We used to run into this all the time in Winnipeg - the city’s response back was usually along the lines of “You were driving too fast for the road conditions.”
Definitely a huge part of the problem.
I’ve also heard that part of Michigan’s problem is that the weight limit for trucks is too high. Heavier trucks, more wear and tear on roads.
I keep wondering if things will come to a head in Portland at some point. There are over 600 miles of unpaved streets in the city. Some of them look exactly like the roads in Bamako, Mali which had washouts that were the size of my Toyota Corolla (truthfully). The city has repeated time and again that for one reason or another, they will not pave them. One of the goofiest reasons for some of them is that when the city annexed a part of the city, the streets were not properly put in prior to the acquisition, and therefore the property owners and not the city of Portland are responsible for fixing them.
If one is going to elect corrupt politicians, it would make better sense to elect efficient corrupt politicians. Those whose ‘friends’ have superior road-building skills.
Here’s a bit of trivia re. the Interstate:
The Federal Govt (manna from heaven) paid for 90% of the construction.
The States saw that and signed up (a bunch of low-income housing got paved over) for pavement everywhere.
The feds pay for only 50% of maintenance.
The Interstates have a bunch of specifications - you may have noticed that they are NOT made of asphalt (“bitum”) - and those specs are expensive.
I-80 from Sacramento to Davis was a nightmare (and the rest of the way to SF was not much better) - they are now replacing the section immediately west of Sacto - this is heavy-duty concrete construction.
IIRC, the difference between asphalt and concrete was a factor of at least 10x.
When PA is willing to pay for real roads (which are NEVER bitum), you will get real roads.