A recent report by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) delves into the road conditions experienced by Americans, identifying those who face the worst conditions. It also uncovers the additional annual costs associated with driving on these deteriorated roads.

According to an AEI press release, the 66-page report is titled "Infrastructure Inequality: Who Pays the Cost of Road Roughness?" The authors assessed road roughness across the United States using vertical acceleration data from Uber rides. This data covers millions of U.S. roads. They also evaluated drivers' willingness to pay to avoid roughness by observing speed changes corresponding to noticeable changes in road roughness.

The AEI press release further indicates that based on estimates from the authors' measurements, the roughness of the median local road in the United States results in welfare losses to drivers of 31 cents or more. Roads are generally in worse condition in coastal towns as well as in economically disadvantaged towns and neighborhoods. The report reveals that a household residing in a predominantly black neighborhood and driving 3,000 miles annually on mostly local roads will incur an extra $318 per year.

The AEI press release also states that while road roughness sometimes predicts subsequent road resurfacing in New York City, this is not observed in three other cities—Dallas, Columbus, and Portland. According to the report's authors, this suggests that repaving is only "weakly" tied to damaged roads. They say that surveys from 120 U.S. towns and cities highlight several reasons for this weakly targeted resurfacing, such as certain formulas and high-traffic roads receiving priority.