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State of the System: transportation data tracking

There’s a ton of transportation spending and performance data out there, but useful data can be hard to find and decipher. This state-focused hub pulls together important transportation data to show how your state is performing on key issues like state of repair, safety, and investing in all forms of travel.

How to use this page: All data is organized into topical drop-down accordions below. You can click on an accordion to expand it, OR just click on a topic listed in the Table of Contents to jump directly to that expanded section. Use the “Collapse all” button if you get overwhelmed by multiple open drop-downs. You’ll find a “Back to Table of Contents” button at the bottom right as you scroll to bring you back to the top.

Explainer: About the dataExplainer: The performance management system

The state at a glance:

Before diving into the details, here’s a quick snapshot of how the state is performing across these key areas.

Table of Contents

Repair and maintenance data

Safety data

Investment data

Back to Table of Contents

This Repair section focuses on the results of our spending—how much the state spends on things like repair vs. expansion. And on state performance—the targets they’re required to set for the condition of highways and bridges vs. how they perform on those targets and other non-required measures.

States are required by Congress to track and set targets for their road systems’ state of repair but they often set targets arbitrarily while spending millions of dollars on expanding their network and creating costly new liabilities. If we’re not going to maintain what we have, why bother building anything new?  

Any of the performance targets you see below are focused exclusively on the National Highway System (the NHS). The NHS consists of 230,000 miles of U.S. roads, including the ~47,000-mile Interstate System and tens of thousands of other state-owned roads, from two-lane rural highways up to most multi-lane urban and suburban arterials. All data below is marked as Interstate, NHS minus-interstates, or all roads/bridges.

Why we need to Fix It First

State DOT capital spending on road maintenance versus expansion

How much does the state spend on road maintenance vs. expansion? This table summarizes the state DOT's capital spending (all sources) for each year on road repair vs. road expansion, as reported to FHWA.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

Interstate pavement conditions and targets

This data is compiled from the FHWA State Transportation Performance Dashboard. These are the state’s pavement condition targets and performance for the Interstate System only.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

Non-interstate highway pavement conditions and targets

These are the state’s pavement condition targets and performance for National Highway System roadways MINUS all Interstate Highways. This data is compiled from the FHWA State Transportation Performance Dashboard.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

National Highway System bridge conditions and targets

These are the state’s targets and performance for ONLY bridges on the National Highway System, which includes all Interstate Highways. (In most states the NHS bridges represent a relatively low percentage of all bridges in the state.) This target assesses whether a bridge is in good or poor condition, but is weighted by total deck area, so larger bridges have a greater impact on the totals. This data is compiled from the FHWA State Transportation Performance Dashboard.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

Condition of all bridges in the state (2018-2024)

This bridge data comes from FHWA’s National Bridge Inventory. The condition of all bridges are evaluated on three structural components: the substructure, the superstructure, and the deck (road surface), on a scale of 1-10. If the rating for any of these components are a 4 or below, the bridge is rated Poor, which replaces the old “Structurally Deficient” categorization that was used until 2018. For more, visit: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/britab.cfm

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

How many people are killed or injured in the state, and what are the state’s goals for safety?

The U.S. lags far behind nearly all other developed nations in terms of roadway safety. Though all traffic deaths have trended down slightly in recent years (to levels far higher than almost all other developed countries), the deaths of people struck and killed while walking have increased more than 75 percent since 2010.

This problem is most acute on federally funded state-owned roads, where 54 percent of these deaths occurred from 2018 to 2022. The states that own these roads are required by Congress to regularly report on key safety performance measures and set targets for all traffic deaths and injuries, but also for “vulnerable users” specifically, which includes people walking, riding a bike, or using other non-motorized forms of travel.

Tip: Compare your state’s targets to the number of actual injuries/deaths to assess their performance. And you can find out if the state is planning for more people to be killed by looking for target lines trending upwards in the charts below.

