Report: Drivers pay price for bad roads

Lagging maintenance takes toll in damage, fuel costs, lower values.

Nearly a third of Ohio’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and one group estimates they cost the average Dayton-area driver $1,700 annually, according to a new report.

The report from TRIP, a national transportation research group, found that badly maintained roads cost drivers an average of $1,740 per year. The costs stem from repairing damaged vehicles, loss of time and fuel from waiting in traffic and depreciation of vehicle values.

At a Thursday news conference, local officials and a TRIP representative stressed the need for more funding for vehicle maintenance. If the state and local governments don’t spend money repairing roads now, they warned, it will cost more money down the line.

“Certainly there’s a cost to improving roads, but there’s a greater cost associated with keeping them as they are,” Montgomery County Engineer Paul Gruner said.

According to the report, 23 percent of Ohio’s major locally and state-owned roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Twelve percent are in mediocre condition.

Additionally, seven percent of Ohio’s locally and state-owned bridges are structurally deficient. Gruner said those bridges are still safe to travel on, but they have weight limits that restrict access by tractor-trailers, emergency vehicles and school buses.

Rural roads see more fatal crashes than urban roads, according to the report. The fatality rate on Ohio’s noninterstate rural roads in 2016 was about 21/2 times that on all other roads.

The TRIP report measured costs to drivers by analyzing the impact of decreased vehicle value, traffic crashes and wasted gas and time due to congestion. In Dayton, vehicle depreciation and congestion had the greatest impact. Vehicle depreciation cost the aver-

age driver $649 per year, congestion cost $631 and safety issues cost $352.

Dayton had the lowest cost to drivers out of Ohio’s largest urban areas. Drivers in the Cleveland/Akron area paid the highest cost at about $2,180 per year. The average driver in Dayton spends 27 hours per year stuck in traffic, but Cincinnati drivers spent the most time in traffic, losing an average of 44 hours per year.

The use of roads in Ohio has increased over the years at the same time funding has decreased.

Since 2000, the number of miles vehicles traveled on roads in the state increased 12 percent. By 2040, miles traveled are projected to increase another 20 percent.

The largest source for funding of roadways in Ohio are federal and state motor vehicle fuel fees. Inflation has eroded the worth of those fees, which were last increased in 1993. Revenue from the fuel fees has decreased over 40 percent since 1993.

The Ohio Department of Transportation estimates the cost of maintaining roadway and public transportation systems is about $55 billion through 2040, but only $41 billion is projected to be available.

The TRIP report identified 21 needed transportation projects in major urban areas that lack adequate funding for construction to proceed, including a project to improve access to the Dayton airport and improvements to interchanges on U.S. 33.

According to the report, every $1 in deferred maintenance on roads and bridges costs an additional $4-$5 in future repairs.