Rockford’s Roads–By the Numbers
It's that fun, post-winter time in Rockford when you begin to wonder when, not if, you'll knock your car out of alignment hitting a pothole.
A non-profit transportation research organization called TRIP recently released a report called Illinois Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the State's Needs for Safe, Smooth, and Efficient Mobility, in which they crunch the numbers when it comes to:
- Deficient roads
- Bridge conditions
- Road congestion
- Traffic Safety
- Fatalities
Their results consist of numbers from all over our state, but I've cherry-picked some Rockford-centric facts and figures for you. Driving on Illinois roads that are deteriorated, congested and that lack some desirable safety features costs Illinois drivers a total of $16.4 billion each year. TRIP has calculated the cost to the average motorist in the state’s largest urban areas in the form of additional vehicle operating costs (VOC) as a result of driving on rough roads, the cost of lost time and wasted fuel due to congestion and the financial cost of traffic crashes.
- Per-year cost to the average Rockford driver: $1,935
- Percentage of Rockford roads that are in poor condition: 32
- Percentage of Rockford roads that are in mediocre condition: 29
- Percentage of Rockford roads that are in fair condition: 15
- Percentage of Rockford roads that are in good condition: 25
- Percentage of state-maintained bridges in and around Rockford: 377
- Number of state-maintained bridges in and around Rockford that are "structurally deficient: 29
- Average hours per year that Rockford drivers lose to congestion: 24
- Average cost of congestion each year to Rockford drivers: $573
- Average fatalities to Rockford drivers (in which roadway features were likely a contributing factor) from 2014-2016: 35
- Vehicle operating costs (VOC) per Rockford motorist as a result of driving on deteriorated roads: $639
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