Montana's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Montana’s highway system ranks 16th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a nine-spot improvement from Montana’s ranking of 25th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Montana’s highways rank 2nd in urban Interstate pavement condition, 13th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 27th in urban arterial pavement condition, 24th in rural arterial pavement condition, 32nd in structurally deficient bridges, 44th in urban fatality rate, and 41st in rural fatality rate.
Montana ranks 18th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 14 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Montana ranks 16th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones.
Montana ranks 38th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Montana’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 19th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were capital- bridge disbursements (from 32nd to 16th) and other fatality rate (from 45th to 24th).
Montana worsened the most in urban fatality rate (from 14th to 44th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Montana’s overall highway performance is better than South Dakota’s (25th) and Washington’s (47th) but worse than North Dakota’s (3rd), Wyoming’s (12th), and Idaho’s (15th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Montana ranks ahead of Maine (21st) and West Virginia (33rd).
Montana’s highway system ranks 16th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 25th in last year’s report, and was 8th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Montana should focus on reducing maintenance disbursements and structurally deficient bridges. The state ranks in the bottom 20 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 number of traffic fatalities on urban and rural roads should also be a priority for Montana, as the state ranks in the bottom 10 in both categories.”
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.