Georgia Ranks 6th in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Georgia’s highway system ranks 6th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.

According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a two-spot worsening from Georgia’s ranking of 4th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.

In safety and condition categories, Georgia’s highways rank 13th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 14th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 3rd in urban arterial pavement condition, 2nd in rural arterial pavement condition, 5th in structurally deficient bridges, 39th in urban fatality rate, and 25th in rural fatality rate.

Georgia ranks 43rd out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 54 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, Georgia ranks 8th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Georgia ranks 15th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Georgia’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 32nd nationwide.

The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were rural fatality rate (from 35th to 25th) and rural arterial pavement condition (8th to 2nd).

Georgia worsened the most in other disbursements (7th to 22nd).

Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Georgia’s overall highway performance is better than Alabama’s (17th) and Mississippi’s (18th) but worse than South Carolina’s (2nd) and Tennessee’s (5th).

Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Georgia ranks ahead of Ohio (10th) but behind North Carolina (1st).

Georgia’s highway system ranks 6th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 4th in last year’s report, and was 26th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.

“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Georgia should look at improving its urbanized area congestion, the only category where the state ranks in the bottom 10,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the urban fatality rate, which is the only safety category the state ranks in the bottom 15, should also be a priority for Georgia.”

Reason Foundation’s 28th Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, and spending. In the performance categories, ranking first implies the state has the best or lowest fatality rate and its road pavement is in the best condition. A ranking of 50th in performance categories means the state has the worst fatality rates or pavement conditions. In simplified terms, in the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 50 means the state spends more money, and a first-place ranking means the state spends less money than other states in that category.

The report’s data are primarily information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration for 2022. Better Roads and Bridges provides the deficient bridge data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute provides the traffic congestion data.
Please see the complete 28th Annual Highway Report for detailed methodology and a comprehensive list of data sources.