Regardless of the enactment of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure invoice in 2021, which included $350 billion for federal freeway applications, America’s freeway high quality and spending in recent times have not seen main modifications.
There’s been a small uptick in spending, a small uptick in freeway high quality, and a small lower in congestion. However a revolution on America’s roads this isn’t.
“Issues are just about regular,” says Baruch Feigenbaum, the senior managing director of transportation coverage on the Cause Basis (which publishes this web site) and lead creator of its latest annual highway report.
The 2025 report ranks state freeway techniques throughout a variety of metrics, together with capital and upkeep spending, rural and concrete pavement high quality, visitors congestion, bridge high quality, and security.
Much like reviews in recent times, North Carolina and Virginia proceed to be high performers, respectively rating first and fourth on this yr’s report. (Virginia was ranked first on final yr’s report.)
Each states scored excessive on pavement high quality and comparatively low freeway spending. Feigenbaum chalks this as much as these states utilizing quantitative metrics to pick freeway tasks and having devoted upkeep models inside their departments of transportation.
States like California that rely much less on extra politicized processes to pick tasks are likely to rank a lot decrease on the report. Regardless of being one of many highest spending states, it has among the worst pavement high quality, worst visitors congestion, and an uninspiring security report.
“You may spend above common if all the pieces else in your system is sweet and nonetheless get a wonderful rating,” says Feigenbaum, pointing to Utah (which scored eighth on the report) for instance. The state’s spending is on the excessive aspect, nevertheless it additionally ranks extremely on pavement high quality, security, and congestion.
States like California and New Jersey each spend some huge cash for no obvious enchancment in efficiency.
Feigenbaum provides a few explanation why the infrastructure regulation handed throughout the Biden administration has didn’t make a noticeable impression on the nation’s highways.
The previous administration had been comparatively gradual at spending freeway {dollars} and the info from the 2025 freeway report are from 2022. The infrastructure invoice was additionally primarily nonhighway spending.
And as The Economist noted back in 2023, the Biden administration’s profligacy was self-defeating. Whereas the quantity of appropriated infrastructure {dollars} elevated lots, so did inflation (itself largely a results of pandemic-era authorities spending). The online consequence was an actual decline in infrastructure spending.
Early on within the pandemic, there have been fears {that a} post-COVID return to the workplace blended with a collapse in individuals taking public transit would end in spiking city congestion.
The Cause report finds that that hasn’t been the case typically.
Transit ridership is down 30 percent from pre-pandemic ranges, based on the most recent federal report on ridership traits.
However this yr’s Cause freeway report additionally exhibits congestion falling typically, pushed by a bigger lower in morning visitors congestion and mitigated barely by will increase in daytime visitors and night congestion.
The report’s congestion information is from 2022, however newer measures of nationwide visitors patterns additionally present a normal decline in congestion. The August 2024 report from the Federal Freeway Administration on city congestion traits (which depends on information from 2023) exhibits congestion falling that yr as nicely—though it has elevated in some particular person metro areas.
Feigenbaum says this displays the post-pandemic rise of extra distant work and extra versatile workplace hours.
