If you’re not first, you’re last. But sometimes you can be both. If the kei car harassment wasn’t bad enough, a recent study ranked Rhode Island number one as the last state you’d want to drive in.
The research was gathered by eSpatial, a company that specializes in mapping software. Unlike other studies that focus on one or two data sets (e.g., safest drivers, most accidents), the eSpatial team examined all of it.
According to Travel & Leisure:Â
To figure out which states have the most chaotic roadways of all, the team at eSpatial analyzed government datasets and real-time traffic insights, measuring each state on five key factors: traffic congestion pulled via Numbeo’s Traffic Index, road satisfaction based on data by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the number of Google searches for “pothole complaint,” the total road fatalities per state, and speeding-related traffic deaths both via the Department of Transport.
With that mountain of data, it turned out that, overall, the littlest state in the union had the largest number of roadway issues. T&L quoted the eSpatial findings:
“[Rhode Island] ranked worst overall for road quality (just 62.76 percent of roads are considered acceptable) and second-worst for speeding-related fatalities. It also topped the list for pothole-related search complaints, indicating widespread driver frustration. With narrow streets, dense urban zones, and aging infrastructure, this tiny state delivers outsized driving stress.”
Even if Rhode Islanders deny it, other federal data support its status as the pits. Using information from the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. News ranks the state last in transportation, with a 50th-place finish in road quality and the 45th spot for infrastructure.
Specifically, 37.2% of Rhode Island’s major roads are classified as in “poor” condition, according to FHA data reviewed by Construction Coverage. The state also ranks last in percentage of “good” condition roads, with just 26.3% fitting the bill. In a statement to T&L, eSpatial said:
“Whether it’s dodging potholes, sitting in endless traffic, or worrying about accident-prone roads, driving conditions across the U.S. can vary massively from state to state. While some states offer well-maintained infrastructure and manageable congestion, others are far more frustrating or dangerous for road users.”
Ironically, states with the smallest footprints and fewest roads are apparently some of the worst places for drivers. Per eSpatial, the top five states with the most aggravating driving conditions were rounded out by Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland, and Connecticut. Hawaii aside, all of these states have something in common: East Coast states with aging roads that have to carry tons of traffic.Â
My life experience can confirm that, outside of the shaka courtesies, driving in Hawaii is godawful, and the only place I suffer from daily road rage (sorry, mom). Maryland and the overall DMV region is equally evil. Where is driving not a maddening experience? Montana. T&L says:
“There’s a reason Montana is made for road trips: it’s all sweeping landscapes, empty highways, and no stress,” the findings noted. “With just 208 traffic fatalities and only 10 pothole-related searches in the past year, Montana offers not just space to roam but space to relax behind the wheel.”
Big Sky Country is right behind Rhode Island in population but ranks after California as the fourth-largest state in terms of area. Sounds like the perfect formula for a big, calm mood when behind the wheel.
Turn signals are just intel for the enemy! – Rhode Island and Massachusetts drivers.
This is America. It’s no one’s damn business but you’re own where you’re turning.
You may be joking, but I’ve actually heard someone say this. “It’s no one’s business where I’m turning!” I guess no empathy exists for the folks driving behind you.
Let’s talk about 95, first. It gets curvy through PVD. Then, for some drivers, it’s more like a local road they take to get to the cleaners and pick up a prescription. They tend to go 40-45mph. For other drivers, it’s actually still a federal highway, and they do about 55-99mph after the curves straighten out a bit. So, the differences in speed between cars using the same roadway makes it even more chaotic.
Then, try taking an off-ramp to get onto 6, 10, or wherever and it’s like one on-ramp leads to another, to another, to another, and you’ve travelled a considerable distance and are still unsure if you’re on an actual route, yet. It’s just a series of ramps.
They keep moving exits from L to R to L to whatever I think to keep construction workers busy. I’m not sure why else. Also, 95N watch out, because for some reason they need almost all the lanes to divert people on to 146 if they’re going to the State House. 95N isn’t important anymore.
My wife is from RI and I am there sometimes more than once in a month visiting family.
