STUDY: RURAL USERS PAYING MORE
FOR WORSE ROADS

Rural roads are generally in worse shape than their urban counterparts -- a situation that may hinder rural eonomies and make it difficult to find road repair money. Additionally, rural residents pay more for local roads in taxes than do urban residents. These are some of the findings of a new study on roads and bridges in Illinois by Western Illinois University's Institute for Rural Affairs.

According to Norman Walzer, Director of the Institute, "In Illinois, on average, rural users pay almost $13 more per person for roads than users in urban areas. And they are paying for roads that are increasingly becoming inadequate in quality."

Walzer cites two reasons for this problem: money and expectations. For example:

• a larger population in urban areas means more people to share the cost;
• property tax revenues have dropped in many rural areas because land values have stayed constant or dropped;and
• the basis for allotting some state gasoline tax funds is the number of cars in a county, thus favoring more populated areas.

Expectations are also higher, such that roads that once were considered adequate now may be viewed as below standard.

Other major findings of the study include:

• 13.3% of locally maintained rural roads had "considerable failures." Only 3.8% of urban roads fell into that category.
• 5.1% of rural bridges over 20 feet long were in "basically intolerable" condition, compared with 1.9% of all urban bridges.
• 10.6% of rural bridges under 20 feet were "basically intolerable," compared to 6.9% of urban bridges.
• Rural road maintenance averaged $29.95 for every resident in the country. Urban spending averaged just $17.45 per person.

The study's findings are based on federal assessments of bridges, combined with the results of a 1994 national survey of county engineers.

The Illinois Department of Transportation maintains records on the 17,100 miles of road it maintains. No one compiles information on the 120,840 miles maintained by municipalities, counties and townships.

Table    Condition of Roads, Illinois Counties

		Total			Nonmetro			Metro
Condition Description	Ranking	Cumulative Percent	Percent	(n)	Cumulative Percent	Percent	(n)	Cumulative Percent	Percent	(n)
New or perfect condition	9	100.0	6.0	51	100.0	5.5	37	100.0	7.8	14
Better than adequate with normal maintenance	8	94.0	18.6	55	94.5	15.9	41	92.2	27.7	14
Surface adequate with normal maintenance	7	75.4	30.2	59	78.6	29.5	44	64.5	31.9	15
Less than adequate with normal maintenance	6	45.1	16.4	55	49.1	16.3	40	32.5	16.9	15
Limited failures and barely adequate	5	28.7	8.5	43	32.8	9.3	31	15.7	6.4	12
Maintenance will be considerably higher to prevent continued deterioration	4	20.2	9.2	41	23.5	10.2	31	9.3	5.5	10
Considerable failures and beyond practical limits of normal maintenance	3	11.0	4.9	37	13.3	5.8	28	3.8	1.6	60
Substantially higher than normal maintenance required	2	6.1	3.8	33	7.5	4.4	24	2.2	2.2	9
Failures to the extent that operation of traffic is severely affected	1	2.3	2.3	32	3.1	3.1	23	0.0	0.0	9
Closed, awaiting repairs	0	0.0	0.0	27	0.0	0.0	18	0.0	0.0	9

September 1995 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 18