Utah's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Utah’s highway system ranks 8th 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 Utah’s ranking of 10th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Utah’s highways rank 18th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 10th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 6th in urban arterial pavement condition, 10th in rural arterial pavement condition, 6th in structurally deficient bridges, 17th in urban fatality rate, and 10th in rural fatality rate.
Utah ranks 16th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 12 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Utah ranks 47th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Utah ranks 34th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Utah’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 27th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were other disbursements (47th to 32nd), and rural fatality rate (16th to 10th).
Utah worsened the most in administrative disbursements (18th to 27th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Utah’s overall highway performance is better than Wyoming’s (12th), Idaho’s (15th), Nevada’s (24th), Arizona’s (29th), and Colorado’s (43rd)
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Utah ranks better than both Connecticut (13th) and Iowa (31st).
Utah’s highway system ranks 8th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 10th in last year’s report, and was 9th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Utah should focus on reducing capital-bridge disbursements. The state ranks in the bottom five in this category, its worst ranking. Maintenance disbursements could also be somewhat lower,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation.
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.