Tennessee's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Tennessee’s highway system ranks 5th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a two-spot fall from Tennessee’s ranking of 3rd overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Tennessee’s highways rank 16th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 19th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 9th in urban arterial pavement condition, 18th in rural arterial pavement condition, 11th in structurally deficient bridges, 43rd in urban fatality rate, and 27th in rural fatality rate.
Tennessee ranks 27th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 20 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Tennessee ranks 11th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Tennessee ranks 13th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Tennessee’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 28th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urban fatality rate (47th to 43rd) and urbanized area congestion (29th to 27th).
Tennessee worsened the most in rural Interstate pavement condition (12th to 19th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Tennessee’s overall highway performance is better than Georgia’s (6th), Kentucky’s (11th), Alabama’s (17th), Mississippi’s (18th), and Arkansas’ (28th), but worse than North Carolina’s (1st).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Tennessee ranks better than both Arizona (29th) and Massachusetts (40th).
Tennessee’s highway system ranks 5th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 3rd in last year’s report, and was 7th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Tennessee should focus on reducing administrative disbursements and urbanized area congestion. The state ranks in the bottom half 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 urban and other fatality rates should also be a priority for the state, which ranks in the bottom 10 for 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.