Report: Louisiana drivers lose $9.9 billion yearly from poor roads, traffic
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A new report from TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, reveals that Louisiana drivers lose $9.9 billion each year due to deteriorating roads, aging bridges, traffic congestion and safety hazards.
According to TRIP, it costs Baton Rouge drivers an average of $3,530 each year. This number includes vehicle wear and tear costs, fuel wasted in traffic costs and crash expenses linked to road design or condition.
The report titled 'Keeping Louisiana Mobile: Providing a Modern, Sustainable Transportation System in the Pelican State' highlights a transportation network in urgent need of repair:
More than half of Louisiana's major roads are in bad shape.
In Baton Rouge, 60% of roads are rated poor or mediocre.
Almost one in five bridges in Baton Rouge is in poor condition.
Baton Rouge drivers spend 64 hours a year stuck in traffic, wasting time and fuel.
Ninety-four people die each year in local crashes, and bad road conditions may be a factor in some of them.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry reveals insurance reform plan
Statewide, traffic crashes killed over 4,200 people from 2019 to 2023. Louisiana also has one of the highest traffic death rates in the country, according to the report.
Construction costs make it hard for the state to fix these problems, the report said. Louisiana will get $4.8 billion from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) over five years. But TRIP said this investment is still not enough.
'Leaders across Louisiana should be concerned about the poor condition of infrastructure across our state and how it weakens our economic development and quality of life,' Adam Knapp, CEO of Leaders for a Better Louisiana, said. 'We encourage elected officials to place a high sense of urgency on investing in the state's roads, bridges, and multimodal infrastructure.'
The state's transportation system is vital to Louisiana's economy. In 2023 alone, 1.4 billion tons of freight worth $591 billion moved across the state. That number is expected to increase by 75% in weight and 107% in value by 2050, according to TRIP.
5 takeaways from the Trump tariff drama
Will Trump attend the Indy 500? 'Maybe this year'
NASCAR drivers visit White House
The Masters ends the 9-month wait for golf's most anticipated major
Sam's Club plans to open 15 new locations a year, CEO says
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
23 minutes ago
- CNBC
Trump to keep Starlink at White House despite break with Elon Musk
President Donald Trump said on Monday he has no plans to discontinue Starlink at the White House but might move his Tesla off-site, following his announcement over the weekend that his relationship with Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of both companies, was over. "I may move the Tesla around a little bit, but I don't think we'll be doing that with Starlink. It's a good service," Trump told reporters, referring to the satellite internet company that provides high-speed broadband access. It is a unit of Musk's SpaceX. In March, Trump said he had purchased a red Tesla Model S from Musk, Trump's then-close ally. Last week, a White House official said Trump might get rid of it after a public feud erupted between the two men. The Tesla was seen parked at the White House over the weekend. On Saturday, Trump said he had no intention of repairing ties with Musk. On Monday, the president said he would not have a problem if Musk called. "We had a good relationship, and I just wish him well," Trump said. Musk responded with a heart emoji to a video on X showing Trump's remarks. Last week, Trump and Musk exchanged a flurry of insults after the world's richest man denounced Trump's tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination." Musk's opposition has complicated Republican efforts to pass Trump's "big, beautiful bill" in Congress, where the party holds slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Since the dispute began last Thursday, Musk has deleted some social media posts critical of Trump, including one signaling support for impeaching the president. Sources close to Musk said his anger has started to subside, and they believe he may want to repair his relationship with Trump.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
America's $75 Billion Nuclear Bet: Westinghouse vs. the Future of Energy
Westinghouse is going all-in on America's nuclear revival. Backed by Brookfield and Cameco, the Pennsylvania-based firm is in active talks with US officials, tech firms, and utilities to build 10 large nuclear reactors under President Trump's new energy directive. The order sets a 2030 deadline to begin construction and aims to quadruple US nuclear output by 2050. That kind of ambition could translate into a $75 billion opportunity, based on Department of Energy cost estimates. Interim CEO Dan Sumner says Westinghouse has the edgeits AP1000 design is approved, the supply chain is intact, and it's already delivered units in the US and China. We believe we can do them all, Sumner told the FT, pointing to hyperscaler interest and government loan programs as signs of momentum. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with AMZN. But it's not a done deal yet. Nuclear still faces stiff economic headwinds in the US. While Washington may be on board, local utilities and regulators still have the final sayand memories of the Vogtle project's ballooning costs still linger. Analysts warn that the current US power market structure doesn't guarantee cost recovery for mega-projects, making investor appetite uncertain. Even so, Sumner argues that lessons from past delays have been baked into the new build model: We're the only ones who've done modular nuclear at scale. And now, the learning's embedded. Meanwhile, SMR developers aren't staying quiet. NuScale is pitching a 12-pack of its 77MW modules to rival traditional plants in capacity, while Holtec's 320MW units could be grouped to matchand beatWestinghouse on cost and complexity. We fully intend to compete with the big plants, Holtec's president said. The big question now: Will deep-pocketed buyersthink Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)step up to fund these nuclear ambitions, or wait for the small guys to scale first? Either way, the race is on. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Posthaste: Why the Canadian dollar is going up when the economy is going down
