Which States have the worst Interstates?

I'd say Hawaii. You can't drive to any other state, what kind of interstate system is that?

 

louisiana; if you doubt it, ask a trucker

 

Ever driven the interstates in northern NJ? I lost a rim and two tires to the potholes last winter.

Anybody, and I mean anybody, who's driven the parkway anywhere North past exit 130 will agree with me that it's the worst driving experience around.

 

Louisiana hands down. Second place goes to Arkansas. New Jersey is definitely high on the list, but yes, there are acutally WORSE highways than what's there. As I used to drive trucks, I've seen plenty of nasty road.

 

I had my truck driving freind over last night and asked him this question. According to him, Ark, Lou, and Ok are bad but the prize goes to Missouri as having the worst Interstates. It's the only state where it is impossible to sleep in the back while the team driver is driving. They don't even try any more. Missouri is misery.

 

From what I've heard, the mixing bowl in NoVA is 3rd worst in the nation for traffic accidents - but they're working on making that less of a pain.

As far as road conditions go though, I'd say from the few states I travel to normally, Wisconsin was the worst, then Michigan, then Ohio, then Virginia.

But I must say, the beltway in VA was the first time I had to swerve a full sized sofa standing on end in the middle of the interstate. It's always an interesting drive around here!

-m.

 

Driving to SC for Myrtle Beach Bike Week, I felt more jolts, bumps, dips, dives, and every other possible road condition driving through North Carolina.

As far as traffic and design goes NoVa takes the cake. I have gotten used to MD where they try to plan for the future. I am convinced that VA thinks that traffic will stay the same for the next 10 years so why bother updating.

These are the same people the desided I-495 only needs to connect to I-95 with a single lane road and force people to move three lanes to the left to get on the road. Nova people know what I am talking about. Dumb V-Dot.

 

I'd assumet that many of the "worst" interstates are up north, since they're virtually destroyed every winter by freezing water. Places like LA have tons of traffic, but rarely have to re-pave their roads (relative to areas that see an annual freeze).

 

OK must be high on the list. As an example, last week a woman was killed by a chunk of concrete that fell from an overpass. The bridge has passed inspection a year before.

 

Try Chicago. Nothing but potholes and repairs. And constant re-construction.

 

Yet New Hampshire generally does an excellent job at road maintenance. (As a Massachusetts/Vermont resident, this is a rare positive statement that I can bring myself to utter about the Granite State.)

 

Ditto that. Wisconsin and Minnesota are very good about maintenance.

 

Wisconsin wasn't for me - living in Madison for around 2 years, I got two flat tires from hitting potholes. I notified the police where they were and everything, so what'd they do? Nothing. Madison seemed pretty rough, but from what I recall, the rest of the roads weren't too bad though.

-m.

 

Louisiana, especially I-10

 

Everyone has their favorites but Washington DC has the worst roads I've ever seen outside of West Africa. West (by God) Virginia is one of our poorest states with some of the best roads interstates. Doesn't make sense does it?

 

Maybe you needed to notify the city highway dept - the guys with the asphalt trucks

 

OK, I'll chime in on interstate condition. VT I/89 is the pits in a lot of areas. Doesn't help that they repaved a 30 mile piece a few years ago with some "it works fine elsewhere" experimental stuff. Only problem is the paint (and maybe some combination of other elements??) ate the asphalt. Instead of white dashes, there are rectangular holes and they keep getting bigger and rounder. The outside solid lines disappeared into long ribbon holes, also chunking out. They repaved the worst part of the passing lane one direction last year. Everyone drives in it unless they are being nice and move over long enough to let someone pass. They are repaving the rest of it this year. The experimental stuff was an unfortunate waste of limited funds. I didn't see any nasty roads in No VA and Maryland (i.e. Dulles and I/95 to Baltimore) 2 weekends ago.

As far as bad but not related to road condiditon, we have a short section of I/89 in Burlington unlovingly dubbed 'Accident Alley'. It is the only place in the state where the interstate is 3 lanes. Basically a several hundred yard long stretch over a bridge with the extra lanes serving as northbound exit and south bound entrance. There isn't even an entrance/exit going the other way. For some reason this strip is a magnet for unattentive or stupid drivers. Just this week the paper reported some guy was following his wife. A pickup got between them so the guy pulled around and tried to get back in. He clipped the pickup in the process, lost control of his car, crossed the center median (about 30 yards wide) and landed on a car going south, killing both occupants. He was minimally injured. There is NO REASON by design or other reason this piece of road should be dangerous, but it is. In fact it should be safer than most given the long extra lane allows for 2 lanes of 'thru traffic' with no crossing of exitting/entering vehicles. More often than not, an accident in one direction causes a 'lookie loo' accident in the other.