Vermont's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Vermont’s highway system ranks 44th 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 Vermont’s ranking of 38th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Vermont’s highways rank 5th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 31st in rural Interstate pavement condition, 24th in urban arterial pavement condition, 48th in rural arterial pavement condition, 7th in structurally deficient bridges, 7th in urban fatality rate, and 8th in rural fatality rate.
Vermont ranks 9th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend nine hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Vermont ranks 35th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Vermont ranks 48th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Vermont’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 50th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urbanized area congestion (19th to 9th) and urban fatality rate (12th to 7th).
Vermont worsened the most in rural Interstate pavement condition (21st to 31st).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Vermont’s overall highway performance is better than New York’s (45th), but worse than New Hampshire’s (19th) and Massachusetts’ (40th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Vermont ranks better than Alaska (50th), but worse than Wyoming (12th).
Vermont’s highway system ranks 44th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 38th in last year’s report, and was 19th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Vermont should focus on reducing maintenance, administrative, and other disbursements. The state ranks in the bottom three in each of those categories. The state also ranks in the bottom three in rural arterial pavement condition. The state has a lot of work to do in the spending and pavement quality categories,” 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.