Reason Foundation - Policy Areas >

High Gas Prices, Bad Economy Cause Highway Deaths To Drop To 1960s Levels

shirley.ybarra@reason.org (Shirley Ybarra) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:58:00 EDT

The AP reports that the drop in vehicle miles travelled (caused by high gas prices) helped reduce highway deaths last year:

U.S. highway deaths in 2008 fell to their lowest level in nearly 50 years, the latest government figures show, as the recession and $4 per gallon gas meant people drove less to save more.

Safety experts said record-high seat-belt use, tighter enforcement of drunken driving laws and the work of advocacy groups that encourage safer driving habits contributed to the reduction in deaths.

Preliminary figures released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That's 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths.

A different measure, also offering good news, was the fatality rate, the number of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. It was 1.28 in 2008, the lowest on record. A year earlier it was 1.36.

Traffic Fatalities are one of the 12 categories in Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report, which ranks each state's highway system on congestion, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

Annual Study Ranks States on Highway Performance, Overall Cost-Effectiveness

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Los Angeles (July 31, 2008) - In a sign that more and more areas are being impacted by traffic jams and infrastructure problems, 35 states are now reporting that at least 40 percent of their urban interstate highways are congested, up from 31 states the previous year, according to an annual study of the nation’s highways. With urban congestion even hitting South Dakota, the list of states without any clogged interstates is down to just three: Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.

Drivers in California, Minnesota, and North Carolina are stuck in the nation's worst traffic - over 70 percent of urban interstate highways in those states qualified as congested. California earned the dubious honor of 'most congested' state - 83 percent of its interstates are congested, according to the 17th annual highway study by the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank Eighteen states now report that at least half of their urban interstate highways are congested.

Overall, 50.7 percent of the nation's urban interstate highways were congested in 2006, a slight 1 percent improvement from 2005, when 51.8 percent were jammed. The statistical improvement is due, at least partly, to many states increasing the declared capacities of their highways. Reason Foundation's state-by-state rankings of urban traffic congestion can be found here: http://reason.org/ps369table13.pdf.

Deficient bridges were thrust into the spotlight in August 2007 because of the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse. Minnesota actually ranks 5th best in the nation, with 13 percent of its bridges deficient. Of the nearly 600,000 highway bridges in the country, 24.1 percent were reported deficient and/or functionally obsolete in 2006, a minor improvement from 2005 when 25.5 were deemed deficient. At the current rate of repair it will take 62 years for today's deficient bridges to be brought up to date.

In Rhode Island a stunning 53 percent of state's bridges are deficient or obsolete. New Yorkers (38 percent deficient and obsolete) and Pennsylvanians (39 percent) won't feel much better about the condition of their bridges. Nevada has the lowest percentage of deficient bridges in the country, 3.9 percent. State-by-state rankings of deficient bridges can be found here: http://reason.org/ps369table14.pdf.

"Despite the welcome progress we’ve seen this year, there are continuing problems on our roadways that underscore the nation’s infrastructure crisis and should concern our leaders," said David Hartgen, emeritus professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of the Reason Foundation study. "Fifty percent of our interstates are clogged and a quarter of the nation’s bridges need repair. We can and should be doing more to fix our bridges and improve highway conditions. Big increases in highway construction costs mean states are now getting less impact for each dollar they spend on repairs and improvements. Going forward, cost-effectiveness, prioritizing the most important projects, and limiting bureaucratic costs – money that doesn’t actually improve roads or bridges - becomes more important than ever."

North Dakota's state-owned highway system is the nation's most cost-effective, an honor the state has held since 2001. North Dakota finished first, or tied for first, in five of the report's 12 categories, including rural interstate condition. Montana jumped from 5th to 2nd in the overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings. New Mexico continues to show marked improvement. The state ranked 27th in 2000, and was up to 3rd overall in 2006. Wyoming moves up from 7th in 2005 to 4th overall. Kansas rounds out the top five.