I still don’t understand what they are doing near the statehouse on 95 – most people are through travelers and you have to keep changing lanes to stay on 95. And I also don’t understand why they started over again rebuilding 95 through providence just when they finished the previous project. And now with half of 195 to be closed for years due to the defective bridge…, it seems like it is never going to get better.
I don’t know much about their politics, but I bet the road construction lobby is pretty successful there.
Well to me, it sounds like the solution is to allow Waymo, Tesla and others to all set their autonomous vehicles loose into the mix.
Also, allow local residents there to drive any of the flying car prototypes with nothing more that a standard driver’s license.
Then they should remove all the regular safety inspections listed here:
https://dmv.ri.gov/registrations-plates-titles/safety-emissions-inspections/vehicle-inspection-requirements
And they should ‘streamline’ the drivers license process by just having a quick and affordable online test.
And for the cherry on top, cut taxes and eliminate vehicle registration fees.
Pretty sure this is all part of Project 2025.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it was… LOL
If to had to pick two of those which would you pick?
https://c.tenor.com/TD3s4aCxLXEAAAAC/tenor.gif
Not surprising, RI roads are pretty bad. They’re a broke state with a high population density with bad winters. It’s basically Massachusetts, but with no money to maintain anything. Sort of hard to overcome that.
I’d still much, much rather drive through RI than around the DMV though. Hell, there’s multiple developing countries I’d rather drive in than the DMV.
For those who may be wondering, in this context DMV means “DC, Maryland, Virginia”. 🙂
Yes, if you drive in your local DMV, you may lose your license.
That helps. I was picturing something similar to the Blues Brothers.
Thanks for that! I’m struggling to remember the other term people used for that region. I think it was a different abbreviation, but it currently eludes my brain cells starting to show their radial belts.
MDV? VDM? Maybe it’s where you live how you prioritize the letters. I dunno. Could be a kind of wordish thing, a portmanteau? I don’t remember. I’m just too tired anymore.
I visited RI with a buddy a few months ago. And the Vanderbilt mansions around Newport are mind-blowing.
At least for a kid who moved to a farm in his teens and milked dairy goats 2x a day and then had to drink that stuff.
Final note: should you decide to ignore the point of this article, the Audrain Auto Museum in Newport is totally worth a visit, as is the Newport Car Museum, located roughly 9 miles north in Portsmouth.
delmarva?
…maybe just the peninsula
I think something like that was what I was thinking of, including Delaware. Thanks!
Yup, Rhode Island roads and bridges are a complete disaster. Rhode Island has 6x the road “density” of states like Texas. We have way more roads per unit-land-area than most (if not all) other states, so it’s very difficult to take care of.
RI (and really probably most of Southern New England) is a state that could really, really benefit from a robust light surface rail or trolley network.
Imagine my shock and surprise when New Jersey isn’t even mentioned in an article like this.
That being said, I’ll happily live here instead of moving back to Northern Virginia (Fairfax County), where the local government is apparently incentivized to put up a light every half mile on Route 50.
I used to visit Rhode Island for business frequently and can confirm.
This is only because drivers are too traumatized after driving through Maryland to even speak about it
I currently work in Rhode Island and I approve of this message.
I’ve driven in 47 of the 50 states and currently reside in the Ocean State. I’ll drive here any day over Illinois, Florida or Southern California.
I wonder how much the current state of the Washington Bridge (I-195) clusterfuck skews this data?
Inquiring minds must know, what 3 have you not driven in? My guess is Alaska, Hawaii, and…somewhere in the midwest, I am going to guess Kansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma.
2/3rds isn’t bad! Louisiana…which is even odder given that I lived in the Florida panhandle for 5 years.
I find it interesting that they called out Hawaii, but didn’t specify which island. The only one I’ve driven on was The actual island of Hawaii, and it was fine. Even the road up Mauna Loa was in very good condition. But it’s also one of the least populated of the major islands. I can imagine that the roads on Oahu or Maui might be much worse.
I was about to say the same. I drove that island from Kona to Hilo to the top of Kilauea and the southernmost point in the US and there wasn’t much traffic to speak of.
Really the only island that would have a high level of charlie-foxtrotterish trafficatin’ would be O’ahu, home of Waikiki, Pearl Harbor, and other frequently visited locations. The other islands are rather sparsely populated in comparison.
