25th Annual Highway Report: Executive Summary of Rankings and Findings

This is the executive summary from the 25th Annual Highway Report. 

Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report has tracked the performance of the 50 state-owned highway systems from 1984 to 2018.

The 25th Annual Highway Report ranks the performance of state highway systems in 2018, with congestion and bridge condition data from 2019.

Each state’s overall rating is determined by rankings in 13 categories, including highway expenditures per mile, Interstate and primary road pavement conditions, urbanized area traffic congestion, bridge conditions, and road fatality rates.

The study is based on spending and performance data that state highway agencies submitted to the federal government. This study also reviews changes in highway performance over the past year.

Although individual state highway sections (roads, bridges, pavements) steadily deteriorate over time due to age, traffic, and weather, they are improved by maintenance and reconstruction. As a result, state highway system performance can improve even as individual roads and bridges may deteriorate.

Between 2016 and 2018, the condition of the overall highway system improved slightly.

The four disbursement measures for the U.S. state-owned highway system worsened between 2016 and 2018. States spent more money on their highway systems in 2018 than in 2016.

Of the nine performance categories, seven improved based on the comparison of the 2016 and 2018 data. The categories showing national, aggregate improvement are:

1. Rural Interstate Pavement Condition
2. Urban Interstate Pavement Condition
3. Urban Arterial Pavement Condition
4. Urbanized Area Congestion
5. Structurally Deficient Bridges (a smaller percentage of bridges structurally deficient)
6. Overall Fatality Rate
7. Rural Fatality Rate

The two performance categories that worsened during that span are:

1. Rural Arterial Pavement Condition (which worsened substantially)
2. Urban Fatality Rate

Overall, highway system quality has improved. But states are spending an increasing amount of money for those improvements.

Similar to prior years, the top-performing states in the report’s overall rankings on performance and cost-effectiveness tend to be a mix of average-population and low-population states.

Very rural states may have a slight advantage. North Dakota led the rankings for the third year in a row, followed by Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, and Idaho.

However, in addition to Missouri’s second-place ranking, several states with major cities fared well, including, Tennessee (7th overall), Ohio (13th), North Carolina (14th), Minnesota (15th), and Texas (18th).

At the bottom of the overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings are New Jersey, Alaska, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Each State’s Highway Performance Rankings By Year (2015-2018 Data)

Historical Trends in State Highway System Performance (2008-2018 Data)

In some ways, states with large populations and small geographic areas may be at a slight disadvantage in the overall rankings, but not entirely. In fact, three of the five worst-performing states rank in the bottom 10 in state population size.

The current highway system performance problems in each measured category seem to be especially concentrated in a few states. For example:

• Almost one-third (33 percent) of the nation’s rural Interstate mileage in poor condition is in just three states: Alaska, Colorado, and California.
• Over a quarter (26 percent) of the urban Interstate mileage in poor condition is in just three states: California, Wyoming, and New York.
• Just under a quarter (23 percent) of the rural arterial mileage in poor condition is in just three states: Alaska, Iowa, and California.
• Over half (51 percent) of the urban arterial primary mileage in poor condition is in just five states: California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
• Automobile commuters in 11 states spend more than 50 hours annually stuck in peak-hour traffic congestion: Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, and New Jersey.
• Although a majority of states saw the percentage of structurally deficient bridges decline, five states report more than 16 percent of their bridges as structurally deficient: Rhode Island, West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota, and Pennsylvania.
• Five states have overall fatality rates of 1.5 per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled or higher: South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona, and West Virginia.
• Six states have rural fatality rates of 2.0 per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled or higher: Hawaii, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, Alaska, and Kansas.
• Urban fatality rates continue to worsen and 14 states have urban fatality rates of 1.0 per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled or higher: New Mexico, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, West Virginia, Texas, Idaho, Georgia, and Nevada.

System performance improved this year, with nearly half of the states (23 of 50) making progress in 2018 compared to 2016. However, a 10-year average of state overall performance data indicates that system performance problems are concentrated in the bottom 10 states. These states are finding it difficult to improve. There is also increasing evidence that higher-level road systems (Interstates, other freeways, and principal arterials) are in better shape than lower-level road systems, particularly local roads.

Finally, the improved system performance came with increased costs. Since 2016, spending has increased by 33 percent.

25th Annual Highway Report Overall Performance and Cost-Effectiveness Rankings

Click a state name for detailed information about its results.

25th Annual Highway Report: Each State’s Highway Performance Ranking By Category