I had Car and Driver magazines from the early to mid 80's stating that Michigan roads are the worst. Were the roads better 20 years ago? Yes, but that is not saying they were good then. Only that they have continued to degrade from the poor state they were in at that time. Last spring at work we set a record for tire sales thanks to the potholes.
Michigan has a GVW exemption for 11 axle trucks that allows 164,000lb instead of the standard 80,000lb. I grew up around with a few gravel pits nearby. It wasn't uncommon to see the road flex as the gravel trains rolled by. Ruts formed at intersections that would hold water until the foundation gave out. Detroit also sits on a salt mine so we put that E36 M3 on everything maintain that freeze thaw cycle.
My wife once watched potholes being filled in Detroit. It was literally one guy with a DOT pickup with cold patch in the back and a shovel. He would put a few shovelfulls of cold patch in the hole, wait for a few cars to drive over it, then repeat, until the hole was mostly filled. The tiny township I lived in 15 years ago did a better job with patching the alleys behind everyone's houses.
In reply to dculberson :
That's how they 'repair' everything, including freeways. They are called Patching crews. Every spring, after the thaw, you'll find the freeway down to two lanes as they have those big mobile crash barrier trucks blocking one lane, once past that you see the dump truck with it's bed up and two guys shoveling asphalt in the holes, nice mound so once cars have run over it, it's still got a nice crown on it to test your high speed damping. No, unfortunately I'm not joking.
I'm going to say the roads in this part if Kentucky are pretty decent, except for the ones that aren't of course.
The PA turnpike isn't that bad. I take it everyday to/from work. They have spent a bazillion dollars repairing it. No wonder tolls keep skyrocketing each year 
captdownshift said:In reply to Duke :
That's less than a mile from the potential rallysprint, FYI.
I didn't need to know that. I've been trying not to get involved in rallycross because I know it will interfere with my interest in autocross and make it even harder to get excited about running our club's program for another year.
I could borrow a hard top, crank the coilovers all the way up, put snow tires on DD#1's spare 14" daisies, and have a ball hooning around in the Manic Miata. So far a minimum 2-hour drive has kept me safely insulated.
RXBeetle said:Michigan has a GVW exemption for 11 axle trucks that allows 164,000lb instead of the standard 80,000lb. I grew up around with a few gravel pits nearby. It wasn't uncommon to see the road flex as the gravel trains rolled by. Ruts formed at intersections that would hold water until the foundation gave out. Detroit also sits on a salt mine so we put that E36 M3 on everything maintain that freeze thaw cycle.
I completely forgot about the higher weight limit. That's been around for decades, I remember my dad complaining about it in the 80s. And yes, the salt doesn't help, either.
It sucks, because in many ways Michigan is a great place to be a car enthusiast. Car culture is seeped into our bones here, after all. But the winters and the roads really put a damper on that, unfortunately.
I'm sorry, I don't' accept the weight or weather. Ohio, Indiana, Ontario etc. all have similar conditions and their roads are fine. The blame is apathy, corruption and distaste for taxes.
Brett_Murphy said:It always amazes me that Alaska doesn't win this award. I wonder if it is because they close so many roads for part of the year, they have much lighter traffic, or what they drive on isn't really considered a road at all.
If it stays frozen for long stretches of time that is less bad for heaves and potholes than constant cycling.
However the heavily populated parts of alaska have climate not much different than michigan. At that point, it's a case of who has a better road maint program for various reasons and apparently the answer is 'not michigan'.
In reply to RedGT :
The turnpike goes to NY ?
Adrian_Thompson said:I'm sorry, I don't' accept the weight or weather. Ohio, Indiana, Ontario etc. all have similar conditions and their roads are fine. The blame is apathy, corruption and distaste for taxes.
Crossing over from Michigan to Ontario is eye-opening. Such an improvement. Then you get to cross over into Quebec again. Ow.
The weather makes it harder to keep the roads in shape, of course. Michigan's in about the worst possible climate for keeping pavement together. So are Ohio, Indiana, etc. But if Michigan had Arizona's climate they wouldn't be in such bad shape despite the apathy, corruption and tax avoidane.
Adrian_Thompson said:I'm sorry, I don't' accept the weight or weather. Ohio, Indiana, Ontario etc. all have similar conditions and their roads are fine. The blame is apathy, corruption and distaste for taxes.
First off, no they aren't. And secondly, do you really think those things are unique to Michigan?
Here's the actual data:
Seems to me that the whole great lakes region has bad roads. Michigan's are just the worst.
I lived in the NW corner of the mitten in the early 00's, and most the roads in the county were not even paved. The highways were always in need of repair, but I figured with the snow on the ground for about 6 months every year and weather in summer with frost one week and almost 100° the next played havoc with the road service. OTOH, we had some amazing well-maintained snowmobile trails.
It's all just a popularity contest.
If people think the Pa Turnpike is bad.. they obviously have never driven the Surekill.
Other then some country roads I think the main roads in this corner of Ohio are in pretty good shape. Heading from Toledo Into Michigan damn near finished rattling my capri apart years ago. I'll agree with Michigan.
I can always tell when I've gone into PA from MD or DE because the road quality instantly turns to E36 M3. And that's every road, not just the turnpike.
If there were a way to put in a correction factor for mild weather and dollars spent per mile, California would win, or lose, depending on how you look at it.
Mostly it does not freeze, or have severe weather, the gasoline tax is about as high as it is anywhere, yet the roads are largely crappy.
In reply to RXBeetle :
I was going mention the stupid weights they allow.
I was born and raised in SE MI and left when I was 18 (2003) Roads were awful as far back as I can remember.
Can’t we just give michigan to canada ?
In reply to dculberson :
Michigan might have more land but there arent many roads in the U.P.
NYS has a cure for bad roads. They put up a sign , "Rough Road". I see them often.
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