Cities/municipalities with the worst roads?

[STLmapboy]

Tooling around Jackson, MS, the road quality seems downright awful. Plain and simple. From this to this to this to this to this, there's a lot of crappiness to go around. And this isn't just anecdotal either; Jackson's roads have been bemoaned before. There are several culprits, prime among them being MDOT funding and tax dollars not going where they should be (surprise).

What other municipalities or cities that you know of have such road issues?

[hotdogPi]

Marblehead, MA. Not because of pavement quality, but because it's a twisty maze of one-way streets.

Newton, MA just has a bad layout in general. If you want to go north or south any significant distance, you're going to have a follow a convoluted path.

[Terry Shea]

In Grand Rapids (or any Michigan city for that matter) they don't fill potholes anymore.  It's cheaper and more efficient to remove the little bit of pavement in between the potholes!

[vsaharan]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

[formulanone]

Tooling around Jackson, MS, the road quality seems downright awful. Plain and simple.

Jackson's roads also have a lot of weird cambers and sudden dips in the road which aren't noticeable in StreetView. You would never want to drive a lowered vehicle around town there. A good deal of Mississippi's city-maintained roads or old routes can be like this; step off the US/state routes and the ride can be punishing. Between a lack of funding, there's also a lot of clay in the soil, which causes the roadbed to deform.

Meanwhile, in McComb, last holiday season...

[STLmapboy]

And who could forget about this?

[Flint1979]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

Ann Arbor handles Michigan football crowds just fine on Saturday's in the fall. The city is inter circled by freeways and any freeway widening in the area would need to come from MDOT. US-23 and I-94 need to be widened but M-14 functions alright.

[skluth]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

Ann Arbor may be the worst in Michigan, but it isn't even the worst college town in the Big 10. Visit Madison, WI where all the east side traffic funnels down the isthmus. The worst road design in the US though has to be Boston, which was never designed but grew like a cancer from Massachusetts Bay.

[vsaharan]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

Ann Arbor handles Michigan football crowds just fine on Saturday's in the fall. The city is inter circled by freeways and any freeway widening in the area would need to come from MDOT. US-23 and I-94 need to be widened but M-14 functions alright.

While I think the area around the stadium does an alright job on game day, the areas outside get pretty hectic and this could be alleviated with some better intersections. I would suggest implementing roundabout or diamond interchanges. Probably can't do anything in downtown, that's fair...but never understood why the areas around the highways can't receive upgrades as their fundamental design mean they're the only access points to get into the city, and thus receive consistently heavy traffic. I do agree M-14 is alright, and it's definitely a great thing they made that new lane on 23 through Washtenaw County coming from the north...if only they would extend that lane till 96 in Brighton cuz that stretch is still frustrating.

[Echostatic]

Mississippi has the worst roads of anywhere I've been, and especially the Jackson area.

[vsaharan]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

Ann Arbor may be the worst in Michigan, but it isn't even the worst college town in the Big 10. Visit Madison, WI where all the east side traffic funnels down the isthmus. The worst road design in the US though has to be Boston, which was never designed but grew like a cancer from Massachusetts Bay.

I've never been to Madison, but applying there for grad school! A cursory glance of the map suggests that it's a crowded isthmus, so I can only imagine how fun it would be to navigate it. And I totally agree with Boston being the worst in the US. I suppose it makes sense as the founders probably never envisioned massive piles of steel moving around the city on 4 wheels lol. 

[JoePCool14]

It's like beating a dead horse, but Gary, Indiana has some pretty gnarly sections of road.

[Flint1979]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

Ann Arbor handles Michigan football crowds just fine on Saturday's in the fall. The city is inter circled by freeways and any freeway widening in the area would need to come from MDOT. US-23 and I-94 need to be widened but M-14 functions alright.

While I think the area around the stadium does an alright job on game day, the areas outside get pretty hectic and this could be alleviated with some better intersections. I would suggest implementing roundabout or diamond interchanges. Probably can't do anything in downtown, that's fair...but never understood why the areas around the highways can't receive upgrades as their fundamental design mean they're the only access points to get into the city, and thus receive consistently heavy traffic. I do agree M-14 is alright, and it's definitely a great thing they made that new lane on 23 through Washtenaw County coming from the north...if only they would extend that lane till 96 in Brighton cuz that stretch is still frustrating.

