Elizabeth Lesly Stevens/The Bay Citizen

A deep pothole on Sansome Street in San Francisco, June 22, 2011

If you're looking for a smooth ride, head to Brentwood, Belvedere, Dublin or Los Altos.

Those cities, along with Foster City, Santa Clara and San Pablo, ranked highest on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's annual survey of road quality, released Wednesday.

The MTC ranks cities according to its Pavement Condition Index, which ranges from 0 to 100. Brentwood scored an 86, the highest of any city in the Bay Area.

The cities that ranked the lowest include Orinda, St. Helena, Larkspur, the unincorporated areas of Sonoma County and Rio Vista. They all had scores below 50. The MTC described the road quality in those areas as poor.

Many of the roads in those cities are so run down that they may need to be rebuilt, the MTC determined. The poor pavement quality slows traffic, the MTC found.

According to the MTC, the road quality in three of the Bay Area's biggest cities was only fair. San Francisco, San Jose and Fremont each scored a 64.

Oakland scored a 56. The MTC described the city's road quality as "at risk," meaning that pavements are deteriorating and require immediate attention.

In its "Pothole Report," the MTC made the case that improving road quality can "promote fuel economy" and "can play a small but important role in meeting state targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The MTC emphasized early maintenance as the best and most cost-effective way for cities and counties to maintain good road quality.

According to the report, "a municipality that spends $1 on timely maintenance to keep a section of roadway in good condition would have to spend $5 to restore the same road if the pavement is allowed to deteriorate to the point where major rehabilitation is necessary."

In San Francisco, which has about 900 miles of city-maintained roads, Mayor Ed Lee is proposing a $248 million bond offering to pay for road repairs. As the roads deteriorate to "poor" condition, it becomes exponentially more expensive to rebuild them. In a report supporting the bond offering, which would need to be approved by voters in November, the city says that "the condition of our streets is at a critical juncture." 

The city has been spending about $26 million a year on road repair, and says that if it cannot find more funds, that the road-quality index for the city will fall to 55 in a decade. 

The Department of Public Works says that the worst street in the city, road-condition wise, is Roanoke Street at Arlington Street, on the southern edge of the city. It has a quality-index score of just 5. 

Other particularly bad streets in the city include Sansome Street between Lombard and Chestnut streets, with a score of 17, and Alameda Street between Utah Street and Potrero Avenue, with a score of 16.

Damage due to potholes cost Bay Area motorists an average of $706 in annual repairs, a San Francisco city road-condition report found earlier this year.