Study Ranks States on Road Conditions and Cost-Effectiveness

    LOS ANGELES, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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 too: 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
 
     Full Report Online
 
     Reason Foundation's 17th Annual Report on the Performance of State
 Highway Systems (1984-2006), is online at http://reason.org/ps369/.
 
     About Reason Foundation
 
     Reason Foundation (www.reason.org) is a nonprofit think tank dedicated
 to advancing free minds and free markets.
 
 
 
 
 

SOURCE Reason Foundation