It's the same way in any other college town that has a football stadium seating over 100,000 people. The area around the stadium isn't really designed to get you to the freeway, the closest exit is the Ann Arbor-Saline Road exit on I-94. I have been experiencing all this all my life. I recall the worst traffic heading into Ann Arbor on a Michigan football Saturday the 2003 game against Ohio State US-23 was bumper to bumper from M-59 all the way into Ann Arbor and M-14 on the west side of Ann Arbor was even worse. I was heading to work in Chelsea that day and remember the traffic jam pretty well. That flex lane on US-23 north of Ann Arbor only operates during rush hour and only in the peak direction so SB gets it in the morning and NB in the afternoon. Last time I was on that stretch they closed the lane down while I was still in it, must be 6:30pm for the afternoon shut down on the NB side. I remember as soon as I got around the curve at the M-14 western split I set my cruise for 82 mph and got in the flex lane and about 2-3 miles ahead some dumbass was moving like 55 mph and it took me a minute to get around him I hate it when idiots cost you time on the freeway. I love having my adaptive cruise control though that thing is the best invention ever. But yeah that stretch still sucks and I think overall US-23 needs a widening from at least M-59 to US-12 in both directions it should be widened even further between I-96 and the M-14 eastern split to eight lanes. US-23 is extremely busy and very frustrating to drive especially in the Brighton-Ann Arbor stretch. I hate the I-96 interchange with a passion, people always get in the left lane for that exit too early and slow the flow of traffic down by about 20 mph in both directions.

[Chris19001]

Philly is pretty bad.  I know I'm partial as I live just outside the borders, but the Philly Streets Department is god awful at keeping streets in good repair.
Here's an intersection which is so bad now you almost have to ride the curb to escape a foot deep hole (highlighted in white paint in GSV shortly after it was filled last): https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0666857,-75.1962312,3a,75y,299.1h,60.28t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssSS9ygay2X-neVy4VUY2nA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Its been bad for a few years now, but shrug?

Citizens also have a sense of humor to the daily grind...  Here are two examples:
Ritual offerings to a a sinkhole left to grow for weeks:  https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-potholes-sinkhole-baltimore-avenue-street-repair-20190612.html
Somebody apparently tagged the street before the streets dept filled the pothole here: https://billypenn.com/2018/04/21/how-do-you-fix-a-bad-pothole-in-philly-graffiti-apparently/

[kphoger]

East Saint Louis, IL

[CapeCodder]

East Saint Louis, IL

Agree. Brooklyn, IL an Venice, IL have bad streets as well.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Duluth/Superior back and side streets.

[Scott5114]

It's the same way in any other college town that has a football stadium seating over 100,000 people. The area around the stadium isn't really designed to get you to the freeway.

Norman will never be accused of being a paragon of urban design, but it does a decent enough job of getting you from the campus to the freeway. Once you get off-campus, there's four-lane roads connecting you to I-35, either directly or via the SH-9 expressway. I can't imagine how you could improve it, other than upgrading SH-9 to freeway (which needs to happen anyway) or building a freeway spur right to the stadium, which is never going to happen.

An ODOT spokesperson said once that if you wanted to fully accommodate for game day traffic, every street in Norman would have to be ten lanes.

[Rothman]

Duluth/Superior back and side streets.

In terms of what?

[Dirt Roads]

It's the same way in any other college town that has a football stadium seating over 100,000 people. The area around the stadium isn't really designed to get you to the freeway.

Norman will never be accused of being a paragon of urban design, but it does a decent enough job of getting you from the campus to the freeway. Once you get off-campus, there's four-lane roads connecting you to I-35, either directly or via the SH-9 expressway. I can't imagine how you could improve it, other than upgrading SH-9 to freeway (which needs to happen anyway) or building a freeway spur right to the stadium, which is never going to happen.

An ODOT spokesperson said once that if you wanted to fully accommodate for game day traffic, every street in Norman would have to be ten lanes.

A very smart man.  There have been too many proposals to try to solve dense traffic issues with things like PRT.  I have never been able to convince anyone that you need a 10-lane corridor (one way) to handle say 20,000 pax/hour with 4 passenger cars (usually loaded less than 1.5 pax per car).  Yet you see this in play all the time in major cities and around sports complexes.

