South Dakota ranks 2nd in the nation in highway performance and cost-effectiveness in the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation.

South Dakota ranks 46th in fatality rate, 33rd in deficient bridges, 10th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 8th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 5th in urbanized area congestion.

On spending, South Dakota ranks 6th in total disbursements per mile and 12th in administrative disbursements per mile.

South Dakota’s best rankings are maintenance disbursements per mile (3rd), urbanized area congestion (5th), and total disbursements per mile (6th).

South Dakota’s worst rankings are fatality rate (46th) and deficient bridges (33rd).

South Dakota’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 32nd largest system.

South Dakota’s Complete Results Ranking
Overall Rank in 2013: 2
Overall Rank in 2012: 3
Overall Rank in 2011: 1
Performance by Category in 2013 Ranking
Total Disbursement per Mile 6
Capital-Bridge Disbursements per Mile 12
Maintenance Disbursements per Mile 3
Administrative Disbursements per Mile 12
Rural Interstate Percent Poor Condition 10
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Poor Condition 10
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Narrow Lanes 8
Urban Interstate Percent Poor Condition 8
Urbanized Area Congestion, Annual Delay Per Auto Commuter 5
Bridges Percent Deficient 33
Fatality Rate per 100 Million Vehicle-Miles of Travel 46

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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