Kansas’ highway system ranks 22nd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is consistent with Kansas’ ranking of 22nd overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Kansas’ highways rank 21st in urban Interstate pavement condition, 15th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 21st in urban arterial pavement condition, 13th in rural arterial pavement condition, 22nd in structurally deficient bridges, 19th in urban fatality rate, and 11th in rural fatality rate.
Kansas ranks 5th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about seven hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Kansas ranks 38th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Kansas ranks 23rd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Indiana’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 34th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urbanized area congestion (37th to 5th) and rural fatality rate (30th to 11th).
Kansas worsened the most in capital-bridge disbursements (13th to 38th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Kansas’ overall highway performance is better than Nebraska’s (30th), Oklahoma’s (39th), and Colorado’s (43rd), but worse than Missouri’s (9th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Kansas ranks behind Mississippi (18th) but ahead of Arkansas (28th).
Kansas highway system ranks 22nd out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 22nd in last year’s report, and was 6th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Kansas should focus on reducing other disbursements. This is the only category in which the state ranks in the bottom five,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “When looking at safety-focused categories, the state needs to work to lower its other fatality rate. That was Kansas’ only safety ranking in the bottom 20.”
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.