Arizona's Rankings in the
25th Annual Highway Report
Arizona's Overall Ranking in Recent Annual Highway Reports
Arizona Ranks 23rd in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness
Arizona’s best rankings are structurally deficient bridges, maintenance disbursements per mile, urban Interstate pavement condition, and urban arterial pavement condition.
Arizona’s highway system ranks 23rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is a six-spot improvement from the previous report, where Arizona ranked 29th.
In safety and performance categories, Arizona ranks 47th in overall fatality rate, 3rd in structurally deficient bridges, 31st in traffic congestion, 10th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 37th in rural Interstate pavement condition.
On spending, Arizona ranks 17th in total spending per mile and 26th in capital and bridge costs per mile.
“To improve in the rankings, Arizona needs to reduce its fatality rate. Arizona is in the bottom six of all states in each of the fatality rankings. Compared to neighboring states, the report finds Arizona’s overall highway performance is better than California (ranks 42nd), but worse than New Mexico (ranks 16th) and Utah (ranks 17th),” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Arizona ranks better than comparable states Colorado (ranks 38th) and Nevada (ranks 27th).”
Arizona’s best rankings are in structurally deficient bridges (3rd) and maintenance spending per mile (5th).
Arizona’s worst rankings are in urban fatality rate (48th) and overall fatality rate (47th).
Arizona’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 26th largest highway system in the country.
Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, structurally deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, and spending (capital, maintenance, administrative, overall) per mile.
The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2018 as well as urban congestion data from INRIX and bridge condition data from the Better Roads inventory for 2019.