Wyoming's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Wyoming’s highway system ranks 12th 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 Wyoming’s ranking of 16th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Wyoming’s highways rank 42nd in urban Interstate pavement condition, 21st in rural Interstate pavement condition, 18th in urban arterial pavement condition, 6th in rural arterial pavement condition, 29th in structurally deficient bridges, 14th in urban fatality rate, and 36th in rural fatality rate.
Wyoming ranks 8th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend eight hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Wyoming ranks 23rd in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Wyoming ranks 27th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Wyoming’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 9th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were urban fatality rate (from 44th to 14th) and administrative disbursements (from 24th to 9th).
Wyoming worsened the most in other fatality rates (11th to 22nd).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Wyoming’s overall highway performance is better than Idaho’s (15th), Montana’s (16th), South Dakota’s (27th), Nebraska’s (30th), and Colorado’s (43rd), but worse than Utah’s (8th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Wyoming ranks ahead of Vermont (44th) and Alaska (50th).
Wyoming’s highway system ranks 12th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 16th in last year’s report, and was 11th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Wyoming should focus on improving urban Interstate pavement condition. The state ranks in the bottom 10 in this category, its worst ranking,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the rural fatality rate should also be a priority for Wyoming, which ranks in the bottom 15.”
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.