California Ranks 43rd in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

California’s highway system ranks 43rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is no change from the previous report, where California also ranked 43rd overall.

In safety and performance categories, California ranks 18th in overall fatality rate, 24th in structurally deficient bridges, 45th in traffic congestion, 44th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 41st in rural Interstate pavement condition.

On spending, California ranks 42nd in total spending per mile and 40th in capital and bridge costs per mile.

“To improve in the rankings, California needs to improve its pavement conditions, reduce its urban area congestion, lower its maintenance and administrative disbursements per mile, and reduce its rural fatality rate. California is in the bottom 10 of all states in six of the 13 total metrics. Compared to neighboring states, the report finds California’s overall highway performance is worse than Arizona (ranks 23rd), Nevada (ranks 27th), and Oregon (ranks 28th),” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “California is doing better than some comparable states such as New York (ranks 44th) but worse than others like Texas (18th).”

California’s best rankings are in overall fatality rate (18th) and structurally deficient bridges (24th).

California’s worst rankings are in urban arterial pavement condition (48th) and administrative disbursements per mile (47th).

California’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 17th largest highway system in the country.

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.

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