A 2022 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that even when controlling for conditions that impact pavement wear (like climate and traffic density), interstates and highways are more likely to be in a poor state of repair in census tracts with higher percentages of people of color, higher family poverty rates, and in urban areas. For example, a road in a community of color has a 7 percent chance of being in good condition. A road in a community that is almost entirely white has a 22 percent chance of being in good condition.

A 2021 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that worn, rough pavement can decrease traffic safety and potentially lead to increased vehicle operations costs (such as increased fuel expenses and increased vehicle maintenance due to damage from crashes and collisions). However, as outlined above, the models that guide road spending heavily incentivize building new lane miles, which happens at the expense of basic roadway maintenance.

Each additional lane mile also adds to the nation’s ever-growing repair needs. In 2017, the backlog of existing roadways in need of maintenance was slated to cost the country $63 billion per year over the course of a 6-year long federal transportation bill.

That estimate didn’t include the cost of upkeep for roads in good and fair condition at the time—$169 billion per year. Between 2009 and 2017, 223,494 lane miles were added to the full public road network, and maintenance needs for just these miles amounted to $5 billion per year. Despite all the rhetoric about the 2021 infrastructure law being primarily about “fixing roads and bridges,” even if all of its funds were devoted to repair and maintenance—which is absolutely not the case—there would still be an enormous backlog.