Massachusetts ranks 46th in the nation in highway performance and cost-effectiveness in the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation.

Massachusetts ranks 1st in fatality rate, 45th in deficient bridges, 38th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 30th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 45th in urbanized area congestion.

On spending, Massachusetts ranks 48th in total disbursements per mile and 48th in administrative disbursements per mile.

Massachusetts’s best rankings are fatality rate (1st), rural arterial lane-width (29th), and urban Interstate pavement condition (30th).

Massachusetts’s worst rankings are total disbursements per mile (48th), capital-bridge disbursements per mile (48th), and administrative disbursements per mile (48th).

Massachusetts’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 46th largest system.

Massachusetts’s Complete Results Ranking
Overall Rank in 2013: 46
Overall Rank in 2012: 46
Overall Rank in 2011: 45
Performance by Category in 2013 Ranking
Total Disbursement per Mile 48
Capital-Bridge Disbursements per Mile 48
Maintenance Disbursements per Mile 45
Administrative Disbursements per Mile 48
Rural Interstate Percent Poor Condition 38
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Poor Condition 42
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Narrow Lanes 29
Urban Interstate Percent Poor Condition 30
Urbanized Area Congestion, Annual Delay Per Auto Commuter 45
Bridges Percent Deficient 45
Fatality Rate per 100 Million Vehicle-Miles of Travel 1

The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2013. For more details on the calculation of each of the 11 performance measures used in the report, as well as the overall performance measure, please refer to the appendix in the main report. The report’s dataset includes Interstate, federal and state roads but not county or local roads. All rankings are based on performance measures that are ratios rather than absolute values: the financial measures are disbursements per mile, the fatality rate is fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel, the urban congestion measure is the annual delay per auto commuter, and the others are percentages. For example, the state ranking 1st in deficient bridges has the smallest percentage of deficient bridges, not the smallest number of deficient bridges.

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