State Highways Rated In New Study: See How PA Fared

PENNSYLVANIA — When it comes to highway quality, few states are in worse shape than Pennsylvania. That's the conclusion of the Reason Foundation's 28th Annual Highway Report released Thursday.

The California-based think tank's study measures the cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities and spending. The report’s data was obtained primarily from information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration.

Pennsylvania ranked 37th of 50 states in the study. While that's an improvement from 41st last year, there still are just 13 states whose highways are rated in poorer condition.

"In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Pennsylvania should focus on reducing urbanized area congestion and improving Interstate pavement quality in both urban and rural areas. Pennsylvania ranks in the bottom 15 for all three categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, the report's lead author and the Reason Foundation's and senior managing director of transportation policy.

“Reducing the percentage of structurally deficient bridges should also be a priority for Pennsylvania, as the state ranks in the bottom 10 in bridges.”

In safety and condition categories, Pennsylvania’s highways rank 39th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 37th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 37th in urban arterial pavement condition, 31st in rural arterial pavement condition, 45th in structurally deficient bridges, 20th in urban fatality rate, and 12th in rural fatality rate.

Pennsylvania ranks 42nd out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 47 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, Pennsylvania ranks 17th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Pennsylvania ranks 37th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Pennsylvania’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 31st nationwide.

The categories in which the state improved the most from last year were other disbursements (43rd to 33rd), and other fatality rate (35th to 25th).

Pennsylvania worsened the most in urbanized area congestion (32nd to 42nd).

Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Pennsylvania’s overall highway performance is better than Delaware’s (41st) but worse than Ohio’s (10th), Maryland’s (32nd), West Virginia’s (33rd), and New Jersey’s (34th).

Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Pennsylvania ranks ahead of New York (45th), but worse than Illinois (36th).

See the entire report here.