Illinois's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Illinois’ highway system ranks 36th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a seven-spot worsening from Illinois’ ranking of 29th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Illinois’ highways rank 37th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 29th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 34th in urban arterial pavement condition, 42nd in rural arterial pavement condition, 38th in structurally deficient bridges, 21st in urban fatality rate, and 16th in rural fatality rate.
Illinois ranks 46th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 65 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Illinois ranks 45th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Illinois ranks 24th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Illinois’ administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 30th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urban fatality rate (from 26th to 21st) and maintenance disbursements (27th to 24th).
Illinois worsened the most in administrative disbursements (11th to 30th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Illinois’ overall highway performance is worse than Missouri’s (9th), Kentucky’s (11th), Mississippi’s (18th), Indiana’s (20th), Wisconsin’s (26th), Arkansas’ (28th), and Iowa’s (31st).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Illinois ranks behind Ohio (10th) but ahead of Pennsylvania (37th).
Illinois’ highway system ranks 36th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 29th in last year’s report, and was 28th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Illinois should focus on reducing capital-bridge disbursements, rural arterial pavement condition, and urbanized congestion. These are the only categories in which the state ranks in the bottom 10,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Additionally, Illinois should prioritize reducing the percent of structurally deficient bridges in the state. The state’s worst performing safety category is bridges.”
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.