Illinois Ends 2024 With Some Of The Worst Roads In America

It's no secret that roads in the Midwest are bad. Pot holes are a real mess, but some states are much worse than others. Illinois is on that list. A recent report from consumer affairs went as far to say that Illinois is in the top 10 worst states when it comes to roads in America.

Despite a fairly robust yearly highway disbursement just shy of $9 billion dollars, Illinois is straddling the line with mediocre roads. About 20% of urban roads are considered in poor condition for road roughness.

How They Got These results

Consumer Affairs reported that the U.S. has the largest network of roads in the world. They then used this method to find the worst in America.

Our formula for determining the worst and best roads in America uses weighted averages of scores based on the most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Transportation on fatalities

• miles traveled
• road roughness
• and spending on road improvements.

Each state’s residents were also surveyed about the quality of roads on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “terrible” and 10 being “excellent.” Ratings and comments from the survey were used anecdotally and not included in the ranking.

Illinois Ranked As The 10th Worst Road In America

While Illinois didn't make it into the top five for all states, it did make it to number one worst road in the Midwest. Reports go on to say,

The Illinois residents surveyed said “most of the roads are acceptable,” but that opinion varied depending on where they live. Chicago locals were likely to rate the roads as “poor” due to constant potholes, while rural residents seemed happy with the state’s road conditions.

The Top Three Worst Roads

The three worst roads in America are as follows:

3. California

2. Hawaii

1. Rhode Island

Climate clearly also has an impact on roads as seen with these states. What do you think of this list?