Texas's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Texas’ highway system ranks 25th in the nation in overall cost- effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a six-spot fall from Texas’ ranking of 19th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Texas’ highways rank 34th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 22nd in rural Interstate pavement condition, 38th in urban arterial pavement condition, 11th in rural arterial pavement condition, 2nd in structurally deficient bridges, 34th in urban fatality rate, and 37th in rural fatality rate.
Texas ranks 40th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 46 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Texas ranks 32nd in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Texas ranks 18th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Texas’ administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 38th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other disbursements (31st to 19th) and urbanized area congestion (47th to 40th).
Texas worsened the most in administrative disbursements (9th to 38th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Texas’ overall highway performance is better than Arkansas’ (28th), New Mexico’s (38th), Oklahoma’s (39th), and Louisiana’s (46th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Texas ranks better than California (49th), but worse than Florida (14th).
Texas’ highway system ranks 25th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 19th in last year’s report, and was 23rd in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Texas should focus on reducing administrative disbursements, urban arterial pavement quality, and urbanized area congestion. The state ranks in the bottom 15 in all categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Lowering Texas’ other fatality rate should also be a priority, as the state ranks 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.