A recent report published by the Reason Foundation doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the effectiveness of the Rhode Island road network.
The Reason Foundation study measures the performance of state-owned roads and highways from 1984 to 2005 in 12 different categories, including traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs, to determine each state’s ranking and cost-effectiveness.
Overall, they rank Rhode Island as 47 out of 50. There are only 3 states that are less effective than Rhode Island, including: New York, Alaska, and New Jersey. You can read the full report, but here are some of the Rhode Island highlights:
In 2005, Rhode Island reported 1,102 miles of highway under the state-owned highway system. The state ranked 47th in the performance rankings in 2005 as compared to 36th in 2000. The state’s best ratings were for rural interstate condition (1st), urban interstate condition (1st) and fatality rate (7th). The state scored lowest on deficient bridges (50th), rural primary pavement condition (49th), maintenance disbursements per mile of responsibility (48th), total disbursements per mile of responsibility (45th), capital/bridge disbursements per mile of responsibility (45th), receipts per mile of responsibility (44th), administrative disbursements per mile of responsibility (44th) and urban interstate congestion (43rd). Rhode Island has relatively high costs compared to system condition.
Unfortunately, the report has no data on non-state roads.