New Jersey, which has ranked last every year since 2000, continues to be the nation's least cost-effective and worst-performing road system. Despite having the nation's 4th smallest state-owned highway system, New Jersey finished dead last in five of the study's 12 categories. Several of the least populous states performed very poorly, and make up the rest of the bottom five: Alaska (49th), Rhode Island (48th), Hawaii (47th), and New Hampshire (46th).

Texas, home to the nation's largest state-controlled highway system, ranked 12th overall in performance and cost-effectiveness. South Carolina, owner of the country's 5th largest system, ranks 6th overall. Georgia, Ohio, Missouri and Virginia are some of the other top-performing large states.

Alabama showed the largest single-year improvement, going from 43rd to 29th.

In the coming years it will be interesting to watch California's progress. California ranked 48th in 2004 and was 44th in this edition of the Reason Foundation study. As the state spends billions of dollars in bond money on transportation projects, will it prioritize projects that reduce urban congestion (where the state ranked last) and improve its urban interstate pavement condition (ranked 49th out of 50)? The reports finds, "California's total disbursements increased about 33 percent from 2005 to 2006, yet its system performance remained essentially unchanged."

For the third consecutive year, Massachusetts had the safest highways (0.785 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled), while Montana's were the deadliest for the second straight year (2.364 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled). State-by-state information on highway fatalities can be found here: http://reason.org/ps369table15.pdf.

The Reason Foundation's 17th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems measures the performance of all state-owned roads and highways from 1984 to 2006. The study calculates the effectiveness and performance of each state in 12 different categories, including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance costs, and administrative costs.

Ranking State Road Systems by Overall Performance

1. North Dakota	26. Arizona
2. Montana	27. Arkansas
3. New Mexico	28. Delaware
4. Wyoming	29. Alabama
5. Kansas	30. Vermont
6. South Carolina	31. Colorado
7. South Dakota	32. Iowa
8. Nebraska	33. Oklahoma
9. Kentucky	34. Illinois
10. Georgia	35. Connecticut
11. Oregon	36. Pennsylvania
12. Texas	37. Maryland
13. Missouri	38. Mississippi
14. Idaho	39. Washington
15. Indiana	40. Louisiana
16. Virginia	41. Florida
17. Ohio	42. Michigan
18. Minnesota	43. Massachusetts
19. Tennessee	44. California
20. Nevada	45. New York
21. Wisconsin	46. New Hampshire
22. Maine	47. Hawaii
23. North Carolina	48. Rhode Island
24. West Virginia	49. Alaska
25. Utah	50. New Jersey

You can see how each state's ranking compares to last year's here: http://reason.org/ps369table02.pdf. A Google map featuring each state's data is here: http://reason.org/ps369/performance_traffic.shtml.

Full Study Online

The Reason Foundation's 17th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2006), is online at http://reason.org/ps369/.

About Reason

Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Reason produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed Reason magazine. For more information, please visit www.reason.org.

Media Contact

Chris Mitchell, Director of Communications, Reason Foundation, (310) 367-6109

17th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2006)

dthartge@uncc.edu (David T. Hartgen) info@reason.org (Ravi K. Karanam) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT

In a sign that more and more areas are being impacted by traffic jams and infrastructure problems, 35 states are now reporting that at least 40 percent of their urban interstate highways are congested, up from 31 states the previous year, according to an annual study of the nation’s highways. With urban congestion even hitting South Dakota, the list of states without any clogged interstates is down to just three: Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.

Report: Road Condition Improves But Traffic Congestion, Highway Fatalities Rise

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:59:00 EDT

Los Angeles (June 28, 2007) – Nearly 52 percent of U.S. urban Interstates are now congested and traffic fatality rates rose slightly, but road surface conditions and bridge conditions improved according to the Reason Foundation's latest annual highway performance report.

