According to a new report out by the Reason Foundation, South Dakota's state highways are among the best in the country. In fact, we made the top three this year.

Researchers compared highways in all 50 states in terms of best, worst, safest and most expensive. A total of 11 different categories were used in the study.

  • Total Disbursements Per Mile
  • Capital & Bridge Disbursements Per Mile
  • Maintenance Disbursements Per Mile
  • Administrative Disbursements Per Mile
  • Rural Interstate Pavement Condition
  • Rural Arterial Pavement Condition
  • Narrow Rural Arterial Lanes
  • Urban Interstate Pavement Condition
  • Urbanized Area Congestion
  • Deficient Bridges
  • Fatality Rates

The states were then given an overall score, and once everything was said and done - North Dakota finished on top with having the best state highways in the country.

Kansas finished 2nd, South Dakota 3rd. Nebraska 4th, Montana 6th, Wyoming 8th, Iowa 15th and Minnesota 25th. New Jersey finished dead last, behind Rhode Island.

Breaking it down even further Massachusetts had the lowest fatality rate. Wyoming had the least traffic congestion. And Alaska had the worst pavement conditions.

Only two states, Iowa and Delaware, improved their overall rankings by double digits, while six states had overall rankings that worsened by 10 or more spots:

In overall rankings, Iowa improved 25 positions from 40th to 15th. Delaware jumped 18 spots from 37th to 19th.

To read more about the study and to find out how each state did overall and in each one of the individual categories, go to the Reason Foundation website.

Source: Reason Foundation


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