The Reason Foundation’s 24th Annual Highway Report found that highway conditions are deteriorating nationwide despite incremental improvements, with some states struggling more than others.
The report looked at data that states submitted to the federal government, ranking each state’s highway system in 13 categories such as traffic fatalities, pavement condition, congestion, spending per mile, administrative costs. The research incorporated state-submitted highway data from 2016, the most recent year with complete figures currently available, along with traffic congestion and bridge data from 2017.
According to the report, many states are struggling to repair deficient bridges, maintain Interstate pavement and reduce urban traffic congestion.
New Jersey, which has the worst urban traffic congestion and among the worst urban Interstate pavement conditions in the country, ranked the lowest in the nation in overall performance and cost-effectiveness, followed by Alaska, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York.
Meanwhile, North Dakota, Virginia, Missouri, Maine and Kentucky ranked at the top. North Dakota’s rural and urban Interstate pavement conditions both ranked in the top 10, and Virginia improved significantly from the previous report, in terms of performance and cost-effectiveness.
“In looking at the nation’s highway system as a whole, there was a decades-long trend of incremental improvement in most key categories, but the overall condition of the highway system has worsened in recent years,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and assistant director of transportation at Reason Foundation.
He added, “This year we see some improvement on structurally deficient bridges, but pavement conditions on rural and urban highways are declining, the rise in traffic fatalities is worrying, and we aren’t making needed progress on traffic congestion in our major cities.”
According to the research, states don’t necessarily need to commit major capital to see improvements in their highway systems, but evidence does show that a small increase in spending could make a big difference.
To read the full report, click here.
