New Jersey highways rank dead last … again

The increase in New Jersey’s gas tax is supposed to address the state’s crumbling roads, but if one study is to be believed, we have a long way to go.

The Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, ranks America’s highway systems and they have determined that once again, New Jersey has the worst. It’s the 25th edition of the rankings and it “measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, fatalities, and spending per mile.”

The good news is we rank well in safety with the third lowest fatality rate. In the other categories, however, we don’t do so well. The Reason Foundation's survey suggests New Jersey is 29th in structurally deficient bridges, 40th in traffic congestion, 45th in urban interstate pavement condition, and 36th in rural Interstate pavement condition. We rank dead last in three of the four spending categories: total disbursements per mile, bridges per mile, and maintenance per mile and in administrative disbursements per mile, we’re 48th.

Our neighbors are better, but not much: Delaware is 48th overall, New York is 44th, and Pennsylvania is 39th. The study says North Dakota has the best road system, followed by Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, and Idaho. Along with Delaware, Alaska, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island join New Jersey at the bottom.

The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2018 as well as urban congestion data from INRIX and bridge condition data from the Better Roads inventory for 2019.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.