Michigan's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Michigan’s highway system ranks 23rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a four-spot improvement from Michigan’s ranking of 27th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Michigan’s highways rank 41st in urban Interstate pavement condition, 38th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 33rd in urban arterial pavement condition, 16th in rural arterial pavement condition, 43rd in structurally deficient bridges, 24th in urban fatality rate, and 3rd in rural fatality rate.
Michigan ranks 26th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 17 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Michigan ranks 33rd in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Michigan ranks 22nd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Michigan’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 13th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other fatality rate (31st to 19th), urbanized area congestion (35th to 26th), and urban arterial pavement condition (42nd to 33rd).
Michigan worsened the most in capital-bridge disbursements (20th to 33rd).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Michigan’s overall highway performance is better than Wisconsin’s (26th) but worse than Ohio’s (10th) and Indiana’s (20th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Michigan ranks ahead of New Jersey (34th) but behind North Carolina (1st).
Michigan’s highway system ranks 23rd out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 27th in last year’s report, and was 30th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Michigan should focus on improving both rural and urban Interstate pavement conditions. The state ranks in the bottom 15 in both categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the state should also be a priority, as the state ranks in the bottom 10 in this crucial safety category as well.”
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.