Los Angeles: Worst roads in the United States (San Jose, San Francisco: crime, roughest)

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials released a report recently on road conditions in cities across the country. Los Angeles was ranked as having the worst.

64% of the roads in the Los Angeles urbanized area were rated as "poor". Only 3% of the roads are considered in "good" condition.

The poor road conditions add an additional $746 per year to the cost of owning and operating an automobile in L.A. due to damaged tires, suspensions and reduced fuel efficiency.

The best road conditions are in Atlanta, where 85% of the roads are rated "good". Only 1% of the roads in Atlanta are rated "poor".

http://roughroads.transportation.org

[Charles]

Why does this seem so hard to believe?

No freezing, no heavy rain. Both of these create frequent potholes.

No salt or sand or snow plows. These wipe out all the road and lane striping.

[Woody7]

Just from the prospective of a frequent visitor to the area I'm always amazed at how the freeways and city streets turn to crap when You cross the County line from Orange County to LA County.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by Woody7

Just from the prospective of a frequent visitor to the area I'm always amazed at how the freeways and city streets turn to crap when You cross the County line from Orange County to LA County.

I was just about to say the exact same thing. Plus, I'm amazed by the change in road conditions between Los Angeles and adjacent cities such as Burbank and West Hollywood. Entering Los Angeles from one of those cities is almost like entering another country.

The difference on the 5 Freeway between Orange County and L.A. County probably serves as the starkest example of this. But it's not a surprise, I guess. For decades, L.A. has insisted that spending on public transportation is more important than spending on roads and freeway expansion, and I bet a majority here agree. On top of that, they want the freeways to remain "free", meaning, no toll roads. It's delusional, in my opinion.

[hsw]

Suspect many regions like NYC or Chic (or Detroit, Cleveland, etc) have worse roads than LA

And really varies (in any region) by specific fwys and roads...locals usually know which roads are smoother, much like how to avoid high-crime areas

Perhaps the stimulus money will mean some repaved roads in LA....which, if properly repaved, will last a lot longer than roads back East

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Charles

Why does this seem so hard to believe?

No freezing, no heavy rain. Both of these create frequent potholes.

No salt or sand or snow plows. These wipe out all the road and lane striping.

Charles is right. You want to travel on a bad road? Get on Interstate 70 eastbound out of Vail. The road is so humped out because of the 18 wheeler semis that the road is "humped out". The cement sinks a few inches where the semis hit it. Dangerous road.

Potholes in cities with severe winters? When the weather warms up the potholes are everywhere, especially in cold weather cities.

[John23]

The infrastructure has definitely collapsed quicker than people realize. Watch a movie like Speed, which showed the LA freeways and streets not that long ago (1994), seemed like a world of difference.

Other cities like Detroit, Cleveland, or some of the declining cities in the east, those cities have been in long decay. LA's change has been much quicker...especially for a "world class city". Or "world destination".

[motoman]

I love the speed bumps built into the 405. It's fantastic to hop along a freeway. Incredibly safe, don't you know? And my suspension loves it.

Sarcasm aside, coming from Dallas, I have to say that LA roads are indeed quite horrendously bad, even in the nice parts of town.

The poor roads are representative of much of LA itself. Very poorly maintained. It's amazing to me what people consider acceptable here. What is average in LA would be a dump in most parts of the country.

[graciously]

Originally Posted by Woody7

Just from the prospective of a frequent visitor to the area I'm always amazed at how the freeways and city streets turn to crap when You cross the County line from Orange County to LA County.

haha yeah me also and believe they get smaller for some time or one or two lanes less some reason. Kind of hard to believe worst roads are here cause there are many other cities and cities with all those weather conditions mentioned probably have to maintain the roads while la don't got those severe conditions besides earthquakes that arent frequent.

[happ]

"Major urban centers have the roughest roads – more than 60 percent of the roads in the greater Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco-Oakland, Honolulu and Washington, DC, areas offer a poor ride" per the report. Looks like much of California has poor roads [something the poster gladly ignored in his usual rant about Los Angeles\ "looks like Mexico." Anyone been to the Coachella Valley? Real paradise