These states have the worst potholes, according to Google
April showers bring May flowers. There’s no similarly catchy rhyme for what causes potholes to bloom on U.S. roads, but winter snow and ice are significant contributors. Both de-icing salt and the machinery used for snow removal do serious damage to our nation’s infrastructure. AAA says that damage resulting from potholes cost American drivers $15 billion over a five-year period from 2011 through 2015.
But as rampant as stories of America’s crumbling infrastructure have become, there’s surprisingly little easily digestible information about how widespread pothole problems are. Ask just about any U.S. driver and they’ll probably tell you that their area has a pothole problem, and maybe they’d be right. Contextualizing those anecdotes is a bit tricky. The Clunker Junker gave this a shot back in October 2021 with some help from social media. QuoteWizard turned to another analytical tool: Google.
“QuoteWizard analyzed search data for pothole-related complaints and repairs for each state going back to 2004,” author Nick VinZant said in the analysis. “The search index average is rounded and represents the number of queries in a particular state/location compared to other states.”
The team ranked all 50 U.S. states and the top 50 U.S. cities; if you’re expecting a list populated almost exclusively by the Rust Belt and states with poorer economies, the results may surprise you. Here are the 10 worst states for potholes and the cities that got them there, at least as far as Google searches might indicate — take these unscientific results with a grain of road salt:
10 – New York
It’s probably no surprise that New York State made the list. It’s jam-packed with infrastructure that is costly and time-consuming to maintain, which means unrepaired roads are likely commonplace. Surprisingly, the NYC metro area didn’t appear in the study’s top 50 cities for pothole problems. Buffalo appears at #20 and state capital Albany at #25.
9 – Pennsylvania
The Keystone State came in ninth on the strength of several of its municipalities, but maybe not in the order you’d expect. Coal country came out on top, with Scranton landing at 23 on the city list. Pittsburgh checks in next at #29, followed by Philly at #33 and Johnstown at #38.
8 – Tennessee
Tennessee’s complaints appear to be far less concentrated than that of other states’. Only Memphis appears on the list of the 50 worst U.S. cities, but the state still managed a pretty solid finish.
7 – Illinois
Now we’re talking. Illinois anchors the western edge of America’s Rust Belt, so this shouldn’t be any sort of surprise. Only two localities appear in the top 50 worst cities, however: Champaign (#32) and Chicago (#41).
6 – Massachusetts
Springfield may not fall within what many consider the normal boundaries of the Rust Belt, but it boasts the same underutilized, aging industrial infrastructure found in many other entries on the list. That earned it the #8 slot on the list of worst cities; Boston doesn’t check in until way down at #39.
5 – Ohio
Ohio is home to four of the top 50 pothole jurisdictions: Toledo (#26), Cincinnati (#35), Cleveland (#47) and Youngstown (#49). Maybe all those rocks they’re always singing about could be used to fill some holes.
4 – Nebraska
Yeah, Nebraska. The state has two well-known municipalities — Omaha and Lincoln — and both made the list of top U.S. cities for potholes. Omaha checks in at #10, and the capital at #44.
3 – Michigan
The Water-Winter Wonderland becomes a Warped Washboarded Wasteland when the weather turns spring-like. Lansing is the first to appear on the list of worst U.S. cities for potholes at #13. The state’s two largest cities — Detroit and Grand Rapids — jump in at #17 and #24, respectively.
2 – Indiana
Sorry, Chicago folks. You don’t get a chance to dump on Gary, Indiana, today. You’ll have to settle for one of the four other Indiana municipalities that made the list: Lafayette (#4), Indianapolis (#9), South Bend-Elkhart (#28) and Ft. Wayne (#34).
1 – Washington
Yeah, Washington. We were surprised too, but our resident Seattleite assured us that there’s at least some kernel of truth to this result. The state is home to three of the top five worst U.S. cities in QuoteWizard’s ranking: Yakima (#1), Spokane (#3) and Seattle (#5).
Honorable mentions
Several entries in the top 50 list of U.S. cities for pothole problems were not found in America’s most problematic states for potholes. We’d like to throw a shout-out to Grand Junction, Colorado (#2), Burlington, Vermont (#6) and Reno, Nevada (#7). Colorado checks in dead-average (#25) among U.S. states, while Vermont ranks close to the top (#13) and Nevada almost dead-last (#49) when it comes to pothole complaints.
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