Maine's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Maine’s highway system ranks 16th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a five-spot improvement from last year’s ranking of 21st.
In safety and condition categories, Maine’s highways rank 3rd in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 2nd in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 41st in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 31st in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 46th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 3rd in Rural Fatality Rate, and 9th in Urban Fatality Rate. Maine ranks 8th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 13 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Maine ranks 22nd in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Maine ranks 37th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Maine’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 11th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Rural Fatality Rate (15th to 3rd) and Other Fatality Rate (23rd to 13th). Maine worsened the most in Urbanized Area Congestion (2nd to 8th).
When compared to its neighboring states, Maine’s overall highway performance is better than Massachusetts’ (17th), Vermont’s (38th), and Rhode Island’s (43rd), but worse than Connecticut’s (7th) and New Hampshire’s (13th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Maine ranks better than Montana (22nd) and Hawaii (44th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Maine should focus on addressing its Structurally Deficient Bridges and improving Rural Arterial Pavement Condition,” 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 Interstate pavement condition and fatality rates, its bridge quality and maintenance spending remain areas for improvement.”
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.