New York's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
New York’s highway system ranks 45th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a four-spot improvement from New York’s ranking of 49th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, New York’s highways rank 48th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 42nd in rural Interstate pavement condition, 47th in urban arterial pavement condition, 28th in rural arterial pavement condition, 40th in structurally deficient bridges, 18th in urban fatality rate, and 4th in rural fatality rate.
New York ranks 47th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 68 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, New York ranks 41st in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. New York ranks 42nd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. New York’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 40th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other disbursements (50th to 41st) and capital-bridge disbursements (47th to 41st).
New York worsened the most in administrative disbursements (36th to 40th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, New York’s overall highway performance is worse than Connecticut’s (13th), New Jersey’s (34th), Pennsylvania’s (37th), Massachusetts’ (40th), and Vermont’s (44th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, New York ranks behind both Florida (14th) and Pennsylvania (37th).
New York’s highway system ranks 45th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 49th in last year’s report, and was 45th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, New York should look at improving urban Interstate pavement condition, urban arterial pavement condition, and urbanized area congestion. New York ranks in the bottom four of all states for each of these categories. The state also ranks in the bottom 12 of all states in all four disbursements categories, so reducing spending needs to be a priority,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the state should be a priority for New York, as it ranks in the bottom 12 in this crucial safety category as well.”