Maryland's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Maryland’s highway system ranks 32nd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is an eight-spot fall from Maryland’s ranking of 24th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Maryland’s highways rank 44th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 25th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 45th in urban arterial pavement condition, 27th in rural arterial pavement condition, 14th in structurally deficient bridges, 28th in urban fatality rate, and 1st in rural fatality rate.
Maryland ranks 45th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 62 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Maryland ranks 19th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Maryland ranks 31st in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Maryland’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 22nd nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were capital- bridge disbursements (30th to 19th) and other fatality rate (22nd to 11th).
Maryland worsened the most in urbanized area congestion (34th to 45th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Maryland’s overall highway performance is better than West Virginia’s (33rd), Pennsylvania’s (37th), and Delaware’s (41st), but worse than Virginia’s (4th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Maryland ranks behind Missouri (9th) and Wisconsin (26th).
Maryland’s highway system ranks 32nd out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 24th in last year’s report, and was 39th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Maryland should focus on reducing other disbursements and urbanized area congestion, as well as improving its urban arterial pavement condition. The state ranks in the bottom five in all three categories, its worst rankings by far,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing Maryland’s urban fatality rate should also be a priority, as it ranks in the bottom half of states in that category.”
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.