Drivers no doubt are saying you don’t need a national report to tell us how bad Oklahoma roads and highways are. Just ask truck drivers who haul oil and gas down the road. Or how about those truckers who tow those massive wind turbine blades to new wind farm sites. But a new annual report by the Reason Foundation says Oklahoma ranks 17th in the U.S. in the condition and cost-effectiveness of its highways.
The report says just drive across the state line into Kansas to see the difference because the Sunflower state is one of the top three states with cost effective highways. The two others are South Carolina and South Dakota. The worst performing highways are in Alaska, New Jersey, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
As for Oklahoma, this year’s 17th ranking in the 22nd report by the Foundation is an improvement from last year when it ranked 22nd. The report is based on eleven categories including highway spending, pavement and bridge condition, traffic congestion and fatality rates.
Oklahoma ranks 42nd in fatality rate, 28th in deficient bridges, 14th in rural interstate pavement condition, 34th in urban interstate pavement condition and 38th in urbanized area congestion.
The state’s best rankings are 14th for rural interstate pavement condition, 15th for maintenance disbursements per mile and 17th for administrative disbursements per mile. Its worst rankings are 42nd for the fatality rate and 39th for rural arterial pavement condition.
The Reason Foundation’s annual highway report found that some of the country’s worst highway problems are concentrated in a few states. Nearly half or 48 percent of the nation’s urban interstate pavement in poor condition is found in five states—California, Louisiana, Michigan, New York and Texas. And half of the rural interstate pavement in poor condition is found in five states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Indiana and Washington.
