Virginia's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Virginia’s highway system ranks 1st in the nation in overall cost- effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a three-spot improvement from last year’s ranking of 4th.
In safety and condition categories, Virginia’s highways rank 11th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 21st in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 11th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 15th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 10th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 29th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 6th in Urban Fatality Rate. Virginia ranks 38th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 33 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Virginia ranks 2nd in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Virginia ranks 26th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Virginia’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 10th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Urban Fatality Rate (23rd to 6th) and Rural Fatality Rate (35th to 29th). Virginia worsened the most in Other Fatality Rate (16th to 26th).
When compared to its neighboring states, Virginia’s overall highway performance is better than North Carolina’s (4th), Tennessee’s (12th), Kentucky’s (15th), West Virginia’s (30th), and Maryland’s (34th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Virginia ranks better than New Jersey (40th) and Washington (48th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Virginia should focus on reducing Urbanized Area Congestion and improving its Rural Fatality Rate while maintaining its strong overall efficiency,” 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 many categories including Capital and Bridge Disbursements (2nd), Other Disbursements (4th), and Urban Fatality Rate (6th), but reducing its traffic congestion is the state’s biggest need.”
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.