Are our roads getting worse?

Paul Clancy wrote:
Of the western states I have visited regularly the one that gets a prize for great roads .... Oregon. The others need to find out what they are doing and do that. My back thanks you Oregon tax payers.

All is not what it seems. Oregon is just as bad when it comes to how money is spent on roads and infrastructure. The main throughfares are ruined by studded tires on passenger cars. There are ruts in the highway where water collects and creates a hydroplaning hazard. I remember some years ago driving on I-5 up in Washington where the ruts were worse than in Oregon. As an experiment, I set the cruise control and with hands just above the steering wheel, but not touching, I was able to drive more than five miles with the ruts guiding the car as if it were on rails. I read in the newspaper that the powers that be are blaming trucks and other large vehicles for the wear and tear on the roads. I have news for you: trucks in Oregon are restricted to 55MPH and the distance between ruts matches the track of passenger cars not trucks. I also read somewhere else that a large distributer of tires lobbied against tougher laws for studded tires that would mandate winter tires that would do less damage to the roadway surfaces.

We need a replacement for the I-5 Bridge that crosses the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington State. They spent nearly half a billion dollars so far on the project and all we have is a stack of paper that claims to be some sort of 'Study'. For the most part, the roads in Oregon campare well to other locations, I will give you that. One thing I discovered in my travels in all of the Lower 48; the Interstate highways can be rough traveling and at times the traffic is taxing on the nerves. By driving the state roads I find that the road conditions are often better, traffic is less stressful, the scenery is better and you can cover a lot of ground in the same amount of time.