Oregon’s highway system ranks 35th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a two-spot improvement from Oregon’s ranking of 37th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Oregon’s highways rank 19th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 17th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 23rd in urban arterial pavement condition, 26th in rural arterial pavement condition, 15th in structurally deficient bridges, 35th in urban fatality rate, and 46th in rural fatality rate.
Oregon ranks 41st out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 47 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Oregon ranks 34th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Oregon ranks 47th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Oregon’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 39th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other disbursements (49th to 37th) and capital and bridge disbursements (39th to 34th).
Oregon worsened the most in maintenance disbursements (35th to 47th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Oregon’s overall highway performance is better than Washington’s (47th) and California’s (49th), but worse than Idaho’s (15th) and Nevada’s (24th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Oregon ranks ahead of Oklahoma (39th), but behind Kentucky (11th).
Oregon’s highway system ranks 35th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 37th in last year’s report, and was 12th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Oregon needs to lower its disbursements. It ranks in the bottom 20 in all categories of disbursements, but it needs to focus most on lowering maintenance disbursements where it ranks 47th,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the rural fatality rate in Oregon ought to be a priority, as the state ranks in the bottom five in rural fatalities.”
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.