About the data & how to use it

Want to know how to use the data in your own work? Curious about where we pulled from to construct the State of the System? Questions about something confusing in the data?
Take a look below!

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Using the data

Viewing and exporting data

Is there a specific chart or table you’re interested in spotlighting in your own work or use in a one-pager or fact sheet?

Data tables on the site can be exported to various formats (such as Excel, CSV, or PDF) and edited to show columns for display or export. You can find these options to export tables directly above its entries.

Saving and exporting charts

Charts (and underlying data tables they are created from) can be exported as images for use however you like. To do so, click the black box with three horizontal lines above each chart. From there, you can view the chart in full screen, download various image types, or download the underlying data used to generate the chart. Additionally, you can display the specific data table the chart is pulling from.

Comparing states

You can use the repair hub to either compare one state’s targets and conditions for national highway pavements to another or to national figures. Clear the filters for states displayed using the “Clear filters” button, then select a state from the list in the State dropdown above the table and another state or national level to compare its National Highway System pavements in poor condition.
Keep in mind that each state is different, and we encourage you to compare your state with those that are reasonable peers.

How do the states collect data on pavement condition reported to the Transportation Performance Management System?

We suggest you check out our full length explainer for more information on the history and implementation of the Transportation Performance Management System.
Explore TPM statutes and regulations related to national goals, measures, targets, and more.
Federal regulations specify how states are to report their data to the Federal Highway Administration, and the Code of Federal Regulations describes how states are to collect this data.
The status of highway pavement conditions reported to the Transportation Performance Management System is established by compositing several metrics describing road condition: roughness, rutting, faulting, and cracking.
- Depending on the type of pavement assessed (whether it is continuous concrete or asphalt), to be assessed as in “good” condition, segments of pavement need to have all relevant metrics within the threshold of good condition.
- In certain parts of the Datahub, we chart out road conditions using tables from the Highway Statistics Series using the international roughness index (IRI) metric. In instances where we are using IRI, we define pavement in good condition as those with an IRI less than 95 inches per mile and poor condition as those with an IRI greater than 170.
- States had different requirements for the type of data collected for non-interstate pavements before January 1, 2020, and as such many had to change their methodology for reporting pavement condition. FHWA has a fact sheet for pavement performance measures.
Some states, like Michigan, have gaps in data reported to FHWA’s Transportation Performance Management system, and have partial data for evaluating pavement quality available through the Highway Statistics Series’s various pavement tables.

Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Statistics Series

Our State of the System data hub pulls extensively from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Highway Statistics Series, a long-running program collecting finance, investment, performance, and utilization data for public roads and the National Highway System.

States submit data to the FHWA, who then checks the data for completeness. However, sometimes states do not submit complete information or may interpret data requirements differently in their submissions.
Some Highway Statistics Series releases do not have certain data tables reported for every year, while others take an extended period to be uploaded. As a result, you might notice certain gaps in the data we display on the site.
FHWA defines how states should report their capital outlay and maintenance costs, with instructions on how to differentiate between a minor widening and major widening project, reconstruction with capacity added versus without, and other categories.
Though they ask states to submit this data individually, FHWA reports pedestrian facilities and bike lanes as Other Enhancements, logged in public data tables in the same category with Environmental Improvements, making it difficult to determine spending on active transportation versus noise barriers or highway beautification.

National Bridge Inventory

Definitions for how the FHWA defines Good, Fair, and Poor condition bridges can be found in the Code of Federal Regulations, and FHWA has a fact sheet for how bridge conditions are incorporated into the Transportation Performance Management System.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics hosts a map of the over 615,000 bridges reported to the National Bridge Inventory where you can view the condition of bridges.

National Transit Database

The National Transit Database is a congressionally required data repository for info on the financial, operating and asset conditions of the United States’ transit systems.
Transit agencies across the country are required to submit to the NTD data on ridership, funding sources, operating and capital expenditures, vehicle revenue hours, and more.
- Different-sized and different types of transit agencies have different reporting requirements, with smaller agencies generally having to provide less information to the federal government.

FHWA Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding Information

FHWA tracks how federal aid highway dollars are spent on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, accounting for the flexibility of certain federal aid highway programs. This data is pulled from FHWA’s Fiscal Management Information System. Among other caveats, data from the FHWA Bike-Ped obligations website does not include projects or programs that are not recorded in FMIS.
- Due to idiosyncracies of FHWA’s reporting methods, it is likely that federal funding for active transportation infrastructure is underreported in some newer programs, like the Transportation Alternatives set-aside of the Surface Transportation Block Grant.
Certain states report negative funding amounts obligated towards bike and pedestrian facilities, but that does not necessarily mean the state did not spend money on active transportation that year. In some cases, federal funding could have been de-obligated away toward other types of projects, with state funding sources filling the gap. In others, states may have finished projects ahead of schedule or under budget, allowing funding to be shifted. However, negative obligations could reflect canceled projects. We encourage you to contact folks in your state DOT’s planning/programming office to inquire about their future plans to fund bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

United States Census Annual Survey of State & Local Government Finances

The Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances is a national survey of state governments and local governments, with data on the total expenditures that state governments and localities report to the federal government, by type of expenditure.
More information on how the Census collects this data is available in their methodology pages.
Our datahub combined both local government and state expenditures on highways and transit in our data to show a picture of how much was being spent in total in each state.
In questionnaires provided to localities and states, highway expenditures are defined by the Census as the “Construction and maintenance of roads, sidewalks and bridges; street lighting; snow removal; highway engineering, control, and safety” and excludes street cleaning.
- The Census asks respondents to report both operations costs and capital outlay expended on their transit or bus system.

