Even when you know the news is going to be bad, you need to find out what it is in order to be prepared for how to react. The problem with this particular bad news is that we already know what we have to do, we’ve known for quite some time, and we’re still trying to get it done.
Truckinginfo.com recently posted an article, “It’s Not Just Your State, Overall U.S. Road Conditions Are Getting Worse.” The article announced the release of the 24th Annual Highway Report which was put together by the nonprofit Reason Foundation.
The opening paragraph of the report’s executive summary says, “Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report has tracked the performance of the 50 state owned highway systems from 1984 to 2016. The 24th Annual Highway Report ranks the performance of state highway systems in 2016, with congestion and bridge condition data from 2017. Each state’s overall rating is determined by rankings in 13 categories, including highway expenditures per mile, Interstate and primary road pavement conditions, urbanized area congestion, bridge conditions, and fatality rates. The study is based on spending and performance data state highway agencies submitted to the federal government. This study also reviews changes in highway performance over the past year.”
The report ranks each state’s highway system using 13 categories. Among those categories are traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, and spending per mile.
The following graphic shows the overall rankings.
Truckinginfo.com points out:
“The 50th and worst-ranked state in the report is New Jersey. 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, according to the report. The other bottom states included Alaska, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York.”
And there is a bit of good news, “On the positive side, 39 states managed to lower the percentages of bridges that were deemed structurally deficient. Despite the progress, 18% or more of bridges remain structurally deficient in five states: Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and West Virginia.”
You can click here for the full report from the Reason Foundation.
Knowing this, can you feel better or worse about the future of our infrastructure?
