Study ranks every state’s highway conditions and cost-effectiveness: North Dakota and Missouri rank best, New Jersey and Alaska are last

In the overall rankings of state highway performance and cost-effectiveness, Reason Foundation’s 25th Annual Highway Report finds North Dakota, Missouri, and Kansas have the nation’s most cost-effective state-owned road systems. New Jersey, Alaska, Delaware, and Massachusetts have the least cost-effective state highway systems, the study finds.

The 25th Annual Highway Report shows the general quality and safety of the nation’s highways incrementally improved while spending on state-owned roads increased to a total of $151.8 billion, up nine percent since the previous report. Of the Annual Highway Report’s nine categories focused on performance, including structurally deficient bridges, traffic congestion, and fatalities, the country made overall progress in seven of them. 

However, the pavement condition of the nation’s urban Interstate system worsened slightly. Over a quarter of the country’s urban Interstate mileage in poor condition was in just three states: California, New York, and, perhaps surprisingly, Wyoming.

The study also finds drivers in 11 states wasted at least 50 hours per year stuck in traffic congestion and commuters in the three most-congested states—Delaware, Illinois, and Massachusetts—each spend over 100 hours a year sitting in traffic congestion.

Most states—35 out of 50 —reduced their overall traffic fatality rates. Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey reported the overall lowest fatality rates while South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arizona had the highest fatality rates.

In the report’s spending categories, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Dakota, and Tennessee reported the lowest expenditures per mile of state-controlled highway. New Jersey, Massachusetts, Alaska, Delaware, and Maryland spent the most per-mile of highway. In total, the 50 states disbursed $151.8 billion for state-owned roads in 2018.

The condition of the nation’s bridges improved slightly. Of the 613,517 highway bridges reported, 46,771 (7.6 percent) were rated as structurally deficient. The best rankings go to three states where less than two percent of their bridges are structurally deficient: Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. Meanwhile, Rhode Island reported 23 percent of its bridges as structurally deficient.

The 25th Annual Highway Report’s complete state highway performance and cost-effectiveness rankings in each category are here.  

The Annual Highway Report’s overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings are:
Five states made double-digit improvements in their overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings: Arkansas improved from 32nd to 9th overall; Mississippi moved from 25th to 8th; Wisconsin went from 38th to 22nd; South Carolina jumped from 20th to 6th; and Iowa improved from 31st to 20th overall.

1. North Dakota
2. Missouri
3. Kansas
4. Kentucky
5. Idaho
6. South Carolina
7. Tennessee
8. Mississippi
9. Arkansas
10. Montana
11. South Dakota
12. Nebraska
13. Ohio
14. North Carolina
15. Minnesota
16. New Mexico
17. Utah
18. Texas
19. Alabama
20. Iowa
21. Virginia
22. Wisconsin
23. Arizona
24. Michigan
25. Maine
26. Georgia
27. Nevada
28. Oregon
29. New Hampshire
30. Vermont
31. Louisiana
32. Indiana
33. West Virginia
34. Oklahoma
35. Connecticut
36. Wyoming
37. Illinois
38. Colorado
39. Pennsylvania
40. Florida
41. Maryland
42. Hawaii
43. California
44. New York
45. Washington
46. Rhode Island
47. Massachusetts
48. Delaware
49. Alaska
50. New Jersey

Of the nation’s most populous states, Ohio (ranked 13th overall), North Carolina (14th)—which manages the largest state-owned highway system, and Texas (18th)—with the second largest amount of state road mileage, are doing the best job of combining road performance and cost-effectiveness. In contrast, New York (ranked 44th overall), California (43rd) and Florida (40th) are in the bottom 10 of the overall performance rankings.

“Although it is tempting to ascribe these ratings to geography or population, a more careful review suggests that numerous factors, including terrain, climate, truck traffic volumes, urbanization and congestion, system age, budget priorities, and management and maintenance practices all significantly impact state highway performance,” says Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the report and managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The states with the three largest highway systems—North Carolina, Texas and Virginia—all rank in the top 21 this year. Meanwhile, states with the smallest amount of mileage to manage, like Hawaii, Rhode Island and New Jersey, are some of the worst-performing states. Prioritizing maintenance, targeting and fixing problem areas, and reducing bottlenecks are among the successful strategies states can use to improve their quality and efficiency.”

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 2019 urban congestion data from INRIX and bridge condition data from the Better Roads inventory for 2019.