[ftballfan]

The quality of the roads are fine, but Ann Arbor, MI seriously has the most frustrating road design in the state. City is not prepared for the crowds at all and it seems like there's no initiatives to upgrade intersections or widen freeways. A city like Detroit, Flint, or Lansing, I can get why there's no upgrades, but with AA we know they have the money and data to do so. A good example is the Huron Pkwy/Washtenaw Ave intersection....if you know, you know

I think Carpenter/Washtenaw might be worse, especially combined with the substandard US-23 interchange just to the west

[Flint1979]

The problem with Ann Arbor is coming from the north at least you either take M-14 to Main Street (the exit just south of the river) and then have to funnel through downtown Ann Arbor which is a good direct route to the stadium but with a lot of traffic involved or take US-23 to the Washtenaw exit and work your way back toward the stadium from there. My dad would park in the neighborhood behind Fraser's Pub on Packard like around Baldwin and Cherokee and walk to the stadium probably about a 20 minute walk from there. I'm pretty use to Stadium Blvd. and it functions pretty good on game days, it's a little hectic getting outta there but not too bad.

With every freeway coming into Ann Arbor being four lanes or narrowing down to four lanes that is where a lot of the traffic problems come in. MDOT has never even discussed widening either I-94 or US-23 it's ridiculous at this point. But oh let's put a flex lane in that only operates at rush hour in the peak direction and think that'll solve the traffic problems. MDOT is about as lame as it gets sometimes. The Metro region does pretty good but Ann Arbor falls in the University region for MDOT and they are slacking.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

New Orleans

[Scott5114]

It's the same way in any other college town that has a football stadium seating over 100,000 people. The area around the stadium isn't really designed to get you to the freeway.

Norman will never be accused of being a paragon of urban design, but it does a decent enough job of getting you from the campus to the freeway. Once you get off-campus, there's four-lane roads connecting you to I-35, either directly or via the SH-9 expressway. I can't imagine how you could improve it, other than upgrading SH-9 to freeway (which needs to happen anyway) or building a freeway spur right to the stadium, which is never going to happen.

An ODOT spokesperson said once that if you wanted to fully accommodate for game day traffic, every street in Norman would have to be ten lanes.

A very smart man.  There have been too many proposals to try to solve dense traffic issues with things like PRT.  I have never been able to convince anyone that you need a 10-lane corridor (one way) to handle say 20,000 pax/hour with 4 passenger cars (usually loaded less than 1.5 pax per car).  Yet you see this in play all the time in major cities and around sports complexes.

Note that he said every road in Norman. Which even accepting a degree of hyperbole, and limiting it to just logical corridors of egress, would represent several hundred lane-miles, and would be way overkill for a dozen or so Saturdays per year.

[23skidoo]

The problem with Ann Arbor is coming from the north at least you either take M-14 to Main Street (the exit just south of the river) and then have to funnel through downtown Ann Arbor which is a good direct route to the stadium but with a lot of traffic involved or take US-23 to the Washtenaw exit and work your way back toward the stadium from there. My dad would park in the neighborhood behind Fraser's Pub on Packard like around Baldwin and Cherokee and walk to the stadium probably about a 20 minute walk from there. I'm pretty use to Stadium Blvd. and it functions pretty good on game days, it's a little hectic getting outta there but not too bad.

With every freeway coming into Ann Arbor being four lanes or narrowing down to four lanes that is where a lot of the traffic problems come in. MDOT has never even discussed widening either I-94 or US-23 it's ridiculous at this point. But oh let's put a flex lane in that only operates at rush hour in the peak direction and think that'll solve the traffic problems. MDOT is about as lame as it gets sometimes. The Metro region does pretty good but Ann Arbor falls in the University region for MDOT and they are slacking.

Not to get too political, but I think Republican-dominated Michigan legislature's unwillingness to do anything for liberal Ann Arbor might have something to do with it. Of course, Ann Arbor's anti-car attitude doesn't help matters either. I think the logic is that if you make traffic in Ann Arbor so bad, you'll choose to live in a cramped, overpriced apartment downtown rather than spend 2 hours commuting five miles.

Anyways, here's a shameless plug on how I think some of Ann Arbor's freeway problems could be fixed: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=26330.msg2473859#msg2473859