The most recent issue of my BMW Car Club of America magazine has a brief article about the states with the worst road conditions. And thankfully, New Mexico wasn’t at the top of the list — but we were No. 11.
The ranking comes from an organization called “Construction Coverage,” a website “started by a small group of technology and finance with a desire to help businesses in the construction industry.”
Sounds to me like they’re fishing for more construction jobs. The organization’s criteria for picking the best and worst road conditions wasn’t explained.
However, the survey said almost 20 percent of New Mexico’s roads were in poor condition, with only 50 percent categorized as being good. It also reported that daily vehicle miles per capita in New Mexico totaled 31, the highest of any of the top 15 states with the worst roads.
Wyoming was ranked as the state with the best roads and also one of the highest daily travel rates, with 46.2 miles driven on average. That’s not surprising given its rural nature, small population and long distances between larger cities. Alabama and North Dakota finished at second and third in the “best” rankings.
Rhode Island topped the list of states with the worst roads in America, with 38.8 percent rated as poor, with New Jersey and California ranked second and third.
Perhaps with New Mexico’s recently realized heavy cash infusion from oil and gas production, some of that money will go toward improvement of bad roads.
And on another list of bad things to avoid in New Mexico, try not to order a hot dog at a Sonic drive-in in Espanola.
Last week, a customer in the northern New Mexico community bit into a hot dog and discovered not a tasty tubular meat product, but a small plastic bag containing cocaine. An employee at the store was arrested for trying to hide the bag of powdered drug in the hot dog, but it was not clear why he thought he should use that method for concealing it. And why then serve it to someone you don’t know? Another of endless Espanola mysteries.
As my son once confirmed, “Espanola never fails to disappoint.”
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