Texas's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Texas’ highway system ranks 27th 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 25th.
In safety and condition categories, Texas’ highways rank 21st in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 33rd in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 12th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 39th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 3rd in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 42nd in Rural Fatality Rate, and 26th in Urban Fatality Rate. Texas ranks 41st out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 37 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Texas ranks 34th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Texas ranks 22nd in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Texas’ Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 37th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Urban Fatality Rate (34th to 26th) and Maintenance Disbursements (27th to 22nd). Texas worsened the most in Other Disbursements (19th to 34th).
When compared to its neighboring states, Texas’ overall highway performance is better than New Mexico’s (39th), Colorado’s (42nd), Oklahoma’s (45th), and Louisiana’s (46th), but worse than Arkansas’ (21st).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Texas ranks better than California (49th) but worse than Florida (14th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Texas should focus on reducing its Rural and Other Fatality Rates 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 (3rd), Rural Other Principal Arterial Pavement Condition (12th), and Rural Interstate Pavement Condition (21st), but its fatality rates and congestion remain ongoing challenges.”
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.