A new report from a national transportation research group finds Connecticut motorists are losing $5.1 billion annually due to congestion-related delays, higher vehicle operating costs and traffic crashes.
Released on Tuesday by TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, the report finds 33 percent of major locally and state-maintained urban roads in Connecticut are in poor condition. More than a third of bridges are structurally deficient.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said the report comes at a crucial time, as federal surface transportation legislation is set to expire on Dec. 4. He said the report should be seen by Congress as a "call to action" from Connecticut.
Ask a Connecticut driver what they think of the condition of our state's roads and you might get responses like this.
"They're horrible. They're terrible," Kathleen Thomas, a Connecticut resident, said. “.... There’s so much construction all the time. It seems like they’re always trying to fix roads but they don’t really do a good job of it.”
New Haven resident Katie Bowker shared the sentiment, stating, "I feel like they're terrible," adding "New Haven's one of the worse."
“There’s so much money – millions, billions of dollars – going into expanding roads instead of going into fixing the problems," Bowker said.
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One of drivers' biggest issues is that road fixes that do get the green light often get it too late, which can lead to a much bigger problem to solve.
“There’s so much construction all the time. It seems like they’re always trying to fix roads but they don’t really do a good job of it," Bowker said.
Rocky Moretti, the group's director of research and policy, said Connecticut's pavement conditions rank below the national average, while congestion is similar to some other states.
As many people get ready to ride to and through connecticut, they're hoping for a smooth ride this holiday weekend and down the road.
"There definitely needs to be an improvement on that," Kathleen Thomas said.
