Study ranks states on road conditions and cost-effectiveness

The Trucker News Services

7/31/2008

LOS ANGELES — North Dakota does the best job maintaining its roads and bridges and New Jersey has the worst-performing, least cost-effective highway system in the nation, according to an annual study that measures each state's road conditions and expenditures.

Massachusetts' roads are the safest; Montana's are the deadliest. Across the country, 24.1 percent of bridges are deficient or functionally obsolete. In Rhode Island an astonishing 53 percent of bridges are deficient. At our current rate of repair it will take 62 years for today's deficient bridges to be brought up to date.

California has the worst traffic congestion: 83 percent of its urban interstates are congested. But other states are becoming increasingly gridlocked to 18 states report at least half of their urban interstates are jammed. Even South Dakota has traffic congestion now.

Reason Foundation's 17th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems measures the condition of all state-owned roads and highways from 1984 to 2006. The study calculates the effectiveness and performance of each state in 12 different categories, including pavement condition, bridge condition, traffic fatalities, congestion, highway maintenance costs, and administrative costs.

Ranking State Highway Systems on Performance and Cost-Effectiveness:

1. North Dakota

2. Montana

3. New Mexico

4. Wyoming

5. Kansas

6. South Carolina

7. South Dakota

8. Nebraska

9. Kentucky

10. Georgia

11. Oregon

12. Texas

13. Missouri

14. Idaho

15. Indiana

16. Virginia

17. Ohio

18. Minnesota

19. Tennessee

20. Nevada

21. Wisconsin

22. Maine

23. North Carolina

24. West Virginia

25. Utah

26. Arizona

27. Arkansas

28. Delaware

29. Alabama

30. Vermont

31. Colorado

32. Iowa

33. Oklahoma

34. Illinois

35. Connecticut

36. Pennsylvania

37. Maryland

38. Mississippi

39. Washington

40. Louisiana

41. Florida

42. Michigan

43. Massachusetts

44. California

45. New York

46. New Hampshire

47. Hawaii

48. Rhode Island

49. Alaska

50. New Jersey

Reason Foundation's 17th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems (1984-2006), is online.