Data sources:

Links validated: April 10, 2025
Sources are listed in order of appearance in our portal by page and section.

Repair portal:

Pavement Condition Ranking
Eric Dennis – Citizens Research Council Michigan, Pavement Quality Index
Michigan Ranks 40th in Road Pavement Quality Assessment – Citizens Research Council of Michigan

Percent of interstate pavement in good condition
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

Percent of bridges in poor condition
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

National spending on road expansion vs. repair
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table SF-12A
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

Percent of all bridges in good and poor conditions
FHWA, Bridge Condition Index
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/britab.cfm

National Highway System pavement condition data
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table HM-47B
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

Safety Portal:

Average pedestrian deaths per 100k people per year
Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design 2024
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

Annual traffic fatalities
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

Pedestrian fatalities
Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design 2024
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

Fatalities and Targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/
NHTSA, HSIP reports compilation
https://www.nhtsa.gov/highway-safety-grants-program/state-performance-targets

Percentage of pedestrian deaths on state-owned roads
Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design 2024
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

National fatality trends
NHTSA, Fatality Analytics Reporting System
https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars

Non-motorized/Vulnerable Road User fatalities, serious injuries and targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/
NHTSA, HSIP reports compilation
https://www.nhtsa.gov/highway-safety-grants-program/state-performance-targets

Invest portal:

Transit spending – annual average of 2018-2023 NTD data
FTA, National Transit Database. Compilation of 2018 to 2023 data tables, all funding sources
https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/ntd-data?field_data_categories_target_id%5B2531%5D=2531&field_product_type_target_id=All&year=all&combine=Funding+sources

State populations
US Census, Population Estimates Program
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/tables.html

Road expansion spending (2018-2023 average – FHWA)
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table SF-12A
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

Average annual spending on bike and pedestrian projects
FHWA, Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding Information (federal obligations)
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/funding/index.cfm

Vehicle miles traveled and total estimated lane mileage
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table HM-260 https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table VM-202 https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

State and local expenditures (all revenue sources) on highways & transit
US Census, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (ALFIN), 2018-2022
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances.html

IIJA federal funding sources & amounts
Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Statistics on Transportation Funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
https://data.bts.gov/stories/s/cvki-zubk

State Pages

Repair:

Pavement Condition Ranking
Eric Paul Dennis – Citizens Research Council Michigan, Pavement Quality Index
Michigan Ranks 40th in Road Pavement Quality Assessment – Citizens Research Council of Michigan

Federal aid highway system data
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table HM-14
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

Suballocation of federal funding to localities
Adie Tomer and Ben Swedberg, Brookings Metro, Connecting the DOTs
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/connecting-the-dots-a-survey-of-state-transportation-planning-investment-and-accountability-practices/

Safety:

Average pedestrian deaths per 100k people per year
Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design 2024
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

Trends in pedestrian fatalities
Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design 2024
https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

Investment:

State populations
US Census, Population Estimates Program
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/data/tables.html

Rural, tribal, and urban transit providers
FTA, National Transit Database. Compilation of 2018 to 2023 data tables, all funding sources
https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/ntd-data?field_data_categories_target_id%5B2531%5D=2531&field_product_type_target_id=All&year=all&combine=Funding+sources

State capital outlay on road expansion vs. maintenance
FHWA, Compilation of Highway Statistics Series data. Table SF-12A
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm

Percent of interstate pavement in good & poor condition
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

Percent of non-interstate pavement in good & poor condition
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

National Highway System bridge conditions and targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/

Percent of all bridges in good and poor conditions
FHWA, Bridge Condition Index
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/britab.cfm

All traffic deaths versus performance targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/
NHTSA, HSIP reports compilation
https://www.nhtsa.gov/highway-safety-grants-program/state-performance-targets

All traffic serious injuries versus performance targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/
NHTSA, HSIP reports compilation
https://www.nhtsa.gov/highway-safety-grants-program/state-performance-targets

Non-motorized fatalities & injuries versus performance targets
FHWA, Transportation Performance Reporting. State Performance Dashboard and Reports
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tpm/reporting/state/
NHTSA, HSIP reports compilation
https://www.nhtsa.gov/highway-safety-grants-program/state-performance-targets

Transit funding – Federal vs. state and local funding
FTA, National Transit Database. Compilation of 2018 to 2023 data tables, all funding sources
https://www.transit.dot.gov/ntd/ntd-data?field_data_categories_target_id%5B2531%5D=2531&field_product_type_target_id=All&year=all&combine=Funding+sources

How the state transferred its federal funding
Kira McDonald, Emmett Hopkins and Narayan Gopinathan – Climate & Community Institute, How are transportation dollars flowing in your state?/Flex Funding Comparison Tool
https://climateandcommunity.org/research/how-are-transportation-dollars-flowing-in-your-state

Federal Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Spending
FHWA, Federal-Aid Highway Program Funding for Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities and Programs
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/funding/bipedfund.cfm

How is the state spending on highways?
FHWA, Compilation and categorization of Highway Statistics Series data. Table SF-12A
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics.cfm