New Jersey's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
New Jersey’s highway system ranks 40th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a six-spot decline from last year’s ranking of 34th.
In safety and condition categories, New Jersey’s highways rank 17th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 42nd in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 31st in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 41st in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 27th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 16th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 14th in Urban Fatality Rate. New Jersey ranks 50th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 85 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, New Jersey ranks 44th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. New Jersey ranks 42nd in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. New Jersey’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 31st nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Other Fatality Rate (6th to 4th) and Urban Fatality Rate (15th to 14th). New Jersey worsened the most in Maintenance Disbursements (16th to 42nd).
When compared to its neighboring states, New Jersey’s overall highway performance is better than New York’s (47th) but worse than Connecticut’s (7th), Delaware’s (32nd), Maryland’s (34th), and Pennsylvania’s (36th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, New Jersey ranks worse than Virginia (1st) and Michigan (23rd). New Jersey’s highway system ranks 40th out of 50 states overall this year, compared to 34th last year. “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, New Jersey should focus on reducing Urbanized Area Congestion and improving its Urban Arterial Pavement condition while reducing its roadway spending,” 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 well in fatality rates, its rankings in congestion and capital and maintenance disbursements highlight major areas of concern.”
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.