[txdave35]

Way to go, AR! 5th worst roads in the US, and considering that our state is one of the least populated, is there really any excuse for this? From my experience, I-40 east or west is deplorable. Bump bump bump due to cracks in the road. From the article:

5. Arkansas
Poor-condition mileage rank: 10 out of 50
Deficient bridges rank: 32 out of 50
Fatalities rank: 5 out of 50
Congestion rank: 22 out of 50
At No. 5 is Arkansas, whose 10th-highest percentage of roads in poor condition probably has something to do with it's fifth-highest level of road fatalities in 2009. Thankfully the state is able to throw some money at the problem, as its funds allocated per capita ranked 11th in the nation in 2009.


worst-roads-america-mainstreet: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance


I think the problem is the extreme lack of safe driving here. Good lord, did anyone go to driving school in AR? I spent the weekend driving from Bella Vista to LR on 540 and I-40. I would say 9 out of 10 drivers had to be going at least 90 mph, 20 miles over the speed limit. Several cars decided to drive mere inches from my bumper. Get off my bumper, you idiot. If I just barely hit my brakes, they would have no time to react. Not to mention that this excess speeding burns up more fuel and doesn't save that much in time travel.

This is why we have so many fatalities here!

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by txdave35

I think the problem is the extreme lack of safe driving here. Good lord, did anyone go to driving school in AR? I spent the weekend driving from Bella Vista to LR on 540 and I-40. I would say 9 out of 10 drivers had to be going at least 90 mph, 20 miles over the speed limit. Several cars decided to drive mere inches from my bumper. Get off my bumper, you idiot. If I just barely hit my brakes, they would have no time to react. Not to mention that this excess speeding burns up more fuel and doesn't save that much in time travel.

Everyone knows you have to go 88 mph for time travel.

[photolitherland]

Arkansas roads suck so bad. I get a flat about once a month from hitting giant potholes on Highway 7. I was just driving from Jasper to Russell**** on Hwy 7 through the national forest and there were tons of areas on the road that have fallen off into the valleys below and chunks of the road are just missing. You have to be very careful or you will end up flying off the mountain. Oh and The Springfield Bridge north of Atkins collapsed about a week ago after some jackass drove over it with an overweight truck destroying the oldest bridge still in use in Arkansas. It collapsed into the river below. But, if the bridge were maintained than maybe that could have been averted. Moderator cut: off topic Ugh

[Capt. Dan]

It is true that I40 between Memphis and LR is NOT the road to be on when you have to pee! BUMP BUMP BUMP! "Honey. How far did you say it was to the next exit? To hell with it! Just pull over!"

[SimplyTisha]

I was thinking when I read this post, "have you driven in Louisiana lately?", and then I followed the link, and saw that they got their due at the #1 spot.

Arkansas roads are bad, but I always dread crossing over the line into Louisiana, because they are so much worse there. A road I frequent in Arkansas is 270 between Hot Springs and Fort Smith. They have done some improvements to it here and there, but there are spots that will literally jar your vehicle off the road.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by VacaGuru

I was thinking when I read this post, "have you driven in Louisiana lately?", and then I followed the link, and saw that they got their due at the #1 spot.

Arkansas roads are bad, but I always dread crossing over the line into Louisiana, because they are so much worse there. A road I frequent in Arkansas is 270 between Hot Springs and Fort Smith. They have done some improvements to it here and there, but there are spots that will literally jar your vehicle off the road.

Funny you would say that because I was thinking the same thing about OK until I read the article. I will add, I am one of those who believe about 1/2 of these studies, they change almost weekly. Tomorrow another one will come out saying Texas has the worst roads or look out for Montana, whatever? This goes for all polls and studies, there are too many variables. Other than gridlock in NWA during rush hour we haven't found the roads to be better or worse than many states we have travels to or lived. The absoulte worse problem is the lack of a decent interstate system when driving in the eastern or sounthern part of the state toward Mississippi or La. It really does suck.

Nita

[Caish]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

Oh and The Springfield Bridge north of Atkins collapsed about a week ago after some jackass drove over it with an overweight truck destroying the oldest bridge still in use in Arkansas. It collapsed into the river below. But, if the bridge were maintained than maybe that could have been averted. Moderator cut: off topic Ugh

It was not Springfield Bridge, it has been closed for 30 years.
It was Fryer Bridge, and yes it was old but serviceable and was doing the job.
History like those old bridges is best preserved.

Maybe if the state would start using Fuel TAX funds for Roads and bridges instead of social programs we could fix our roads.

[hotair2]

The survey is dead on in my opinion. Oklahoma is the worse than Arkansas but Arkansas is bad. What is worse about Oklahoma is that you have to pay a toll to drive on crappy roads. You would think if you had toll roads they would be at least good roads.

[thewizard16]

I saw this, and have been discussing it with some other people too. A large part of the problem is the extremely high mileage of state roads to begin with- there are way too many for a state this size, and a lot of that is because of terrain, lack of alternate routing options, and trying to connect every tiny burg with every other tiny burg. Urban road infrastructure in Arkansas is lacking overall and certainly contributes to problems. Some sections of the state (lots of the northern part of the state and pockets in the south and east) have unbelievably nice new roads, yet roads like I-40, 165 S, etc. go without their needed maintenance, resurfacing, or improvements. A lot of it is priorities (there is too much focus on rural road construction- it's viewed as an economic driver to justify all these rural road projects and improvements, but there's little evidence it works), some of it is money, and some of it is quantity. Part of the high fatality rank may be (until recently) very lax safety standards. Arkansas took it's time making seatbelt laws stricter, and doesn't enforce a lot of the distracted driver laws like texting, etc. Some of it is also terrain- there are lots of roads in Arkansas that if you manage to go off of the road, you're in bad shape. You can't wreck through the guardrail on the side of a bluff or mountain (if there's a guardrail) and come out of that well. And there's a lot of fatality deaths on the interstates, which I believe is why they are putting up a lot more of those wire dividers in the medians on interstates with narrow medians.

Some of this study is based off subjective or ill-defined information, but Arkansas does probably have some of the least consistent roads I've encountered. From what I saw of LA, it was mostly all bad. Texas, mostly all good. OK- you don't want to know what I thought. MO- old and bad in places, but major thoroughfares are mostly good due to the focus on high-traffic routes. Arkansas though- bad, good, bad, good, bad interstate to get to Little Rock or Memphis but brand new smooth divided between Clinton and Conway... How much sense does that make?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by hotair2

The survey is dead on in my opinion. Oklahoma is the worse than Arkansas but Arkansas is bad. What is worse about Oklahoma is that you have to pay a toll to drive on crappy roads. You would think if you had toll roads they would be at least good roads.

Plus they are always working on the roads but they seem to never get any better. I will take any roads over OK.

Nita