TT_091519_AllPages

4 • September 15-30, 2019 Nation
THETRUCKER.COM
Reason Foundation report shows after decades of progress
U.S. highway conditions deteriorating, especially bridges
THE TRUCKER NEWS SERVICES
LOS ANGELES — After decades of incremental
progress in several key categories,
Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report
finds the nation’s highway conditions
are deteriorating, especially in a group of
problem-plagued states struggling to repair
deficient bridges, maintain interstate pavement
and reduce urban traffic congestion.
“In looking at the nation’s highway system
as a whole, there was a decades-long
trend of incremental improvement in most
key categories, but the overall condition of
the highway system has worsened in recent
years,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author
of the Annual Highway Report and assistant
director of transportation at Reason Foundation.
“This year we see some improvement
on structurally deficient bridges, but pavement
conditions on rural and urban highways
are declining, the rise in traffic fatalities is
worrying, and we aren’t making needed
progress on traffic congestion in our major
cities.”
The 24th Annual Highway Report, based
on data that states submitted to the federal
government, ranks each state’s highway system
in 13 categories, including traffic fatalities,
pavement condition, congestion, spending
per mile, administrative costs and more.
This edition of the Annual Highway Report
uses state-submitted highway data from
2016, the most recent year with complete
figures currently available, along with traffic
congestion and bridge data from 2017.
North Dakota ranks first in the Annual
Highway Report’s overall performance and
cost-effectiveness rankings of state highway
systems for the second year in a row. North
Dakota’s rural and urban interstate pavement
conditions both rank in the top 10 and the
state has kept its per-mile costs down. Virginia
jumps an impressive 25 spots in the
rankings — from 27th overall in the previous
report — into second place in performance
and cost-effectiveness. Missouri, Maine and
Kentucky round out the top five states.
The state highway systems in New Jersey
(50th), Alaska (49th), Rhode Island (48th),
Hawaii (47th), Massachusetts (46th) and
New York (45th) rank at the bottom of the
nation in overall performance and cost-effectiveness.
Despite spending more money per
mile than any other state, New Jersey has the
worst urban traffic congestion and among the
worst urban interstate pavement conditions
in the country.
The study finds pavement conditions on
both urban interstates and rural interstates
are deteriorating, with the percentage of urban
interstate mileage in poor condition increasing
in 29 of 50 states. One-third, 33 percent,
of the nation’s urban Interstate mileage
in poor condition is concentrated in just five
states: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana,
and New York.
It’s not just urban interstates with the
rougher pavement, however, the Annual
Highway Report finds the percentage of rural
arterial principal roads in poor condition at
its worst levels since 2000.
Similarly, the study’s three traffic fatality
categories — overall, urban and rural — all
The Reason Foundation study finds pavement
conditions on both urban interstates and
rural interstates are deteriorating, with the
percentage of urban interstate mileage in
poor condition increasing in 29 of 50 states.
Courtesy: REASON FOUNDATION
This map from the Reason Foundation report on America’s roads shows how states fared in
the rankings.
show more fatalities in 2016 than in any year
since 2007.
The most positive news is on bridges,
where 39 states lowered the percentage of
bridges deemed structurally deficient. Unfortunately,
18 percent or more of bridges
remain structurally deficient in these five
states: Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
South Dakota and West Virginia.
Traffic congestion remains about the
same from the previous report, with Americans
spending an average of 35 hours a year
stuck in traffic. Drivers in New Jersey, New
York, California, Georgia and Massachusetts
experience the longest delays due to urban
traffic congestion in their metro regions.
The Annual Highway Report finds states
disbursed about $139 billion for state-controlled
highways and arterials in 2016, a four
percent decrease from approximately $145
billion spent in 2015.
“Some may point to the slight decrease
in overall state highway spending in 2016 as
a cause of the lack of improvement in key
highway metrics, but 21 states made overall
progress in 2016. Examining the 10-year average
of state overall performance data indicates
that the national system performance
problems are largely concentrated in the bottom
10 states,” Feigenbaum said. “Toward
the bottom of the rankings, you have highly
populated states, like last-place New Jersey,
along with Massachusetts, New York, and
California to a lesser extent, that are spending
a lot but often failing to keep up with
traffic congestion and road maintenance.
There are also a few very problematic lowpopulation
states like Rhode Island, Delaware,
Hawaii and Alaska, which contribute
an outsized share of the nation’s structurally
deficient bridges, poor pavement conditions,
and high administrative costs—money that
doesn’t make it to roads.”
New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, New
York and Connecticut spent the most on their
highways on a per-mile basis, with each state
spending more than $200,000 per mile of
highway it controls. In contrast, Missouri,
which ranks third overall in performance and
cost-effectiveness, did so while spending just
$23,534 per mile of highway it controls.
Massachusetts ranks low in the overall
rankings but shows the nation’s lowest traffic
fatality rate, while South Carolina reports
the highest. 8
USPS 972
Volume 32, Number 18
September 15-30, 2019
The Trucker is a semi-monthly, national newspaper for the
trucking industry, published by Trucker Publications Inc. at
1123 S. University, Suite 320
Little Rock, AR 72204-1610
Trucking Division Senior Vice President
David Compton
davidc@targetmediapartners.com
Vice President / Publisher
Ed Leader
edl@thetrucker.com
Trucking Division General Manager
Megan Cullingford-Hicks
meganh@targetmediapartners.com
Editor
Lyndon Finney
editor@thetrucker.com
Assistant Editor
Klint Lowry
klint.lowry@thetrucker.com
Production Manager
Rob Nelson
robn@thetrucker.com
Graphic Artist
Christie McCluer
christie.mccluer@thetrucker.com
Special Correspondent
Cliff Abbott
cliffa@thetrucker.com
National Marketing Consultants
Jerry Critser
jerryc@targetmediapartners.com
Dennis Ball
dennisb@targetmediapartners.com
John Hicks
johnh@targetmediapartners.com
Meg Larcinese
megl@targetmediapartners.com
Greg McClendon
gregmc@targetmediapartners.com
Telephone: (501) 666-0500
Fax: (501) 666-0700
E-mail: news@thetrucker.com
Web: www.thetrucker.com
Single-copy mail subscription available at $59.95
per year. Periodicals Postage Paid at Little Rock,
AR 72202-9651 and additional entry offices.
Publishers Rights: All advertising, including artwork and
photographs, becomes the property of the publisher
once published and may be reproduced in any media
only by publisher. Publisher reserves the right to refuse
or edit any ad without notice and does not screen or endorse
advertisers. Publisher is not liable for any damages
resulting from publication or failure to publish all or any
part of any ad or any errors in ads. Adjustments are limited
to the cost of space for the ad, or at Publisher’s option,
republication for one insertion with notice received
within three days of first publication. All items subject to
prior sale and expire on or before last date of issue. No
refunds after photo submitted or taken. Sales prices plus
sales tax, license fees, document fees, smog fees, and finance
charges if applicable. Copyright 2019 of Wilshire
Classifieds, LLC. Subject also to Ad and Privacy Policy at
www.recycler.com.
POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to:
The Trucker
1123 S. University, Suite 320
Little Rock, AR 72204