The Reason Foundation recently released its 26th Annual Highway Report, measuring the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories.
North Dakota, Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, and North Carolina have the most cost-effective highway systems, while New Jersey, Rhode Island, Alaska, Hawaii, and New York have the worst.
Categories examined include administrative costs per mile of highway, deficient bridges, spending per mile, traffic fatalities, and urban and rural pavement condition.
Numerous factors affect each state’s overall highway system performance, including budget priorities, climate, management/maintenance philosophies, state budget, system age, terrain, truck volumes, urbanization, and unit cost differences.
Overall, the nation’s highway system is incrementally improving in nearly every category, but the 10 worst-performing states find it difficult to improve despite spending more money.
Six states comprise 43 percent of the urban arterial primary mileage in poor condition, three states comprise approximately 25 percent of the rural Interstate mileage in poor condition, and five states still report more than 15 percent of their bridges as deficient.
Reason Foundation used a method developed in the early 1990s to measure cost versus quality in states with varying system sizes, highway budgets, and traffic and geographic circumstances.
States with high overall ratings typically have better-than-average highway system conditions paired with relatively efficient spending in per-mile categories.