Nevada’s highway system ranks 24th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a three-spot fall from Nevada’s ranking of 21st overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Nevada’s highways rank 20th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 5th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 11th in urban arterial pavement condition, 1st in rural arterial pavement condition, 3rd in structurally deficient bridges, 25th in urban fatality rate, and 47th in rural fatality rate.
Nevada ranks 35th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 36 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Nevada ranks 36th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Nevada ranks 26th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Nevada’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 49th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were capital- bridge disbursements (44th to 36th) and urban fatality rate (32nd to 25th).
Nevada worsened the most in other fatality rate (from 7th to 37th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Nevada’s overall highway performance is better than Arizona’s (29th), Oregon’s (35th), and California’s (49th) but worse than Utah’s (8th) and Idaho’s (15th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Nevada ranks ahead of Iowa (31st) but behind Kansas (22nd).
Nevada’s highway system ranks 24th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 21st in last year’s report, and was 27th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Nevada should focus on reducing administrative disbursements. The state ranks second-to-last in this category,” 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 rural roads should also be a priority for Nevada, as the state ranks fourth worst in this 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.