A funny thing has been happening to the Canadian dollar lately. Despite evidence that the economy is weakening, the currency has been going up, not down, rising 3 per cent against the U.S. dollar since President Donald Trump's Liberation Day. That's not usually how it works, but some strategists think this is more than just a temporary overshoot. Desjardins Group expects the divergence will continue to widen in coming months, with the loonie rising to 74 cents U.S. by the end of this year and to almost 77 cents U.S. by the end of the next. It was trading up at 73.08 this morning. The forecast is based on the U.S. dollar losing strength rather than the Canadian dollar gaining it, said Mirza Shaheryar Baig, a foreign exchange strategist with Desjardins. The loonie's performance against other major currencies has not been stellar. 'Net-net, a strong loonie is the result of a shift in global capital flows leading to a broadly weaker U.S. dollar,' he said. Since Liberation Day the U.S. dollar has become positively correlated with stocks. 'In other words, it has lost its safe haven appeal. This matters because many Canadian institutional investors who did not hedge the currency risk on their U.S. investments are now being forced to raise their hedge ratios,' said Shaheryar Baig. The outlook for the U.S. economy is also weakening. Coming out of the pandemic, it grew faster than other economies, but that has changed. Expectations for U.S. growth have dropped and are now in line with other advanced economies, he said. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned last week that Trump's tariff war will sap global growth in 2025 and it gave the United States the biggest downgrade among G7 nations. The OECD sees its growth slowing sharply from 2.8 per cent in 2024 to 1.6 per cent this year, and 1.5 per cent next. Trump's tactics to raise the income share of American workers is also unnerving investors, said Shaheryar Baig. Telling Walmart Inc. 'to eat the tariffs' and threatening Apple Inc. with duties on products made out of the country does not help boost the profits investors are looking for. 'To many investors, American capitalism now resembles Chinese 'common prosperity,'' he said. Desjardins admits its forecast has risks. America dodged a widely expected recession in 2023 and its economy could surprise again. Carry trade in the U.S. dollar, which has the highest deposit yields in the G7, could also revive, he said. The downside of a strong Canadian dollar against the greenback is that it makes exports more expensive, a drag on Canada's already fragile economy. Desjardins believes this will force the Bank of Canada to cut its interest rate another 75 basis points to 2 per cent this year. to get Posthaste delivered straight to your manufacturing sector has been slammed by tariffs, but now new data shows that services, which makes up a much bigger share of the economy, are suffering too. S&P Global's Services PMI for May shows this sector is not only in contraction, but is also the weakest of all 14 countries covered, said National Bank of Canada economists. Earlier last week S&P Global's manufacturing PMI put Canada as the lowest among 30 countries. 'That's dead last in manufacturing and dead last in services, leaving Canada as clear outlier in this sample of key peers,' said National. Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Toronto today to make an announcement related to 'defence and security priorities.' Today's Data: United States wholesale trade What is the bond market and why is everybody so worried about it? The robots are coming! 10 predictions on what AI means for your mortgage and home Canada's unemployment rate hits 7%, highest since 2016 outside the pandemic The bond market has been making headlines lately as Donald Trump's 'big beautiful' bill raises concern about the state of America's finances. But just what is the bond market, how does it work and why is it such a problem when investors get jittery about it? The Financial Post explains. Are you worried about having enough for retirement? Do you need to adjust your portfolio? Are you starting out or making a change and wondering how to build wealth? Are you trying to make ends meet? Drop us a line at wealth@ with your contact info and the gist of your problem and we'll find some experts to help you out while writing a Family Finance story about it (we'll keep your name out of it, of course). Want to learn more about mortgages? Mortgage strategist Robert McLister's Financial Post column can help navigate the complex sector, from the latest trends to financing opportunities you won't want to miss. Plus check his mortgage rate page for Canada's lowest national mortgage rates, updated daily. Visit the Financial Post's YouTube channel for interviews with Canada's leading experts in business, economics, housing, the energy sector and more. Today's Posthaste was written by Pamela Heaven with additional reporting from Financial Post staff, The Canadian Press and Bloomberg. Have a story idea, pitch, embargoed report, or a suggestion for this newsletter? Email us at posthaste@ These three provinces are most at risk as cracks appear in Canada's economy Homeowners up for renewal are in for a wake-up call Sign in to access your portfolio
