FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    
Thursday, April 27, 2017        
Report available at: tripnet.org                                                                           

Contact: Rocky Moretti 202.262.0714 (cell)
Carolyn Bonifas Kelly 703.801.9212 (cell)
TRIP office 202.466.6706

TOPEKA MOTORISTS LOSE NEARLY $1,500 PER YEAR ON ROADS THAT ARE ROUGH, CONGESTED & LACK SOME SAFETY FEATURES – $2.7 BILLION STATEWIDE. ABILITY TO REPAIR AND IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM HAMPERED BY $2.4 BILLION TRANSFER OF HIGHWAY FUNDS TO STATE GENERAL FUND FROM 2011 TO 2017.
Eds.: The report includes regional pavement conditions, congestion levels, highway safety data, and cost breakdowns for the Johnson/Wyandotte County, Topeka and Wichita urban areas.

Topeka, KS – Roads and bridges that are deteriorated, congested or lack some desirable safety features cost Kansas motorists a total of $2.7 billion statewide annually – $1,453 per driver in the Topeka urban area – due to higher vehicle operating costs, traffic crashes and congestion-related delays. The ability of the Kansas Department of Transportation to repair and improve the state’s transportation system has been hampered by the transfer of $2.4 billion in state highway funds to state general funds between FY2011 and FY2017, according to a new report released today by TRIP, a Washington, DC based national transportation organization. Governor Sam Brownback’s FY 2018/FY 2019 budget proposal would increase transfers of state highway funds to state general funds and other state agencies to $3.4 billion from FY 2011 to FY 2019.

The TRIP report, Kansas Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the State’s Need for Safe, Smooth and Efficient Mobility,” finds that throughout Kansas, more than one-third of major, locally and state-maintained urban roads are in poor or mediocre condition and nine percent of Kansas’s locally and state-maintained bridges are structurally deficient. The state’s major urban roads are becoming increasingly congested, with drivers wasting significant amounts of time and fuel each year. Kansas’ rural roads have a traffic fatality rate four-and-a-half times higher than on all other roads.

Driving on Topeka area roads costs the average driver $1,453 per year in the form of extra vehicle operating costs (VOC) as a result of driving on roads in need of repair, lost time and fuel due to congestion-related delays, and the costs of traffic crashes in which the lack of adequate roadway safety features likely were a contributing factor. The TRIP report calculates the cost to motorists of insufficient roads in the Johnson/Wyandotte County, Topeka and Wichita urban areas. A breakdown of the costs per motorist in each area along with a statewide total is below.

  VOC Congestion Safety Total
Johnson/Wyandotte $510 $933 $153 $1,596
Topeka $819 $388 $246 $1,453
Wichita $508 $837 $252 $1,597
Kansas Statewide $1 Billion $1 Billion $730 Million $2.7 Billion

The TRIP report finds that 73 percent of major locally and state-maintained roads in the Topeka urban area are in poor or mediocre condition, costing the average motorist an additional $819 each year in extra vehicle operating costs, including accelerated vehicle depreciation, additional repair costs, and increased fuel consumption and tire wear. The report found that deferring maintenance on roads and highways can greatly increase long-term repair costs, with each dollar of deferred maintenance on roads and bridges being found to cost an additional $4 to $5 in needed future repairs.

“The economic vitality of our state depends on Kansas commerce, which in turn relies on safe and well-maintained roads and bridges,” said Rodney George, senior vice president of The Bennington State Bank. “Our customers, many of which are farmers who need to get their products to market, depend on good roads every day. The financial stress of an underfunded infrastructure program impacts many more businesses and people than just road and bridge construction companies. Kansas citizens deserve a well-funded and sustainable roads program.”

Traffic congestion in the Topeka area is worsening, causing 16 annual hours of delay for the average motorist and costing each driver $388 annually in lost time and wasted fuel.

Nine percent of Kansas’s bridges are structurally deficient, with significant deterioration to the bridge deck, supports or other major components. In the Topeka urban area, four percent of bridges are structurally deficient.

Traffic crashes in Kansas claimed the lives of 1,881 people between 2011 and 2015, an average of 376 fatalities per year. Kansas’s overall traffic fatality rate of 1.13 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel is the same as the national average. In the Topeka urban area, on average, 15 people were killed in traffic crashes annually over the last three years.

The efficiency and condition of Kansas’s transportation system, particularly its highways, is critical to the health of the state’s economy.  Annually, $395 billion in goods are shipped to and from sites in Kansas, mostly by truck. Eighty-two percent of the goods shipped annually to and from sites in Kansas are carried by trucks and another 12 percent are carried by courier services or multiple mode deliveries, which include trucking.

“The condition of Kansas’s transportation system will worsen in the future as additional monies are diverted away from the highway fund, leading to even higher costs for drivers,” said Will Wilkins, TRIP’s executive director. “In order to promote economic growth, foster quality of life and get drivers safety and efficiently to their destination, Kansas will need to make transportation funding a top priority.”