NEW JERSEY – New research has revealed that New Jersey has the fifth-roughest roads in the United States.
The research by rugged computing solutions provider Getac analyzed road length and condition according to the International Roughness Index (IRI) from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to see which states had the roughest roads per 1,000 miles.
| States with the roughest roads | ||||
| Rank | State | Total lane miles | Rough roads total (mi) | Rough roads per 1,000 miles |
| 1 | Rhode Island | 13,520 | 609 | 45 |
| 2 | Connecticut | 45,552 | 1,871 | 41 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 79,144 | 2,938 | 37 |
| 4 | Mississippi | 156,211 | 5,049 | 32.3 |
| 5 | New Jersey | 84,281 | 2,691 | 31.9 |
| 6 | Maryland | 68,889 | 1,917 | 28 |
| 7 | Washington | 174,731 | 4,672 | 26.7 |
| 8 | Texas | 654,923 | 17,446 | 26.6 |
| 9 | Missouri | 268,201 | 6,941 | 25.9 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania | 253,838 | 6,381 | 25.1 |
The analysis revealed that New Jersey is fifth, with 31.9 miles of rough roads per 1,000, 120% greater than the national average. This equals 2,691 miles of roughness across the state.
The Garden State’s urban minor arterial roads place 12th roughest nationally, the state’s highest rank.
Pennsylvania’s roads rank tenth roughest, with 25 miles of roughness per 1,000. This equals around 6,381 miles of roads in rough condition statewide. Pennsylvania’s rural roads were in the sixth roughest condition, and its urban roads ranked 18th nationally.
Of the three road types, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Arizona have the roughest rural, urban minor arterial, and urban collector roads in the United States, respectively, despite not appearing in the overall top ten.
“Keeping goods moving is vital for any company’s supply chain, and technology has helped massively increase efficiency in planning and logistics. But road maintenance is an underlying and often overlooked factor that can hamper freight delivery and safety, potentially cause damage to a vehicle, and, in some cases, accidents. When on long journeys, devices can fail, with 35% of frontline workers reporting that batteries don’t last an entire shift, resulting in lost productivity, according to VDC research- 2022. Christin Wang, Director for Global Marketing at Getac, said.
“It’s important that both managers and drivers of delivery fleets should have a device that allows them to keep up-to-date information in real-time between the driver and managers. Keeping a flow of information means potentially dangerous or risky routes can be avoided, and preventative repairs can be arranged as soon as possible,” Wang said.
