Georgia’s highway system ranks 26th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report published by Reason Foundation. Georgia drops eight spots from the previous report, where it ranked 18th overall.
 
In safety and performance categories, Georgia ranks 7th in structurally deficient bridges, 4th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 31st in overall fatality rate, and 47th in traffic congestion. On spending, Georgia ranks 22nd in total spending per mile and 30th in capital and bridge costs per mile.
 
“Georgia’s ranking would be greatly helped by reducing its urban traffic congestion. Georgia ranks in the bottom five of all states for urbanized area congestion because it has three of the most congested Interstate corridors in the country,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report, assistant director of transportation at Reason Foundation, and a graduate of Georgia Tech.  “Compared to nearby states, the report finds Georgia’s overall highway performance is still better than Florida (ranks 40th), but worse than Alabama (ranks 10th) and South Carolina (ranks 20th). Georgia is also doing worse than other comparable states such as North Carolina (ranks 17th) and Virginia (ranks 2nd).”
 
Georgia’s best rankings are in urban arterial pavement condition (4th) and structurally deficient bridges (7th). Georgia’s worst rankings are in urbanized area congestion (47th) and administrative disbursements per mile (41st).
 
Georgia’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 10th largest highway system in the country.
“While this ranking may sound troubling, it could also be viewed as reaffirming Georgia’s 2015 decision to revamp its transportation funding system. Prior to 2015, Georgia had county gasoline sales taxes that went to the county general fund instead of to the Department of Transportation for roadway funding. As part of the 2015 change, including the imposition of an electric vehicle fee, Georgia dedicated substantially more money to transportation with a minimal gas tax increase. Due to the lag in the data reporting, Georgia’s numbers should be expected to start improving with complete 2017 and 2018 data. The worsening of Georgia’s pavement conditions between 2012 and 2016 shows the importance of dedicating gas tax revenue to highways,” Feigenbaum said.
 
Utilizing data that states submitted to the federal government, Reason Foundation’s 24th Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-owned roads in 13 categories, including pavement condition on urban and rural Interstates, deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, administrative costs, and spending per mile on state roads.
 
North Dakota ranks first in the Annual Highway Report's overall performance and cost-effectiveness rankings for the second year in a row. Virginia and Missouri, two of the 20 most populated states in the country, are second and third in overall performance and cost-effectiveness. Maine and Kentucky round out the top five states.
 
The highway systems in New Jersey (50th), Alaska (49th), Rhode Island (48th), Hawaii and Massachusetts rank at the bottom of the nation in overall performance and cost-effectiveness.
 
The full Annual Highway Report, complete rankings in each category, and historical data from previous editions are available here:

https://reason.org/policy-study/24th-annual-highway-report/ 

https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/24th-annual-highway-report-2019.pdf