The Reason Foundation has tracked the performance of the 50 state-owned highway systems across the U.S. since 1984. It has now released the 24th edition of its Annual Highway Report which ranks highway systems in 13 categories including expenditure, interstate and primary road pavement conditions, congestion, bridge condition and fatalities. The research found that the condition of the nation’s highways is deteriorating as many states struggle to repair outdated and crumbling sections of infrastructure, particularly deficient bridges and interstate pavement. Some states are pumping substantially more dollars into their highways than others with the bulk of investment going towards capital and bridge, maintenance and administration costs.
The most recent data in the report is from 2016 and it shows that in that year, New Jersey spent a whopping $511 million on those three categories along with highway law enforcement and safety, interest and bond retirement. By comparison, second-placed Florida “only” poured $241 million into its highway network, ahead of Massachusetts’ $216 million (though that state’s figure is only available for 2010).
Overall, New Jersey was named in the report as the state with the worst road conditions in the country and in addition to having the highest overall spending figure, it also comes first in spending per mile of roadway. It ranks poorly on far more categories than it ranks highly and frustratingly for its motorists, the garden state ranks last in the country for traffic congestion. This year, North Dakota ranks first for overall performance and cost-effectiveness of state highway systems for the second consecutive year. In total, all 50 U.S. states disbursed around $139 billion on their state-owned roads in 2016, a 4.1% decrease on $145 billion in 2015.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
Total investment in state highway systems in 2016.
Statista
