West Virginia's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
West Virginia’s highway system ranks 33rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a six-spot improvement from West Virginia’s ranking of 39th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, West Virginia’s highways rank 31st in urban Interstate pavement condition, 35th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 13th in urban arterial pavement condition, 45th in rural arterial pavement condition, 50th in structurally deficient bridges, 13th in urban fatality rate, and 34th in rural fatality rate.
West Virginia ranks 10th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend nine hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, West Virginia ranks 5th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. West Virginia ranks 12th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. West Virginia’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 7th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urban Interstate pavement condition (45th to 31st) and rural Interstate pavement condition (44th to 35th).
West Virginia worsened the most in rural fatality rate (21st to 34th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, West Virginia’s overall highway performance is better than Pennsylvania’s (37th), but worse than Virginia’s (4th), Ohio’s (10th), Kentucky’s (11th), and Maryland’s (32nd).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, West Virginia ranks worse than both Idaho (15th) and New Hampshire (19th).
West Virginia’s highway system ranks 33rd out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 27th in last year’s report, and was 16th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, West Virginia should focus on improving rural Interstate pavement condition and rural arterial pavement condition. The state ranks in the bottom 20 states in both categories, its worst rankings,” 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 and lowering the state’s other fatality rate should also be a priority for West Virginia, as the state ranks 50th in both categories.”
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.