"Gridlock isn't going away," said David T. Hartgen, Ph.D., the study's lead author. "States are going to have to prioritize and direct their transportation money to projects specifically designed to reduce congestion if we are going to reverse this troubling trend."

Drivers in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina are stuck in the worst traffic, with over 70 percent of urban Interstates in those states qualifying as congested.

The Reason Foundation study measures the performance of state-owned roads and highways from 1984 to 2005 in 12 different categories, including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs, to determine each state's ranking and cost-effectiveness.

The report finds that fatality rates vary significantly from state to state. Massachusetts reported the lowest fatality rate - 0.79 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Meanwhile, Montana's roads were the deadliest, with 2.256 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles. The national average was 1.453 fatalities, up slightly from 1.440 in 2004.

The study does find some good news for drivers. The percentage of roads in "poor condition" fell sharply for both interstate highways and major rural roads. Since 1998, the percentage of poor urban interstate mileage has been reduced by 31 percent. The number of bridges deemed deficient, meaning they are eligible for federal repair dollars, also fell slightly in 2005.

In the overall rankings, North Dakota and South Carolina took the top spots for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, New Jersey's gridlocked highways, poor pavement conditions and high repair costs put the state last in overall cost-effectiveness for the eighth consecutive year.

Florida, California, Michigan and New York are among the states joining New Jersey in the bottom 10. When it comes to comparing the nation's most populous states, Georgia (6th overall), Texas (15th) and Ohio (16th) are the top performing large states.

"The big states that score well have been able to achieve needed improvements and adequate maintenance at relatively low costs." Hartgen explains.

Ranking State Road Systems by Overall Performance

1. North Dakota	26. West Virginia
2. South Carolina	27. Arizona
3. Kansas	28. Arkansas
4. New Mexico	29. Colorado
5. Montana	30. Louisiana
6. Georgia	31. North Carolina
7. Wyoming	32. Washington
8. Oregon	33. Illinois
9. Nevada	34. New Hampshire
10. Idaho	35. Iowa
11. South Dakota	36. Pennsylvania
12. Kentucky	37. Vermont
13. Minnesota	38. Maryland
14. Indiana	39. Connecticut
15. Texas	40. Delaware
16. Ohio	41. Florida
17. Missouri	42. Michigan
18. Virginia	43. Alabama
19. Nebraska	44. California
20. Tennessee	45. Massachusetts
21. Utah	46. Hawaii
22. Wisconsin	47. Rhode Island
23. Maine	48. New York
24. Oklahoma	49. Alaska
25. Mississippi	50. New Jersey

Full Study Online

The full 16th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems, with detailed information for each state, is available online at http://www.reason.org/ps360. Reason's 2006 study showing how congested each city in the country will be in 2030 and how many new lane miles are needed to eliminate congestion is online at http://www.reason.org/ps346.

Reason Foundation's extensive archive of transportation research and commentary is here: http://www.reason.org/transportation/index.shtml.

About Reason

Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Reason produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed monthly magazine, Reason. For more information, please visit www.reason.org.

Media Contact

Chris Mitchell, Director of Communications, Reason Foundation, (310) 367-6109

16th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2005)

dthartge@uncc.edu (David T. Hartgen) info@reason.org (Ravi K. Karanam) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:00:00 EDT

Nearly 52 percent of U.S. urban Interstates are now congested and traffic fatality rates rose slightly, but road surface conditions and bridge conditions improved according to the Reason Foundation’s latest annual highway performance report.

"Gridlock isn't going away," said David T. Hartgen, Ph.D., the study's lead author. 'States are going to have to prioritize and direct their transportation money to projects specifically designed to reduce congestion if we are going to reverse this troubling trend."

Drivers in California, Minnesota, New Jersey and North Carolina are stuck in the worst traffic, with over 70 percent of urban Interstates in those states qualifying as congested.

15th Annual Report Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2004)

dthartge@uncc.edu (David T. Hartgen) info@reason.org (Ravi K. Karanam) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EDT

...