Louisiana ranks #40 on Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report of best highways

La. DOTD is putting in the work!

Reason Foundation

50. Alaska
49. New York
48. Hawaii
47. California
46. Washington
45. Oklahoma
44. New Jersey
43. Colorado
42. Rhode Island
41. Pennsylvania
40. Louisiana
19. Texas
18. Mississippi
15. Alabama
13. Arkansas
8. Florida
6. South Carolina
4 Georgia
3. Tennessee
2. North Carolina

Louisiana is #6 Capital & Bridge Disbursements Ratio
Louisiana is #18 Maintence Disbursements Ratio
Louisiana is #4 Administration Disbursements
Louisiana is #17 Other Disbursements

Louisiana is #43 Rural Interstate Pavement Condition
Louisiana is #45 for Structurally Deficient Bridges
Louisiana is #46 for Urban Fatality Rate
Louisiana is #20 for Rural Fatality Rate
Louisiana is #20 for Urbanized Area Traffic Congestion

"Louisiana’s highway system ranks 40th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is a five-spot decrease from the previous report, where Louisiana ranked 35th. However, some categories in the report cannot be compared to previous years due to methodological changes that also impacted some state’s overall rankings. These changes are fully explained in Part 2 and the appendix of the full report.

Louisiana ranks in the bottom 10 nationally in six of the report’s 13 metrics. The state’s pavement quality, percentage of structurally deficient bridges, and fatality rates are disproportionately bad. Louisiana’s 3.07% of rural Interstate pavement in poor condition is 1.2 times more than peer state Arkansas’ percent and 2.1 times more than peer state Mississippi’s percent. Louisiana’s 11.99% of urban Interstate pavement in poor condition is 2.3 times more than Arkansas’ percent and 3.8 times more than Mississippi’s percent. Louisiana’s 2.33% of rural arterial pavement in poor condition is 1.3 times more than Arkansas’ percent and 2.5 times more than Mississippi’s percent. Louisiana’s 12.76% of bridges that are structurally deficient is 2.5 times as much as Arkansas’ percent and two times as much as Mississippi’s percent. Louisiana’s 1.43 urban fatality rate is 1.2 times higher than Arkansas’ rate and the same as Mississippi’s rate. Finally, Louisiana’s 2.11 other fatality rate is 1.9 times higher than Arkansas’ rate and nearly equivalent to Mississippi’s rate.

In safety and performance categories, Louisiana ranks 20th in rural fatality rate, 46th in urban fatality rate, 45th in structurally deficient bridges, 23rd in traffic congestion, 43rd in rural Interstate pavement condition, and 49th in urban Interstate pavement condition.

Louisiana is 6th in capital and bridge costs per mile and 18th in maintenance spending per mile.

Louisiana’s best rankings are in administrative disbursements (4th) and capital and bridge disbursements (6th).

Louisiana’s worst rankings are in urban Interstate pavement condition (49th) and other fatality rate (47th).

Louisiana drivers spend 19.5 hours per year peak hour traffic congestion, ranking 23rd in the nation.

Louisiana’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 14th largest highway system in the country."