Minnesota's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Minnesota’s highway system ranks 7th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a five-spot improvement from Minnesota’s ranking of 12th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Minnesota’s highways rank 14th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 2nd in rural Interstate pavement condition, 2nd in urban arterial pavement condition, 17th in rural arterial pavement condition, 12th in structurally deficient bridges, 1st in urban fatality rate, and 2nd in rural fatality rate.
Minnesota ranks 29th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 22 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Minnesota ranks 29th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Minnesota ranks 36th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Minnesota’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 36th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were rural Interstate pavement condition (17th to 2nd) and urban Interstate pavement condition (27th to 14th).
Minnesota worsened the most in administrative disbursements (33rd to 36th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Minnesota’s overall highway performance is better than Wisconsin’s (26th), South Dakota’s (27th), and Iowa’s (31st), but worse than North Dakota’s (3rd).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Minnesota ranks ahead of Colorado (43rd) but behind South Carolina (2nd).
Minnesota’s highway system ranks 7th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 12th in last year’s report, and was 22nd in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Minnesota should focus on reducing maintenance, administrative, and other disbursements. The state ranks in the bottom 15 of all states in each of these categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Minnesota could also improve its capital and bridge disbursements and urbanized area congestion.”
Reason Foundation’s 28th Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, and spending. In the performance categories, ranking first implies the state has the best or lowest fatality rate and its road pavement is in the best condition. A ranking of 50th in performance categories means the state has the worst fatality rates or pavement conditions. In simplified terms, in the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 50 means the state spends more money, and a first-place ranking means the state spends less money than other states in that category.
The report’s data are primarily information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration for 2022. Better Roads and Bridges provides the deficient bridge data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute provides the traffic congestion data.
Please see the complete 28th Annual Highway Report for detailed methodology and a comprehensive list of data sources.