3 Bay Area cities have worst maintained roads in U.S.

A traffic cone marks a pothole in San Francisco after a heavy rain eroded the earth underneath the pavement. A new WalletHub study found that San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and three Southern California cities have the worst roadways in the country. Continue with the slideshow to see other findings of the study, which rated the best- and worst-run large U.S. cities. less A traffic cone marks a pothole in San Francisco after a heavy rain eroded the earth underneath the pavement. A new WalletHub study found that San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and three Southern California cities ... more Photo: Image By Patrick W. Zimmerman, Getty Images Photo: Image By Patrick W. Zimmerman, Getty Images Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close 3 Bay Area cities have worst maintained roads in U.S. 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

If you think San Francisco's roadways are conspiring to flatten your tires and misalign your wheels, you're not far off.

According to a new WalletHub study, San Francisco and Oakland are tied with Fremont, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Los Angeles for having the bumpiest, pothole-iest pavement in the country.

And none of these cities can blame the weather for their woeful streets. There's no snow to plow or black ice to salt.

In November, Washington-based transportation research group TRIP ranked Oakland-San Francisco roads dead last of all large (500,000+ population) urban regions in the country. Seventy-one percent of roads in the two cities were rated in "poor" condition. L.A. came in second with 60 percent poor.

TRIP estimated that the average San Francisco and Oakland driver pays $978 per year in vehicle maintenance due to crumbling pavement and pockmarked roads.

So why are San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont's roadways in such shoddy shape?

"In the Bay Area, it really comes down to a lack of available transportation funding to keep the roads in good repair," Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, TRIP associate director of research and communications, told Hoodline.

The cities with the best roads in the country generally make transportation funding a priority.

WalletHub's study, part of the credit score site's "2017 Best- & Worst-Run Cities in America" survey, shows that road conditions haven't improved over the last eight months.

Check the slideshow for other interesting takeaways of the survey for the Bay Area.

For all the findings of 2017's "Best- & Worst-Run Cities" and the survey's methodology, click on the WalletHub link above.