According to LvI5, Michigan Has the Worst Roads in America

Legally Reviewed and Edited by: Terry Cochran

If you live in Michigan and frequently drive around the state in a car, you might have developed your own views about the quality of the roads. You may have dismissed these thoughts, thinking that every person feels the roads in their home state leave a lot to be desired. You may have even been involved in an accident due to the poor road conditions and had to hire an auto accident lawyer.

However, you may receive some vindication when you learn that according to Lvl5, a company that creates HD driving maps for use in self-driving cars, recently determined through its data collection and analysis that Michigan has the worst roads in America.

Lvl5 Analysis

After performing detailed analysis on over five million roads in the United States, Lvl5 found that the state of Florida has the best roads in the country while Michigan’s roads bring up the rear in last place.

For self-driving cars to be a viable option for the future of the United States, the infrastructure of the country must be able to support this kind of new technology. However, American infrastructure is deteriorating rapidly. The federal government spends over $400 billion on infrastructure every year, but some politicians and self-driving car advocates are saying that it will take much more than this current number to put America’s infrastructure back to a level viable for self-driving cars.

Lvl5’s mission

One of the many reasons that cities don’t feel they are currently capable of tackling local infrastructure problems is a profound lack of data to tell them what projects should be tackled next. Most of the data they have is out of date, and infrastructure ages every day.

Lvl5’s mission is to help cities use up-to-the-minute data to identify problems on the road and alert cities to them so they can fix the problems before they become bigger, more serious, more difficult to fix, and more out of control.

How does Lvl5 collect its data?

Lvl5 collects its data by using an iPhone app called Payver, which is a dashboard camera app. This app will pay drivers a maximum of 5 cents per mile that they drive with the dash cam on. This can be beneficial to people who drive for rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft, because they can simply keep the dash cam on while they are working. Through the dash cam, companies such as Lvl5 can collect data about the roads the users are driving on and their conditions. This data can be used to create HD maps which take road quality into account and show the city where any pertinent problem areas might be.

How state data was analyzed

The data collected for this study was analyzed using the following methodology. The company would pull random frames from its Payver video collection (over five million miles of roads) and run them through a four-part neural network to determine road quality.

These four parts that the roads were judged on the following: level of road paint fading, presence, and severity of potholes, presence, and severity of pavement cracking, and amount of surface flatness or incline on a given stretch of road.

During the analysis process, the data was also filtered and adjusted for areas where not a great deal of data was available.

Finding an auto accident lawyer

It can be a little jarring to learn that you live in the state with the worst roads in America. If you feel strongly about this issue, it might be worth contacting your local and state representatives to let them know that more funds should be devoted to infrastructure upkeep and renewal.

However, given the increased likelihood of car accidents and problems that can occur in a state with this level of infrastructure issues, it might be worth proactively looking into a good auto accident attorney with years of skill and experience behind them. Whether you’re looking to get to know an auto accident attorney firm for the future or you’re already looking to file a claim, book a free consultation with Cochran, Kroll, & Associates P.C. today by calling 866-MICH-LAW.

Disclaimer : The information provided is general and not for legal advice. The blogs are not intended to provide legal counsel and no attorney-client relationship is created nor intended.