PA's Roads Ranked 41st in the Nation: Improvement Will Be A Bumpy Ride

The Reason Foundation ranked Pennsylvania 41st in the country in highway performance and cost-effectiveness. Pennsylvania was ranked has 40th last year.

The main drag on Pennsylvanian roads are deficient bridges and “narrow rural arterial lanes”, which are high-capacity roads that deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways or expressways.

“Many of the easiest repairs and fixes to state highway and bridge systems have already been made and the rate of progress is slowing down,” said David T. Hartgen, lead author of the Annual Highway Report since 1984. Pennsylvania ranks 34th in fatality rate.

After years of decreasing, the fatality rate on state-owned roads increased to 1.13 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled in 2012, up from 1.10 in 2011.

Drivers and legislators hope that Act 89, which is funding many road improvements throughout the state, will make driving safer.