Washington's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Washington’s highway system ranks 48th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a one-spot decline from last year’s ranking of 47th.
In safety and condition categories, Washington’s highways rank 43rd in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 28th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 29th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 44th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 23rd in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 34th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 31st in Urban Fatality Rate. Washington ranks 39th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 34 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Washington ranks 50th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Washington ranks 50th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Washington’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 39th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Administrative Disbursements (47th to 39th) and Urban Interstate Pavement Condition (33rd to 28th). Washington worsened the most in Rural Fatality Rate (18th to 34th).
When compared to its neighboring states, Washington’s overall highway performance is better than California’s (49th) but worse than Montana’s (22nd), Nevada’s (25th), Idaho’s (26th), and Oregon’s (33rd).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Washington ranks worse than Virginia (1st) and Arizona (41st). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Washington should focus on reducing its Capital, Maintenance, and Other Disbursements as well as its Rural Interstate and Urban Arterial Pavement Conditions,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While the state’s performance is acceptable in Structurally Deficient Bridges (23rd), its bottom-ranked spending efficiency and poor pavement quality need to be prioritized.”
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.