Idon't mean to come down too hard on PennDOT for this because, after all, its No. 1 priority must be to maintain the condition of the driving surfaces on the highways for which it is responsible.

But that's a problem, too, I guess, since Pennsylvania has been voted as having the worst roads in America for 12 of the 17 years Overdrive Magazine surveyed professional drivers for their thoughts on the matter.

"All-time worst offender" is how Overdrive Magazine describes the situation in the Keystone State.

Still, things apparently are looking up, since Pennsylvania did drop to No. 2 on the "worst roads" list in the last two surveys.

Let's hope that's a sign of better things to come.

Some improvement in the area of highway beautification wouldn't hurt any, either.

Though it might not be entirely reasonable (or fair) to twist PennDOT's arm to spend money on beautification, because of the state's current budget crisis and the nation's sluggish economy, I'm going to do it anyway.

Because, darn it, if other states can find a way to do it, I don't know why Pennsylvania can't do it, too.

It's gotten to the point where just about every time I'm driving on one of Pennsylvania's interstates (I-83, for example) or divided highways (such as U.S. 30 or U.S. 15) in York County, I'm astonished at just how poorly maintained and groomed they are.

And I'm not talking about the driving surfaces.

Truth is, they look like the devil. They're ugly as blazes along the berms, the banks beyond the berms and in the median strips between the divided driving surfaces. And while we're at it, the entrances and exits to those divided highways won't win any beauty contests, either.

Overgrown, poorly mowed, sumac, scrub bushes and junk trees (or dead trees) everywhere you look. And if the thick grass and weeds were recently mowed, it had been such a long time between mowings that the dead vegetation lies in nasty brown clumps as far as the eye can see.

It's a vision all right, but nothing you'd brag about to strangers or tourists, never mind homegrown folks.

And what's really sad about it is that just a few years ago, I wrote a column patting PennDOT on the back for the beautiful (compared to previous efforts) wildflowers growing along the exits and entrances to I-83.

Unfortunately, that only lasted a couple years, and now we're back to the ugliness of earlier and more recent times.

So, of course, my mind always seems to go back a few years to the last time I drove through or visited the state of North Carolina. It was absolutely beautiful.

There's a lot to see and do in North Carolina -- it's one of my favorite states -- but the first thing I'm reminded of when I think of my time there is the beautiful highway scenery -- a sea of red in the fall and an assortment of colors in the spring.

It goes on for miles and miles, from one end of the state to the other. Massive and continuous plantings of red poppy or Flanders poppy in October (planted in early July) or pink, red and white cosmos in April and May (seeded in October).

And if not poppies and cosmos, you're likely to find hundreds of varieties of plants native to North Carolina.

In all, according to Derek Smith, an environmental engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the flowers take up about 2,000 acres of median along the state's primary and interstate highways.

It costs about $1 million a year to make it happen, Smith said. And not one dime of it comes from taxes. The wildflower program is funded entirely by the personalized license plates purchased by state residents.

"It's amazing the number of positive comments we receive from residents of this state and people just passing through about the flowers," Smith said.

I'm not surprised at all, because that's the effect it's had on me.

Please don't try to convince me the different approaches taken by the two states must have something to do with work load or highway miles, either. I'm not buying it. True, Pennsylvania has to plow snow in the winter, and North Carolina rarely has to plow. But that's about it.

According to its own Web site, Pennsylvania has 22 interstate highways totaling 1,759 miles and another 23 U.S. routes for which it is responsible.

North Carolina has the second largest (Texas is first, but its primary highways are adorned with blue bonnets and Indian blanket flowers, as well) state-maintained highway system in the United States -- about 79,000 miles -- with 22 interstates, 34 U.S. routes and 217 state highways.

Clearly, beautiful highways are a priority in North Carolina. No excuses -- they find a way to make it happen.

In Pennsylvania, they recruit volunteers to pick up litter once a month or so, and they think that's enough.

It's not.

Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.