South Dakota's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
South Dakota’s highway system ranks 27th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a one-spot improvement from South Dakota’s ranking of 28th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, South Dakota’s highways rank 11th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 7th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 15th in urban arterial pavement condition, 23rd in rural arterial pavement condition, 48th in structurally deficient bridges, 15th in urban fatality rate, and 21st in rural fatality rate.
South Dakota ranks 11th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 10 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, South Dakota ranks 31st in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. South Dakota ranks 39th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. South Dakota’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 45th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other disbursements (29th to 12th) and urban fatality rate (31st to 15th).
South Dakota worsened the most in capital and bridge disbursements (18th to 31st).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, South Dakota’s overall highway performance is better than Nebraska’s (30th) and Iowa’s (31st) and, but worse than North Dakota’s (3rd), Minnesota’s (7th), Wyoming’s (12th), and Montana’s (16th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, South Dakota ranks better than Delaware (41st) but worse than North Dakota (3rd).
South Dakota’s highway system ranks 27th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 26th in last year’s report, and was 14th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, South Dakota should focus on reducing administrative and maintenance disbursements. Both categories rank in the bottom 15 for the state.” 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 should also be a priority for South Dakota, as the state ranks in the bottom five in bridges. The state should also strive to lower its other fatality rate, in which the state ranks 40th.”
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.