York’s 4.92 other disbursements per lane-mile ratio is 9.3 times more than Illinois’ ratio and three times more than Pennsylvania’s ratio. New York’s 9.39% of poor urban Interstate pavement mileage is 1.9 times more than Illinois’ percent and 1.5 times more than Pennsylvania’s percent.

New York’s 23.81% of poor urban arterial pavement mileage is 25.9 times more than Illinois’ percent and 28.7 times more than Pennsylvania’s percent. New York drivers spend 43.2 hours in traffic annually, 1.4 times more hours than Illinois’ drivers and 1.9 times more hours than Pennsylvania’s drivers.

In safety and performance categories, New York ranks 7^th in rural fatality rate, 19^th in urban fatality rate, 40^th in structurally deficient bridges, 49^th in traffic congestion, 48^th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 38^th in rural Interstate pavement condition.

New York is 47^th in capital and bridge spending per mile and 46^th in maintenance spending per mile, according to the report.

“To improve in the rankings, New York should try to have its high costs better translate into things like good pavement condition, less traffic congestion and fewer deficient bridges,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “For example, the state ranks in the bottom 20 in spending in all four disbursement categories but still ranks in the bottom 20 in all four pavement condition categories as well as in percent structurally deficient bridges.”

He continued, “While it may be challenging for New York to reduce its spending, if the state could improve its pavement and bridge quality to the national average, it would move up in the overall rankings substantially. As it is, the state has the worst of both worlds: high spending and poor roadways.”

Other key findings were:

•  New York’s best rankings are in rural fatality rate (7^th) and other fatality rate (9^th).
•  New York’s worst rankings are other disbursements per mile (50^th) and urbanized area congestion (49^th).
•  New York commuters spend 43.2 hours stuck in traffic congestion, ranking 49^th nationally.
•  New York’s State-controlled highway mileage makes it the 15^th largest highway system in the country.

Additional Analysis

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, other) per mile.

Compared to nearby states, New York’s overall highway performance is worse than New Jersey (ranks 44^th), Vermont (ranks 38^th), and Connecticut (ranks 5^th).

New York is doing worse than comparable states such as Pennsylvania (ranks 41^st) and others like Illinois (ranks 29^th).

Costs in New York are higher than in some other parts of the country, including peer states Illinois and Pennsylvania. And spending this money isn’t resulting in high-quality roads. New York’s pavement condition and bridge condition are poor, with all four pavement categories and the percentage of structurally deficient bridges ranking in the bottom 20 in the nation. In contrast, peer states Illinois and Pennsylvania have pavement and bridge conditions closer to the national average. New York is remarkable for how poorly it ranks in so many categories. While two states have worse overall rankings, no other state ranks in the bottom 15 of all states in eight categories, the report stated.

New York is one of six states with a capital and bridge disbursement ratio above 1.50. The other five are Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Arizona and New Jersey.

New York is one of seven states with a maintenance disbursement ratio above 1.50. The other six are Washington, Vermont, Indiana, New York, Oklahoma and California.

New York is one of eight states that reported more than 7% of their urban Interstate pavement in poor condition. The other six are: Hawaii, Louisiana, California, New Jersey, West Virginia, Delaware and Michigan.

New York is one of five states with more than 20% of their urban other principal arterial mileage in poor condition. The others are California, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Massachusetts.

New York is one of nine states where automobile commuters spend more than 30 hours annually stuck in peak-hour traffic congestion. The other states are New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, Rhode Island, Illinois, California, Delaware and Connecticut.