Oakland’s potholes are driving me crazy.

Lately it seems as though there are more craters in the road than trees in my North Oakland neighborhood, and sometimes I can’t swerve around them. When I drive over potholes, my car hops like I’m hittin’ switches — the hydraulic kits, controlled by buttons, that add spring to a vehicle’s suspension system.

My car isn’t customized to bounce up and down.

But, hey, at least I haven’t lost a tire — or had my car swallowed by a sinkhole. In January, a 10-foot-deep sinkhole opened on Highway 13 near Broadway Terrace. Really, that’s not something Oakland should roll with.

Oakland’s roads have more problems than potholes. The cracks and wedges in the streets, which remind me of the ridged crust of a freshly baked pound cake, can make bike riding a teeth-rattling exercise.

In Oakland, it’s not easy to apply mascara when riding in a car, and it’s always wise to check the lid of coffee containers before taking a sip. Look, I know the decreased affordability of housing and the pockets of crime can make living in Oakland rocky, but does it have to be the pits?

I learned from a story by my colleague Michael Cabanatuan that potholes are caused “when rain seeps through cracks in the pavement and eats away at the underlying roadbed.” There’s been a lot of rain this winter, and the pressure from heavy traffic has caused roads to perform like Rice Krispies in milk — they snap, crackle and then pop.

In November, a study released by Trip, a Washington, D.C., research group, found that Oakland, San Francisco and their surrounding neighborhoods had the poorest roadways in the country for the second consecutive year. No surprise there. What surprised me was that, according to the the report, the typical driver in the San Francisco-Oakland area pays $978 a year for vehicle maintenance because of poor roadways.

Ouch.

According to the city’s infrastructure report card, only 39 percent of streets are in good to excellent condition. About 38 percent of streets are in fair condition, but 23 percent are in poor condition — the condition that costs drivers almost a grand a year to repair busted tires and burned-out shocks and struts.

Oakland has driven itself into a ditch, because the streets are currently on an 85-year resurfacing cycle, while the industry standard is once every 25 years. So the chances of seeing some roads repaved is a once in a lifetime event. Think about it: It’s more rare than a sighting of Halley’s Comet, which happens about every 75 years.

Help is on the way.

In November, Oakland voters approved a $600 million bond measure to, in part, repair streets and sidewalks. About $350 million will go to repaving streets, increasing safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, and traffic calming, a process that includes strategically altering roads by narrowing lanes, adding speed bumps and creating pedestrian-only zones.

And Thursday it was announced that Ryan Russo had been selected to be the first director of Oakland’s Department of Transportation, an agency established less than a year ago. The department is in charge of maintaining the city’s 2,000 miles of road. Russo, who starts in May, is a UC Berkeley graduate, so he probably has an idea of how Oakland’s roads can rattle the nerves of drivers.

The money from the bond is Oakland’s opportunity to set a new course for the city. But, as I’m sure you don’t have to be reminded, the road to getting anything done in Oakland is always a bumpy ride.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr