New York”™s state highway system ranked 45th in the nation, according to a recent annual highway report by Reason Foundation, an organization focused on policy research.
Despite the potholes, the state”™s roads are among the safest in the nation, with only six states possessing better fatality rates.
Comparatively, Connecticut”™s roads ranked 44th and New Jersey”™s ranked 47th.
The categories that determined New York”™s ranking included highway performance and efficiency. The report found that New York ranked 47th in deficient bridges, 46th in rural and urban interstate pavement condition, and 34th in urban interstate congestion.
New York is crisscrossed with the 16th largest state-run highway system in the nation.
The report also revealed New York spent 2.6 times more on highway repairs than the national average per mile. Despite this, New York continues to rank as one of the bottom 10 in highway conditions across the last 13 years.
The state”™s Office of the Comptroller released a report last year addressing the growing “backlog of unmet public infrastructure needs” and attributed the lack of maintenance to “limited public funds.”
Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has discussed using public-private partnerships to finance several unfunded construction projects. State Sen. Greg Ball has sought just such an arrangement, including for the nascent Tappan Zee Bridge remake.
“Comptroller DiNapoli has warned that we have substantial unmet infrastructure needs in transportation and other areas, and has called for reforming our capital planning to make sure we are dealing with those needs as cost-effectively as possible,” said Mark Johnson, the comptroller”™s deputy press secretary.
