South Carolina's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
South Carolina’s highway system ranks 2nd 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 South Carolina’s ranking of 6th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, South Carolina’s highways rank 10th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 27th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 7th in urban arterial pavement condition, 22nd in rural arterial pavement condition, 18th in structurally deficient bridges, 41st in urban fatality rate, and 44th in rural fatality rate.
South Carolina ranks 23rd 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, South Carolina ranks 2nd in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. South Carolina ranks 4th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. South Carolina’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 6th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were rural fatality rate (50th to 44th) and structurally deficient bridges (23rd to 18th).
South Carolina worsened the most in urban fatality rate (30th to 41st).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, South Carolina’s overall highway performance is better than Tennessee’s (5th) and Georgia’s (6th), but worse than North Carolina’s (1st).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, South Carolina ranks ahead of both Alabama (17th) and Minnesota (7th).
South Carolina’s highway system ranks 2nd out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 6th in last year’s report, and was 20th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, South Carolina should focus on improving its rural Interstate and arterial pavement condition,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing fatalities should be a major focus for South Carolina, as all three fatality rate rankings are in the bottom 10.”
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.