Report: Louisiana drivers lose $9.9 billion yearly from poor roads, traffic

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A new report from TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, reveals that Louisiana drivers lose $9.9 billion each year due to deteriorating roads, aging bridges, traffic congestion and safety hazards.

According to TRIP, it costs Baton Rouge drivers an average of $3,530 each year. This number includes vehicle wear and tear costs, fuel wasted in traffic costs and crash expenses linked to road design or condition.

The report titled “Keeping Louisiana Mobile: Providing a Modern, Sustainable Transportation System in the Pelican State” highlights a transportation network in urgent need of repair:

• More than half of Louisiana’s major roads are in bad shape.
  • In Baton Rouge, 60% of roads are rated poor or mediocre.
• Almost one in five bridges in Baton Rouge is in poor condition.
• Baton Rouge drivers spend 64 hours a year stuck in traffic, wasting time and fuel.
• Ninety-four people die each year in local crashes, and bad road conditions may be a factor in some of them.

Statewide, traffic crashes killed over 4,200 people from 2019 to 2023. Louisiana also has one of the highest traffic death rates in the country, according to the report.

Construction costs make it hard for the state to fix these problems, the report said. Louisiana will get $4.8 billion from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) over five years. But TRIP said this investment is still not enough.

“Leaders across Louisiana should be concerned about the poor condition of infrastructure across our state and how it weakens our economic development and quality of life,” Adam Knapp, CEO of Leaders for a Better Louisiana, said. “We encourage elected officials to place a high sense of urgency on investing in the state’s roads, bridges, and multimodal infrastructure.”

The state’s transportation system is vital to Louisiana’s economy. In 2023 alone, 1.4 billion tons of freight worth $591 billion moved across the state. That number is expected to increase by 75% in weight and 107% in value by 2050, according to TRIP.

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