Here’s How New Jersey Ranks Among Nation’s Highway Systems

NEW JERSEY – The 2019 Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report presented a troubling finding for the condition of America’s highway system — our freeways are deteriorating, and bridges, Interstates pavement, and roads are in much need of repair. And New Jersey's own evaluation was very troubling.

The report was based on data that states submitted to the federal government, which ranks each state’s highway system in 14 categories, including total spending per mile, urban fatality rate on the road, and congestion.

Our state ranks 50th in overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings. New Jersey also ranked 50th in total disbursements per mile, 50th in capital and bridge disbursements per mile, and 50th in maintenance disbursements per mile.

North Dakota took home the top overall spot on the list for the second year in a row. Virginia had the biggest improvement overall from last year, as it jumped 25 spots from its previous 27th ranking, all the way into second place.

Here’s how New Jersey did across the 11 other metrics:

• Maintenance Disbursements Per Mile: 50th
• Administrative Disbursements Per Mile: 46th
• Rural Interstate Pavement Condition: 1st (tied)
• Urban Interstate Pavement Condition: 45th
• Rural Arterial Pavement Condition: 46th
• Urban Arterial Pavement Condition: 46th
• Urbanized Area Congestion: 50th
• Structurally Deficient Bridges: 29th
• Overall Fatality Rate: 4th
• Rural Fatality Rate: 10th
• Urban Fatality Rate: 22nd

“To improve in the rankings, New Jersey needs to reduce its total spending per mile, improve its pavement condition and decrease traffic congestion. The state ranks last in three of the four disbursement categories (overall disbursements per mile, capital and bridge disbursements per mile and maintenance disbursements per mile), in the bottom five in three of four pavement categories (urban Interstate pavement condition, rural arterial pavement condition and urban arterial pavement condition), and last in traffic congestion. New Jersey ranks in the bottom five states in eight of the 13 metrics. Compared to neighboring states, the report finds New Jersey’s overall highway performance is worse than Delaware (ranks 42nd), New York (ranks 45th) and Pennsylvania (ranks 35th),” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and assistant director of transportation at Reason Foundation. “New Jersey is doing worse than comparable states such as Massachusetts (ranks 46th) and Maryland (ranks 39th).”

1. North Dakota
2. Virginia
3. Missouri
4. Maine
5. Kentucky
6. Kansas
7. Tennessee
8. Montana
9. Utah
10. Alabama

With every ranking that includes a top ten, there’s also a bottom 10 — here are the ten worst highway systems by state:

40. Florida
41. Oklahoma
42. Delaware
43. California
44. Connecticut
45. New York
46. Massachusetts
47. Hawaii
48. Rhode Island
49. Alaska
50. New Jersey