Tennessee's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Tennessee’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 decline from last year’s ranking of 5th.
In safety and condition categories, Tennessee’s highways rank 14th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 12th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 27th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 13th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 12th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 20th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 47th in Urban Fatality Rate. Tennessee ranks 36th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 30 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Tennessee ranks 17th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Tennessee ranks 17th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Tennessee’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 23rd nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Rural Fatality Rate (27th to 20th) and Rural Interstate Pavement Condition (19th to 14th). Tennessee worsened the most in Rural Other Principal Arterial Pavement Condition (18th to 27th).
When compared to its neighboring states, Tennessee’s overall highway performance is better than Kentucky’s (15th) and Mississippi’s (24th), but worse than Georgia’s (2nd), North Carolina’s (4th), and Alabama’s (8th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Tennessee ranks better than Massachusetts (17th) and Arizona (41st). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Tennessee should focus on reducing its Urban Fatality Rate, Other Fatality Rate, and Urbanized Area Congestion,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The state performs strongly in Structurally Deficient Bridges (12th), Urban Interstate Pavement Condition (12th), and Other Disbursements (2nd), but continues to lag in fatality rates and congestion.”
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.