Louisiana Potholes: Not As Bad As You Think

A quick drive through Shreveport and Bossier or anywhere along I-20 or I-220 and it's easy to understand why you might think Louisiana's roads are the absolute worst in America.

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That's why the results of a study conducted by KaplunMarx.com that were revealed on onfocus.news will cause even the most casual driver in the area to do a complete double-take.

And what is this staggering, jaw-dropping statistic?  Louisiana doesn't have the worst potholes in the country.  In fact, our potholes don't even crack the top 10 of America's worst.

The Methodology Of This Study Dealt More With "Perception" of Pothole Problems

The methodology of this study seemed somewhat suspect when it comes to an actual hard count of potholes throughout each state.

Instead of actually numbering those potholes, KaplunMarx analyzed Google Trends data over the years 2019 through 2024, looking for terms like “pothole repair” and “pothole damage” to establish a ranking of which states were "perceived" with the worst pothole problem.

And even though most might feel this isn't indicative of the real numbers or size of each state's potholes, the results of this survey so closely mirrored the findings of another research piece conducted by quotewizard.com in 2023, using the same criteria, that there must be merit to the conclusions.

Onfocus.news points out that potholes cost U.S. drivers an estimated $3 billion per year in damage repairs.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), pothole damages cost US drivers $3 billion annually in vehicle repairs. Their survey also reported that 64% of drivers are concerned about potholes

Which States Have The Worst Pothole Problems In The Country?

Their study showed these to be the Top 10 States For The Most Potholes

1. Washington State
2. Tennessee
3. Hawaii
4. Rhode Island
5. Indiana
6. Minnesota
7. South Carolina
8. Connecticut
9. South Dakota
10. Colorado

After seeing these rankings, my initial thought was that the researchers just made a mistake.  Somehow the results from Louisiana might have been lost in a vehicle than ran off into one of our mammoth sinkholes on I-20?

Apparently that wasn't the case, so the only other rational line of thought is that there are actually a number of states with bigger pothole problems than Louisiana.

How bad must that problem be, to be worse than what we have here?  I'd be afraid to "walk" down those roads, much less to drive them.