strong Problem Areas: /strong California’s urban interstates are the most congested in the nation, r

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Forget what you think you know about the United States' rome italy walking tours crumbling infrastructure. rome italy walking tours The simple truth is that the American public highway system has been steadily improving rome italy walking tours for at least two decades -- at least according to David Hartgen, rome italy walking tours Emeritus Transportation Professor at UNC Charlotte and author of the Reason Foundation's 2013 Annual Highway Report .
Hartgen, rome italy walking tours who has been compiling the annual report rome italy walking tours for 20 years now, works with data that each state submits to the federal government in order to receive federal funds. He uses eleven factors, including rome italy walking tours highway spending, pavement and bridge conditions, urban congestion and fatality rates, to get a complete picture of states' public highway system.
"Anyone who has driven around the country for a number of years knows that the system is actually in pretty rome italy walking tours good shape," said Hartgen in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. "This idea that we have a crisis of crumbling rome italy walking tours infrastructure that we've got to throw another $100 billion at is just plain wrong."
The 2013 rankings are based on 2009 state reports, the most recent rome italy walking tours year that statistics are available for all states. That means that most of the effects of President Barack Obama's stimulus package, rome italy walking tours which hit states with infrastructure funding in 2009 and 2010, have yet to be accounted for -- and the infusion would certainly rome italy walking tours improve state highway systems even more, Hartgen pointed rome italy walking tours out.
Click through the slideshow below to see the worst-performing state highway systems rome italy walking tours according to Reason Foundation's 2013 Highway Report . Captions in each slide are from the report's breakdowns on individual states. Story continues below.
strong Problem Areas: /strong rome italy walking tours Iowa ranks 19th in urban interstate congestion, rome italy walking tours 26th in fatality rate, 34th in deficient bridges, 37th in urban interstate pavement in poor condition and 38th in rural interstate pavement in poor condition.
rome italy walking tours strong Problem Areas: /strong Illinois ranks 6th in fatality rate, 9th in deficient bridges, 25th in urban interstate congestion, and 35th in urban interstate pavement in poor condition. It also reported no rural interstate mileage in poor condition, tying for 1st.
states. Arkansas ranks next to last, 49th, with 3.4 times the national average of rural arterial lanes that are too narrow, 44th in the amount of rural interstates in poor pavement condition—with 2.2 times the national average in poor condition—and 40th in urban interstates in poor condition.
strong Problem Areas: /strong Oklahoma ranks 42nd in fatality rate, 22nd in urban interstate congestion, 38th in deficient bridges, 42nd in rural interstate pavement condition, and 47th in urban interstate pavement condition.
strong Problem Areas: /strong Colorado ranks 36th in urban interstate congestion, 35th in rural arterial narrow lanes, 33rd in the pavement condition of urban interstates and 47th in the pavement condition of rural interstates.
th out of 50 in deficient bridges, 47th in urban interstate congestion, 46th in total highway disbursements per mile, and ranks last, 50th, with the highest administrative costs in the nation—spending over seven times the national average per mile on administration.
strong Problem Areas: /strong New York's system has been one of the bottom ten performing systems each year since 2000. It ranks 47th in deficient bridges, 46th in rural interstate pavement condition, 46th in urban interstate pavement condition, and 34th in urban interstate congestion.
strong Problem Areas: /strong California's urban interstates are the most congested rome italy walking tours in the nation, ranking 50th. The state ranks 49th, next to last, in urban interstate pavement condition and 39th in the condition of rural arterial roads. California's roads are in poor condition despite a significant rome italy walking tours increase (24 percent more) in per-mile highway expenditures, making total per-mile spending in California 4.7 times the national average.
strong Problem Areas: /strong Hawaii ranks last, 50th, in urban interstate pavement in poor condition, 49th in administrative costs per mile, 49th in deficient bridges, 28th in urban interstate congestion, 20th in fatality rate, and tied for 1st with no rural interstate mileage reported in poor condition.
strong Problem Areas: /strong Deficient bridges (which are 2.25 times the national average, ranked 50th—last), rural arterials in poor condition (which are almost 16 times the national average—ranked 49th) and urban interstate congestion (23 percent above the national average—ranked 42nd). The state's fatality rate ranks 19th.
strong Problem Areas: /strong Rural arterials in poor condition (over 29 times the national average and ranked last, 50th), rural interstates in poor condition (3.5 times the national average, ranked 45th), and fatality rate (14 percent above the national rate, ranked 31st).
Still, Hartgen's report says that while some states are continuing to improve their highways, problems rome italy walking tours seem to cluster in a small group of states: California, Alaska, Rhode Island and New Jersey are among the worst for public highway rome italy walking tours systems.
And because of the importance of early maintenance, said Hartgen, state politicians need to learn to "just say no" to new projects that areas say they need for their economic development and instead rome italy walking tours push the money toward improving already-existing infrastructure.
Reason Foundation is a libertarian, rome italy walking tours non-partisan think tank based in Los Angeles, Calif. It produces Reason magazine and Reason.tv. Hartgen, a Reason Foundation senior fellow , is also the president of Hartgen Group, a consulting agency focused on transportation issues.