Posted on 02/14/2022 5:43:35 AM PST by cutty
Midwestern states dominate the Top List for states with worst potholes, with Indiana, Michigan and Ohio also ranking high.
Drivers in Illinois pay the second highest gas tax in the country. Despite that, Illinois is near the top of the list for the states with the worst pothole problem.
A study by QuoteWizard says Illinois is the 7th worst state for potholes. Midwestern states dominate the top ten with Indiana, Michigan and Ohio also making an appearance.
Researcher Nick VinZant said pothole damage costs U.S. drivers $3 billion a year with the average cost for repairs around $300.
“But you can spend a lot more than that very quickly because we have seen instances where people are having their alignment gets knocked off, you're messing with the suspension, even the frame if you are hitting the Mariana Trench of potholes,” VinZant said.
Researchers at QuoteWizard looked at Google search statistics going back to 2004. They found that Washington has more searches for pothole-related complaints than any other state.
A couple Illinois cities made the top-50 list for the worst pothole problems. Champaign ranked 32nd and Chicago came in at number 41. Yakima, Washington, topped the list.
Illinoisans may file a claim if their vehicle is damaged by a pothole. Drivers with such damage can call the Illinois Department of Transportation or go to their website and fill out a form to report a pothole. The same form can be used to file a claim.
VinZant said Illinoisans should get used to potholes for a while because we are entering primetime when it comes to encountering the dreaded road hazard.
“When you get moisture, it seeps into the roadway, it is still cool enough where it freezes and expands, and this is kind of pothole-forming season right now,” VinZant said.
The Tax Foundation has Illinois as the second highest gas tax state in the Untied States, behind only California. Illinois' gas tax is the highest in the Midwest.
I was remarking just yesterday that if I didn’t remain vigilant (to see those potholes coming), the car could go nose-down and come to a dead stop.
Yeah, Illinois.
When I lived in Illinois, I saw a Prius go into one of those potholes and I’m not sure it ever came out.
Well graft will do that to a government
I guess the Crook County Democrats need a bigger cut of the loot collected by the Madigan Machine in Springfield.
In Houston the Hispanics call a big pot hole a “Botcho.” Little ones are “Son of Botcho.”
Pennsylvania’s gas tax, once the proud national leader, has fallen to no. 3 behind Kalifornia and Illinois. How sad.
But I still think PA has the worst potholes in the country.
There is negative correlation between ANY taxes and ANY government program. Otherwise, government would lose the ability to justify future taxes.
Ol’ Kevin is really hung up about potholes. 12 mentions of deem
holes in his essay.
The gas tax money is diverted to welfare accounts. Just another government sham.
I think Colorado stopped fixing potholes last year. Seriously. Never saw a crew fixing them and the roads are in terrible shape. Liberal programs were getting the money.
Virginia has some bad potholes on the rural roads, but nobody is going to bother to search Google about the problem. We know VDOT doesn’t care and works at their schedule. They will fix it when they fix it, whenever that might be, if ever.
I have no idea where this information is from. Indiana and Michigan have road conditions for 4 months that create potholes, but the spending on pot hole and road manatiance seem near to correct. Red Arrow Highway and I-94 along the lakeshore in michigan is near the toughest conditions for a road in north america. These roads are in great condition compaired to 20 years ago, they have been on good repair schedule for the past 10 years. The major cost of bridge replacement is mostly done , painting and inspection has become yearly thing.
Even the major roads done by the IL DOT have remained in good shape the past 5 years despite passenger cars still being remarkably heavy. Now county repaired roads in IL are insanely bad and tend to be all at once. The toll roads with their unlimited budget are where most of us do millage around chicago. Most local roads in IL and NW IN have benefited from less traffic but the truck routes not maintained by IN and IL DOT directly can get insanely bad.
The corruption in IL and a few counties of IN are at the County Level. Local trucking firms take great pleasure in avoiding scales. Along with local trucks that could be 120,000lbs shuttling steel around the shops of IL and IN that support steel mills. Some of the improvement is surely the downturn in constant overpass work that required heavy loads. Road Money from state and federal sources goes in and comes out in contracts that never seem to get done localy.
Indiana has a real lack of potholes outside against historical potholes the upper thirds old cities. Now if we include only the non golden dome parts South Bend Indiana we are at a south side chicago level of potholes.
The Indiana DOT went to gentler plan of use of road salt and better tuned snowplows about 10 years ago for a half a billion dollars of savings. The constant salting is gone and the use of synthetic tar correction of cracks whenever road conditions allow have improved northern indiana roads considerably.
Certainly no shortage of potholes and a$$holes in the state of Illinois.
Minnesota has two seasons.
Winter.
Road Repair.
In Indianapolis, the potholes around the Butler University campus are considered “tradition.”
Blue ballers…
Here we pour $$$ into electric trains serving no one
but devouring taxed farmland at an incredible rate.
Illinois among worst states in the country for assholes despite 2nd highest gas tax.
Makes more sense now.
I suspect politicos make this a problem they don’t bother with so they can put fixing them in their re-election platform. It’s not like anyone gets any screen time asking: “Waitammit, didn’t you run on that last time?”
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