Richard Shannon moved to South Carolina from Memphis 10 years ago to raise his family. Shannon says he feels right at home in the Palmetto State, but his only complaint is having to drive on bad roads.
“If you’re drinking coffee or something like that, you better make sure you have a top on it,” Shannon said, “because if you don’t, you’re going to have some hot cocoa or coffee all over you.”
Shannon, an Uber driver, spends nearly half of his day on the road since his driving is his primary source of income.
“I have two rims and tires right now that are shredded,” Shannon said. “The rims are no good no more.”
In the past month alone, Shannon says he spent $1,600 on repairs to his BMW. He says the repairs have become par for the course and are affecting his ability to feed his family.
“It’s been at least two weeks that it’s got erased,” Shannon recalled, “where I’ve made good money and I had to put tires and rims back on my car.”
TRIP, a national transportation research group, recently found Columbia drivers are paying$1,250 a year because of bad roads. The state Department of Transportation says they paid out $232,800 for damage claims in 2013 not including payments by the Insurance Reserve Fund. Shannon says he hasn’t filed a damage claim form against DOT, but many others have.
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South Carolina Association of Taxpayers 