Louisiana's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Louisiana’s highway system ranks 46th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is the same as last year’s ranking.
In safety and condition categories, Louisiana’s highways rank 44th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 49th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 47th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 42nd in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 44th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 21st in Rural Fatality Rate, and 33rd in Urban Fatality Rate. Louisiana ranks 29th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 24 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Louisiana ranks 14th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Louisiana ranks 25th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Louisiana’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 2nd nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Other Disbursements (45th to 33rd) and Other Fatality Rate (46th to 40th). Louisiana worsened the most in Rural Fatality Rate (13th to 21st).
When compared to its neighboring states, Louisiana’s overall highway performance is worse than Alabama’s (8th), Florida’s (14th), Arkansas’ (21st), Mississippi’s (24th), and Texas’ (27th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Louisiana ranks worse than Kentucky (15th) and Oregon (33rd). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Louisiana should focus on improving Interstate and Rural Pavement Conditions, as well as continuing to reduce the Other Fatality Rate” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While the state performs strongly in Administrative Disbursements (2nd) and Capital and Bridge Disbursements (14th), its poor pavement conditions continue to hinder overall performance.”
Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report evaluates the cost-effectiveness and performance of state-controlled highways across 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, congestion, and spending. In the performance categories, a rank of 1 indicates the best outcome—for example, the lowest fatality rate or the best pavement quality—while a rank of 50 represents the worst outcomes. In the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 1 means the state spends the least, while a rank of 50 indicates the highest relative spending. The report’s data are primarily based on information each state submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for 2023, supplemented by deficient bridge data from Better Roads and Bridges and congestion data from INRIX. For full methodology and data sources, see the complete 29th Annual Highway Report.