I lived on O’ahu for a few years a long time ago, and (high volume – alternative routes) = a real mess even back then. The situation probably has not improved.
Can confirm, the big island is one of the nicest places to drive on the planet, not the worst. But most of the Hawaiian population lives on Oahu, so I’m sure that’s what is being represented here.
I live here…. born and raised.
Listen…. yes our roads are bad. We have lots of people crammed into a small place. We have the same population as Montana jammed into a 1, 033 sq mile area…. so yeah it can be kinda nutty.
But to be fair… pick a city…. any city… or highly concentrated area and you will have crazy frenetic driving. Its the same everywhere….. it’s just more noticeable because we’re so crammed….
At least Montana has no tolls.
Wait…Le Petomane Memorial Thruway?
Now what’ll that a**hole think of next?!
“Somebody’s gotta go back and get a s***load of dimes!”
If you want to impress people at a party, you can tell them that the Federal Highway Administration goes by the acronym FHWA, not FHA. Possibly because FHA was already taken by the Federal Housing Administration?
I’ve never been to Rhode Island, but it’s only a few miles across, so how bad can it be?
I’ve driven a lot of places in the States and DC is my most-hated. Washington DC – where drivers just, generally, don’t care to get where they’re going or care to pay attention to other cars on the road.
Live in the DMV and can confirm. The daily commute also usually involved at least one idiot in 2010 Altima (or increasingly, a Tesla) with temp tags and a donut weaving in and out of traffic and the breakdown lane at 115 mph. I have had two car totaled in rear-end accidents in the past 4 years.
Having a relative in RI, and driving down there (I’m in NH) I agree with the assessment. MA will always be MA, especially east of Worcester. CT combines the worst driving skills of NY and New England.
I used to drive in Maryland a lot, and there’s a reason why we used to call it the “FU” State. Watch out for really Big Altima Energy! I’ve driven in 48 states but never been to HI, so I’ll keep this piece in mind if I ever get there.
Welcome to Rhode Island
No Parking
Maryland has tolls (MDTA), Massachusetts has the Mass pike (toll), Rhode Island has a toll to cross bridge into Newport (topshot), but guess what? No tolls in Connecticut.
Though they do have some trolls.
Trolls do love a good bridge. Very pro-infrastructure.
You have to pay the troll toll to get into this boy’s.. soul.
I suspected Anoos would deliver on this one 😉
Yes I am always setting up people for good replies and I seem to always get them. But my original comment rarely gets “a like”?
CT took out their tollbooths years ago when a semi plowed through one. But now that electronic toll collection is a thing it wouldn’t surprise me if it is added back to the revenue stream toolkit.
They tried to get it going recently by saying it will be for commercial trucking only. Connecticut voters are not that dumb knowing that after the infrastructure was in place they would just flip a switch and make it for all traffic. It was voted down big time.
Go Nutmeggers.
I mean it’s fun that this company did this study, but they could have just substituted population density as the measure. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland are states #2-5 in terms of density, while Montana is #48. With more density comes more traffic, more crashes, more fatalities, more wear and tear on road surfaces…
Very weird that nothing appears to have been normalized relative to population or, even better, miles driven
Speaking of Montana…
How and why did you register the auTAXIan in Montana? It almost feels like you found the point furthest away from where everyone lived, so it must have come with several pro’s.
Hi Beverly, I doubt anyone would object if you read and replied to reader comments. Just my opinion. 🙂
Agreed, and preferably with Adrian levels of snark when it’s appropriate. On the flip side I don’t think any have /needed/ a response. I especially liked the audi video article but was hoping for more spiciness in the comments. Audi lost me as a fan in the late 2000’s due to unreliability, assanine repair procedures, and general hostility towards consumers fixing their own cars. What’s weird is the current gen audi fans were just getting created then.
In her defense, she came from The Drive, whose commenters are, shall we say, not as nice as they are here. I can understand her reluctance.
The Drive commenters are quite belligerent.
I got my driver’s license in Rhode Island in October 1993.I can confirm this and offer a reason.
Southern RI is basically a sandbar. All the roads are just pavement on sand. It also suffers typical New England winters. Most of the state is rural, and not rich.
All that adds up to this type of result.