficiency.
It’s obvious at the border near Blythe, and an even bigger difference is evident between (the admittedly almost unfixable) L.A. freeways and the Phoenix freeways.
Its cone and barrel season in Michigan.
“Its cone and barrel season in Michigan.”
Same here in Minnesota.
It’ll be that way until at least mid-October.
We need to build our roads differently. Climate and use appropriate. Unfortunately that means less make work in the future.
I would have bet $ that here in PA, we had the worst. You can tell as soon as you hit the much better MD or NJ roads, what a mess these highways are here.
Hell, you can tell the difference when driving the 5 passing from Buena Park in the OC into Norwalk in LA County. They’re finally widening the freeway in LA County, but for the longest time the freeways north of here have been horrible while in the OC they’ve been merely congested twice a day. Coincidentally, we’ve spent nothing on light rail in the OC while LA’s spent billions.
California used to be famous for that, (having the best roads) when I was a kid the adults used to rave about the California roads and the infrastructure in general, today the state is grungy and decaying, but crushing in petty law enforcement and micro management of mountains of traffic law.
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