Commuters who cross the state line every day have been saying it for years. A new study validates their observation: Kansas roads are better than Missouri roads.
Kansas has the fourth-best set of roads in the nation, according to a recent study by the Washington, D.C.-based Road Information Program, which ranked Missouri as having the third worst. The rankings are based on 2000 data just released by the Federal Highway Administration.
Lawrence resident Allyn Elliott rides to Kansas City, Mo., each morning in a vanpool.
"From my perspective, when I sit in the very back of the van, we bounce more once we're in Missouri," she said. "It's really funny, once we drop off people in Kansas, some of us move forward because if we don't, we'll be bouncing around."
The report is also no surprise to Kansas and Missouri highway officials, who have long recognized that differences in road and funding structures between the two states show up in Missouri's crumbling pavement.
"Kansas has voters and people in transportation who are more willing to put more money into the roads and into all forms of transportation," said Steve Porter, a spokesman in the Lee's Summit District Office of the Missouri Department of Transportation. "Voters and people that represent voters in Missouri have chosen to be a little less generous a lot less generous in some ways with funding."
Missouri had the nation's third-highest percentage of roads in poor or mediocre condition, according to the report. Of the state's 32,000 miles of major roads, 21 percent were in poor condition badly cracked or broken, usually needing reconstruction and 38 percent were in mediocre condition showing defects such as rutting and extensive patching that may need more than resurfacing to be returned to good condition.
Missouri begins with the disadvantage of having three times the number of state highway miles to maintain as Kansas, Porter said. Then, small funding differences like a 4-cent difference in the states' per gallon fuel tax start to stack up. Plus, Kansas has a toll road; Missouri is constitutionally barred from having one, Porter said.
The Road Information Program reported that 70 percent of Kansas roads were in good condition. Six percent were rated mediocre and 4 percent poor.
Although cuts to KDOT's budget this fiscal year threaten progress, Kansas Department of Transportation spokesman Marty Matthews said Kansas has gotten what it paid for so far.
In 1999, Kansas lawmakers approved a $12.9 billion transportation plan.
"We've had almost two decades of highway programs that have been funded pretty well," said Matthews. "We've been very fortunate here."
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