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Potholes Cost Each Los Angeles Driver $955 a Year

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Los Angeles's terrible roads are just one sad piece of its aging infrastructure puzzle (or maybe it's more the like the board game Perfection, where the pieces occasionally pop out of the board), but boy are they an ever-more-expensive piece. Our roads and byways are in such shoddy shape—and Angelenos lose millions of hours creeping along on them—that they're costing each driver an average of $955 a year, up from $832 a year in 2011. When you add in crashes and time and fuel lost to traffic, the total shoots up to $2,458 per driver, according to a new study by TRIP, a national transportation research group.

Angelenos spend more because of traffic than people in any other California city surveyed: $1,300, but safety-related costs are a relatively low $203. In addition to hitting our wallets, bad roads also costs us time, of course. The average LA driver loses 61 hours a year driving in traffic, the report found.

TRIP also found that "a total of 65 percent of major roads in the Los Angeles urban area are rated in poor condition and an additional 24 percent are rated in mediocre condition." That's roughly in line with what city studies have found; a couple of councilmembers are desperately trying to find money for comprehensive road repair.
· Deficient Roadways Cost Each Los Angeles Area Driver Nearly $2,500 Annually [TRIP]
· Los Angeles Has the Worst Roads of Any Big City in the US [Curbed LA]