Oklahoma's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Oklahoma’s highway system ranks 39th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a six-spot improvement from Oklahoma’s ranking of 45th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Oklahoma’s highways rank 38th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 36th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 31st in urban arterial pavement condition, 43rd in rural arterial pavement condition, 41st in structurally deficient bridges, 30th in urban fatality rate, and 22nd in rural fatality rate.
Oklahoma ranks 12th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 10 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Oklahoma ranks 37th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Oklahoma ranks 43rd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Oklahoma’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 37th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urbanized area congestion (41st to 12th) and rural fatality rate (33rd to 22nd).
Oklahoma worsened the most in urban arterial pavement condition (25th to 31st).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Oklahoma’s overall highway performance is better than Colorado’s (43rd), but worse than Missouri’s (9th), Kansas’ (22nd), Texas’ (25th), Arkansas’ (28th), and New Mexico’s (38th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Oklahoma ranks behind both Connecticut (13th) and Oregon (35th).
Oklahoma’s highway system ranks 39th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 45th in last year’s report, and was 41st in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Oklahoma should look to lower its disbursements. It ranks in the bottom 15 states in all disbursement metrics. The state also needs to improve its Interstate pavement condition and its rural pavement condition. The state ranks in the bottom 15 states in both categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The state also ought to look to lower its percent of structurally deficient bridges and its other fatality rate, as the state ranks in the bottom 10 states for both safety 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.