Washington's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Washington’s highway system ranks 47th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a one-spot fall from Washington’s ranking of 46th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Washington’s highways rank 27th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 44th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 43rd in urban arterial pavement condition, 25th in rural arterial pavement condition, 17th in structurally deficient bridges, 27th in urban fatality rate, and 18th in rural fatality rate.
Washington ranks 31st out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 28 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Washington ranks 50th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Washington ranks 50th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Washington’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 47th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were rural arterial pavement condition (30th to 25th) and urbanized area congestion (35th to 31st).
Washington worsened the most in urban fatality rate (6th to 27th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Washington’s overall highway performance is better than California’s (49th) but worse than Idaho’s (15th), Montana’s (16th) and Oregon’s (35th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Washington ranks worse than both Virginia (4th) and Arizona (29th).
Washington’s highway system ranks 47th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 46th in last year’s report, and was 37th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Washington should focus on reducing capital-bridge disbursements, maintenance disbursements, and other disbursements. The state ranks 50th in all three categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The state performs better in the safety-focused categories but could still do to lower its other fatality rate, in which it ranks in the bottom 20.”
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.