Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson urban area drivers pay an average of $1,248 per year due to driving on roads that are congested, deteriorated or lack desirable safety features, according to a state report by national research organization The Road Information Program (TRIP).
Deficient roads cost South Carolina motorists $3 billion statewide annually due to higher vehicle operating costs, traffic crashes and congestion-related delays, according to the report.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation is facing a $42 billion shortfall in funding for state transportation needs during the next five years. Part of the shortfall is due to greater transportation demand from increased population, employment and business operations in the state, according to the department.
South Carolina tied with West Virginia as having the highest overall traffic fatality rate at 1.76 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, or 4,315 deaths between 2008 and 2012. The national average rate is 1.13.
The report – which included state and Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson urban area data – found 48 percent of the major roads in the three counties were in poor or mediocre condition, costing motorists $405 each year in extra vehicle operating costs, such as accelerated vehicle depreciation, additional repair costs and increased fuel consumption and tire wear. Comparatively, vehicle operating costs were lower per motorist in Charleston ($294) and Columbia ($362).
Congestion cost users $590 per year in the area compared to Charleston ($647) and Columbia ($663) in wasted fuel and lost time.
“The state of infrastructure in South Carolina is deplorable,” said Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Allen C. Smith said in statement. “The economy is the vehicle that provides our citizens with jobs. Unfortunately, that vehicle, according to the TRIP report, is traveling on an infrastructure system speeding towards a title none of us want or can afford – ‘the worst road and bridge network in the United States.’”
$156 billion in goods are shipped annually from sites in South Carolina, 84 percent of which are carried by trucks, in addition to 10 percent carried by courier services or multiple mode deliveries.
South Carolina’s rural roads had a fatality rate that was 61 percent higher than the national rural road average.
Statewide, 46 percent of South Carolina’s state-maintained Interstate, primary and secondary route major roads and highways were in poor condition, an increase from 32 percent in 2008. Additionally, one fifth of the state’s bridges were “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete,” with 21 percent showing “significant” deterioration or not meeting modern design standards.
In the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson area, eight percent of bridges were structurally deficient and 14 percent were functionally obsolete. Statewide, 11 percent of bridges were structurally deficient and 10 percent were functionally obsolete.
“I call on our elected officials to act, to lead and to address this issue,” said Smith. “Present and future jobs depend on it.”
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