Indiana Ranks 23rd in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Indiana’s highway system ranks 23rd in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is a nine-spot improvement from 32nd in the previous report. 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.

The state ranks in the bottom 10 of all states in maintenance disbursements. Indiana’s maintenance disbursement ratio of 2.03 is 1.4 times higher than Minnesota’s ratio and 4.6 times higher than Ohio’s ratio. 

In safety and performance categories, Indiana ranks 37th in rural fatality rate, 24th in urban fatality rate, 24th in structurally deficient bridges, 22nd in traffic congestion, 31st in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 39th in rural Interstate pavement condition. 

Indiana is 37th in capital and bridge costs per mile and 48th in maintenance spending per mile. 

Indiana’s best rankings are in other disbursements per lane-mile (6th) and rural arterial pavement condition (7th).

Indiana’s worst rankings are maintenance disbursements (48th) and rural Interstate pavement condition (39th). 

Indiana drivers waste 19.4 hours per year in traffic congestion, ranking 22nd in the nation. 

Indiana’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 23rd largest highway system in the country. 

“To improve in the rankings, Indiana needs to have its medium-high spending translate into smoother Interstate pavement,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While it’s challenging for a state to have strong rankings across the board, for the amount the state spends on capital and bridge and maintenance disbursements, it should have better Interstate pavement quality.” 

Additional Analysis 

Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, structurally deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, and spending (capital, maintenance, administrative, other) per mile.

Compared to nearby states, Indiana’s overall highway performance is worse than Kentucky (ranks 7th) but better than Illinois (ranks 29th) and Michigan (ranks 27th). 

Indiana ranks behind other comparable states, such as Minnesota (ranks 12th) and others like Ohio (ranks 17th). 

Indiana ranks in the bottom five in only one category, and ranks in the top 20 in five categories. The state’s arterial pavement quality is good, and it ranks in the top half of two of the three fatality metrics, a good showing for a relatively rural state. Indiana benefitted from the report calculating spending per vehicle-miles traveled, yet its capital and bridge and maintenance disbursements remain high. Indiana needs to lower its overall expenditures while improving its Interstate pavement quality. 

Indiana is one of four states with a maintenance disbursement ratio above 2.00. The other three are Washington, Vermont, and Alaska. 

Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, structurally deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, and spending (capital, maintenance, administrative, other) per mile.

*2021 data
The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government and urban congestion data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute for 2020 as well as bridge condition data from the Better Roads inventory for 2021. For more details on the calculation of each of the 13 performance measures used in the report, as well as the overall performance measure, please refer to the appendix in the main report. The report’s dataset includes Interstate, federal, and state roads, but not county or local roads. All rankings are based on performance measures that are ratios rather than absolute values: the financial measures are disbursements per mile, the fatality rate is fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel, the urban congestion measure is the annual delay per auto commuter, and the others are percentages. For example, the state ranking 1^st in structurally deficient bridges has the smallest percentage of structurally deficient bridges, not the smallest number of structurally deficient bridges.