Florida Ranks 40th in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Florida’s highway system ranks 40th 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 Florida ranked 40th overall.

In safety and performance categories, Florida ranks 40th in overall fatality rate, 6th in structurally deficient bridges, 34th in traffic congestion, 14th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 9th in rural Interstate pavement condition.

On spending, Florida ranks 45th in total spending per mile and 47th in capital and bridge costs per mile.

“To improve in the rankings, Florida needs to reduce its spending and fatality rate. Florida is ranked in the bottom 10 for three of the four disbursement categories (total, capital and bridge, and maintenance) and the bottom 15 in all three fatality measures. Compared to neighboring states, the report finds Florida’s overall highway performance is worse than Georgia (ranks 26th), Alabama (ranks 19th), and South Carolina (ranks 6th),” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Florida is doing worse than comparable states like Texas (ranks 18th) and Pennsylvania (ranks 39th).”

Florida’s best rankings are in urban arterial pavement condition (1st) and rural arterial pavement condition (3rd).

Florida’s worst rankings are in capital and bridge disbursements per mile (47th) and total disbursements per mile (45th).

Florida’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 23rd 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.

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.