Bridge The Gap Ohio: Money for Roads and Bridges

Roads

Ohio's Roads

Congestion: Your Time and Money

Did you know that over 50 percent of the pavements on Ohio's general and urban highway systems fall into the deficient category and 36% of Ohio's major urban roads are congested? The sorry state of Ohio's roads has significant impact on your safety and finances.

  • Congested highways cost Cincinnati drivers $687 yearly in lost time and wasted fuel.
  • Columbus drivers lose $514 and Cleveland motorists waste $204.
  • Toledo drivers lose $233; Dayton drivers lose $261 and Akron/Canton drivers lose $219 yearly.
  • Ohio’s most congested highway is the Interstate 70 / Interstate 71 split in downtown Columbus.
  • In Ohio’s urban areas, up to 40 percent of freeways are congested during peak hours.

The number of congested roadways, determined by the daily number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), has increased 25 percent from 1990 to 2003 and highway expansion has not kept pace. Driving on roads in need of repair costs each Ohio motorist $203.00 annually in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs.

The Symptoms

In 1998 and 1999, there were 115,771 accidents recorded on county-maintained highways. That number nearly doubles the amount of crashes occurring on better-funded urban and rural interstates during the same period. The number of crashes per 100-million miles driven on Ohio’s county roads are 80-percent greater than corresponding crash rates on interstates during that same period.

25% of Ohio's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

The American Highway Users Alliance ranked Ohio third nationally in the number of major traffic “bottlenecks” or areas that are over-capacity and create backups.

County engineers are responsible for maintaining and upgrading 29,477 miles of county highways and 26,848 bridges (64% of all state bridges), including those over waterways within city corporations.

Ohio’s transportation network remains one of the proportionately lowest-funded in the country. Future federal revenues are uncertain and only expected to grow minimally in the next seven years.