In terms of safety and condition categories, New York’s highways rank 37th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 47th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 28th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 47th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 39th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 12th in Rural Fatality Rate and 17th in Urban Fatality Rate.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, New York ranks 45th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. New York ranks 46th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. New York’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 43rd nationwide.

Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Rural Interstate Pavement Condition (42nd
to 37th) and Urban Fatality Rate (19th to 17th). New York worsened the most in Rural Fatality Rate (4th to 12th).

When compared to its neighboring states, New York’s overall highway performance is worse than Connecticut’s (7th), Massachusetts’ (17th), Pennsylvania’s (36th), Vermont’s (38th), and New Jersey’s (40th). Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, New York ranks worse than Florida (14th) and Pennsylvania (36th).

“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, New York should focus on reducing Other Disbursements, improving its Urban Interstate and Arterial Pavement Conditions, and reducing its Urbanized Area Congestion,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While the state performs relatively well in fatality rates, its poor pavement conditions and traffic congestion continue to undermine overall performance.”

Other key findings of the national Reason Foundation report include:

• Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Ohio have the best-performing, most cost-effective roads and bridges. Alaska, California, Washington, New York and Louisiana have the worst-performing and least cost-effective highway systems,

• Urban interstate pavement conditions improved slightly nationwide. Hawaii and Louisiana ranked at the bottom, each reporting more than 13% of their urban interstate pavement in poor condition, followed by California (10%) and New York (9%).

• Several states are failing to maintain urban arterial roads. California, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and New York collectively account for nearly 40% of all urban arterial mileage rated poor nationwide, with California reporting 32.35% of its urban arterial mileage in poor condition.