Why we must prioritize safety over speed

All traffic deaths versus performance targets

This table and accompanying chart includes the targets and total number of deaths for ALL types of traffic fatalities. Is your state setting positive or negative targets? Target lines with an upward trajectory equal setting targets for more people to die on the roads. How is the state performing against the targets they set? Do they appear to be taking this requirement (and safety) seriously? This data comes from FHWA TPM & the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Highway Safety Improvement (HSIP) Report compilation.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

All traffic serious injuries versus performance targets

This table and accompanying chart includes the targets and total number of INJURIES for ALL types of traffic fatalities. This data comes from FHWA TPM & the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Highway Safety Improvement (HSIP) Report compilation.

Non-motorized fatalities & injuries versus performance targets

This table and accompanying chart includes the targets and total number of deaths AND injuries for only non-motorized users as defined by FHWA, which includes people walking but also those riding bikes or using other forms of non-motorized transportation. This data comes from FHWA TPM & the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Highway Safety Improvement (HSIP) Report compilation.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

How much money does the state spend on various forms of travel?

Although we built a highway system to connect the country that was once the envy of the world, unlike the rest of the world, we did so at the expense of nearly every other method of getting around.

Compared to peer countries, the U.S. has systematically underinvested in transportation infrastructure that allows people to walk, bike, or take transit to their destinations. Enabling safe, convenient transportation access to destinations without needing a car would prevent deaths, improve public health, and save Americans thousands of dollars annually that they could instead spend on other priorities.

Why we need to Invest In the Rest

Funding for transit agencies (2018-2023)

How much did transit agencies in the state spend in a year, and where did it come from? This table shows where the funds transit agencies spent on capital and operations came from, either state and local or federal. Data is derived from National Transit Database reports and adjusted using agency budget information to account for contributions made across states (CT to NY, MD & VA to DC). Population data from ACS 5-year and 1-year estimates.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

Highway vs. transit state spending (2018-2022)

How much does the state spend on highways vs. transit? This table is a summary of total spending (federal dollars + state & local money). This data is a compilation of US Census data on state and local expenditures. Source: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/gov-finances/newsroom/updates.html

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

How the state transferred its federal funding

Your state is constantly “flexing” and shifting funds between programs, so where are they going, and what are they prioritizing?

Some federal formula programs can fund any type of project, as with the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBG).1 Some formula programs are more restrictive, like the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP), which can only be spent on the National Highway System. But all formula programs have this flexibility: States can decide to transfer up to 50 percent of any given program to any other program.2

Program acronyms: 3

STBG – Surface Transportation Block Grant Program
NHPP – National Highway Performance Program
HSIP – Highway Safety Improvement Program
FTA – Federal Transit Administration
TA – Transportation Alternatives program
CMAQ – Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program
PROTECT – Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation Program
CRP – Carbon Reduction Program

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

State reported spending of federal dollars on bike-ped projects

The Federal Highway Administration tracks how much of its money has been spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects throughout its various programs. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/funding/bipedfund.cfm

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

How is the state spending on its roads?

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

How is the state spending on highways?

These are the five year annual averages (2018-2022) for total spending on highway related categories. Bridge spending is broken into two categories: Spending on brand new bridges, and then all bridge repair, replacement, and rehabilitation in a second category. Data as reported by the state to the FHWA and compiled in the Highway Statistics Series table SF-12A.

Click on any item in the legend to show or hide that column or line. To zoom in on an area, click and drag your cursor over that area. To download the chart, view the underlying data, or see it in full-screen mode, click the menu icon in the top right.

Check out the different topical hubs for national data, which you can use as the launching point for diving into more state-specific data.

Repair and maintenance

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Safety

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Spending and investment

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Help us improve this tool

This tool is intended to be iterative, with new topical areas, new and updated data sets, and new functionality added over time. We want your feedback on what you find useful, what may be confusing, and any other ideas you may have. Please share with us!
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