You're probably also going to have far fewer massive vehicles on those rural roads. More things like pickups yes, but probably considerably fewer semi-teicks and busses and fire trucks and cement mixers what not. Those big trucks passing through are going to stick to interstates far more often when going through rural areas.
On average yea but when a rural road is neglected it's far far worse than any urban road. I'm looking at you Pennsylvania.
In my rural area there are tons of gravel pits so the roads take a lot of abuse. However every gravel pit ive seen here open up on a new road has been forced to spend the money on upgrading that road to handle those gravel trucks.
City buses are what really shred urban roads (and winter plows)
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/yes-bus-more-road-da...