Photo by armandlione.

The District Department of Transportation has a message for the White House: D.C.’s roads aren’t that bad.

The city is taking issue with a recent White House claim that, of D.C.’s 1,501 miles of public roads, 95 percent are in poor condition. That number is being used as part of President Barack Obama’s Rebuild America plan, which calls for major infrastructure investments.

According to the White House site, that shocking number comes from the American Society of Civil Engineers’ annul infrastructure report card. In fact, the 2013 version for D.C. reports that “99 percent of the District of Columbia’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.” Under sources for road data, the ASCE lists a state report from the research group TRIP. On its site, TRIP’s most recent report for D.C. is from 2009 and lists “31 percent of the area’s major urban roads … in poor condition, and an additional 30 percent … in mediocre condition.” A call to see if there’s more recent data was not immediately returned.

Here’s how DDOT sees it: There are 4,346 lane miles in D.C., 2,292 of which are local as opposed to federal. Just counting local roads, 2 percent are in failed condition, 12 percent are very poor and 24 percent are poor, according to the Pavement Condition Index. The PCI used by DDOT doesn’t have a “mediocre” category, but 28 percent of locals roads are in fair condition. Added together, that means 66 percent of D.C.’s roads are in failed to fair condition.

To break it down even more, a failed road scores between 0 and 20 on the PCI, 21 to 35 for very poor, 33 to 55 for poor and 56 to 70 for fair. According to 2013 number, local roadways averaged at 61.1 PCI.

Does it always feel that way? No, and DDOT officials admitted as much at a recent Council committee hearing, where they promised to improve communication with D.C. residents.