Crumbling roads in SF, Oakland ranked worst in nation

A bicyclist steers clear of a large pothole on Mission Street near Cortland Avenue in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, March 5, 2014. A bicyclist steers clear of a large pothole on Mission Street near Cortland Avenue in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, March 5, 2014. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Crumbling roads in SF, Oakland ranked worst in nation 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

To experience America’s crumbling infrastructure firsthand, look no farther than San Francisco and Oakland — ranked this week by a transportation research group as being home to the worst roads of any large urban region in the country.

The Bay Area cities and their surrounding neighborhoods topped the list for having poor roadways for the second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by the Washington, D.C., group Trip.

San Francisco and Oakland had a whopping 71 percent of roads in shoddy condition, more than 10 percentage points higher than the Los Angeles area, which was the runner-up.

“It’s a simple explanation. We just haven’t invested enough in our infrastructure over the last couple of years,” said Will Kempton, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Transportation California. “The demand is very significant, and our system is aging.”

The lack of state and local dollars going to infrastructure maintenance, combined with a rising population pounding the pavement, were cited in the Trip study as factors in creating the nation’s roughest roads.

The Bay Area’s ranking was surprising, said Robert Cervero, a city planning professor at UC Berkeley and director of the UC Transportation Research Center. He noted that while the region doesn’t deal with extremely cold weather, which can deteriorate roads, part of the problem could be the heavy truck traffic going to and from ports and railheads. But deferred maintenance is likely the bigger culprit, he said.

“New construction tends to win out over maintenance, partly for political reasons — politicians get more political capital in ‘cutting ribbons’ for new mega-projects than patching up potholes, reconstructing damaged roads, etc.,” Cervero said in an email, pointing to the new Bay Bridge as an example of a big-ticket project that took a large chunk of the region’s transportation budget.

The report from the Trip research group tallied the average amount motorists pay for vehicle maintenance due to poor roadways. The typical driver in the San Francisco-Oakland area pays $978 a year for those costs. Motorists in San Jose — which also made the top 10 for car maintenance expenses — pay an average of $863, the study found.

The money can go toward paying to replace tires, like the ones slashed last year by a dislodged steel plate on the Benicia-Martinez Bridge or — in another bizarre Bay Area infrastructure snafu — toward getting cars towed out of monster-size sinkholes, like the one that swallowed a sport utility vehicle on Mission Street in San Francisco this year.

The research group made its findings based on data collected in 2014 by the Federal Highway Administration. Last year’s report, based on data from 2013, also had the San Francisco-Oakland area in the top spot, with a slightly higher amount of poor roads: 74 percent. The region has held a place in the top five going back to 2008 data.

For cities with populations between 200,000 and 500,000, Concord ranked as the worst, with three-quarters of its roads in poor condition.

“It’s going to take a long-term level of funding,” said Rocky Moretti, policy and research director of Trip. “The region can’t afford to let the system crumble even further.”

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov