What is worse than "mediocre"?

What is worse than mediocre? Is it bad, or is there a level between mediocre and being pure bad?

Is mediocre slightly better than bad, and bad better than pathetic?

I want to use this in my prose in a context as:

The condition of roads was worse than mediocre

What can be used here?

Solution 1:

Hicks, Valentine, Morrow, and McDonald wrote a paper in the field of game design, entitled "Choosing Natural Adjective Ladders", suggesting the following ladder of adjectives in order:

Abysmal, Awful, Bad, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Excellent, Amazing, Phenomenal.
- quoted under the Open Gaming License at the end of the linked paper.

These adjectives look like they would apply to roads as well.

@BESW reported an updated ladder in the comments to this answer. (Thanks!)

Listing the adjectives in the same order as above from worst to best, we see:

Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Average, Fair, Good, Great, Superb, Fantastic, Epic, Legendary.

The original list was copyrighted 2006; the new list, 2013-2015. The new list is used in a game and the researchers and research aren't referenced on the page. It would appear that mediocre has become more so, but poor is still considered to be worse than mediocre.

Solution 2:

subpar:

adjective

below an average level.

If you want to say something is objectively below average, this would be an adequate word. I would say it's less subjective than "bad."

"The roads were in subpar condition." (the roads were of below average condition but not necessarily bad in absolute terms)

substandard

adjective

below the usual or required standard.

"The roads were in substandard condition."

Solution 3:

You could consider using substandard which is broadly used to mean:

Below the usual or required standard: 'In the country's capital city, Santo Domingo, much of the housing is substandard and the quality of the water is poor.'

[Oxford Online Dictionary]

Actual usage:

In a damning report released late last week, it emerged that more than one third of roads in the Highlands are of substandard condition. Not only that but roads in the north are deteriorating faster than virtually every other part of Scotland.

[Roadtraffic.com]