Louisiana Roads & Bridges Are Terrible, But We’re Not the Worst
In Louisiana, we complain about our roads a lot. The potholes, the endless construction, the sad shape of our state's bridges, and more basically give us all the license we need to let a few choice words fly to describe our displeasure with our roadways.
Louisiana's Roads and Bridges Are in Terrible Shape, But They're Not The Worst
While I'm not saying our roads are in any kind of shape but bad, I am saying it could be worse. A new study conducted by Reason.org shows that while the Sportsman's Paradise has some of the worst roads in the country, it doesn't have the worst. The public policy research specialists at Reason have been collecting and crunching data on the conditions of roads and bridges in the U.S. for 26 years now, and the latest puts our state in the next-to-last position at #49.
The Experts That Are Judging Our Roads & Bridges Look at Some Very Specific Things
There are several metrics the experts relied upon to compile this ranking, and Louisiana didn't hit the bottom of the barrel in all of the categories. How much each state spent on upkeep of their highways, the terrain, climate, truck volume, and more were all taken into account. Louisiana came in 7th in regards to spending for roads and 12th for spending on bridges - but that makes the rest of the report so much more confusing. Even though we are spending a fair amount on our roads and bridges - we came in 49th overall. That makes no sense to me.
If Louisiana Scored Near the Bottom, Who's Roads and Bridges are at the Top?
According to the report, which you can read in its entirety here, these are the best states in the nation for highways and bridges: North Dakota at #1, Virginia at #2, and Missouri at #3. Now for the very bottom of this list.
Only One State's Highways Ranked Lower Than Louisiana's
I'm sure that you're wondering which state could possibly have highways and bridges that are worse off than ours. That state is New Jersey. The Garden State came in dead last in several categories including spending on highways & bridges and urban congestion. Officially, New Jersey's roads are worse than Louisiana's.