Hawaii Ranks 48th in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Hawaii’s highway system ranks 48th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.

According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is consistent with the ranking Hawaii had in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.

In safety and condition categories, Hawaii’s highways rank 50th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 40th in urban arterial pavement condition, 47th in rural arterial pavement condition, 26th in structurally deficient bridges, 47th in urban fatality rate, and 50th in rural fatality rate. Hawaii does not have any rural Interstate mileage.

Hawaii ranks 19th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 15 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, Hawaii ranks 20th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Hawaii ranks 8th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Hawaii’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 25th nationwide.

The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were maintenance disbursements (20th to 8th), urbanized area congestion (26th to 19th), and structurally deficient bridges (33rd to 26th).

Hawaii worsened the most in urban fatality rate (39th to 47th).

Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Hawaii’s overall highway performance is better than California’s (49th) and Alaska’s (50th) but worse than Oregon’s (35th) and Washington’s (47th).

Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Hawaii ranks behind New Hampshire (19th), and West Virginia (33rd).

Hawaii’s highway system ranks 48th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 48th in last year’s report, and was 47th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.

“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Hawaii should focus on improving urban Interstate pavement conditions and both rural and urban arterial pavement conditions. The state ranks in the bottom 12 for each of those categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the number of traffic fatalities on urban and rural roads should also be a priority for Hawaii. The state has some of the worst fatality rates in the country.”

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.