Idaho's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Idaho’s highway system ranks 15th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a 19-spot improvement from Idaho’s ranking of 34th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Idaho’s highways rank 7th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 23rd in rural Interstate pavement condition, 12th in urban arterial pavement condition, 12th in rural arterial pavement condition, 20th in structurally deficient bridges, 5th in urban fatality rate, and 23rd in rural fatality rate.
Idaho ranks 7th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend seven hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Idaho ranks 49th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Idaho ranks 33rd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Idaho’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 17th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were rural arterial pavement condition (46th to 12th) and urban arterial pavement condition (34th to 12th).
Idaho worsened the most in the other disbursements (from 32nd to 40th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Idaho’s overall highway performance is better than Montana’s (18th), Nevada’s (24th), Oregon’s (35th), and Washington’s (47th) but worse than Utah’s (8th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Idaho ranks higher than Nebraska (30th) and West Virginia (33rd).
Idaho’s highway system ranks 15th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 34th in last year’s report, and was 13th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Idaho should focus on reducing capital-bridge disbursements and other disbursements. These two categories are Idaho’s worst rankings overall,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Additionally, Idaho should look for ways to lower its rural fatality rate, in which it ranks 23rd, the state’s lowest safety-focused ranking.”
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.