A new report says Massachusetts has among the worst state roads and bridges when you look at the amount of tax money spent on them. But not everyone agrees with the methodology of the Libertarian think tank that published it.
The Reason Foundation has been ranking state transportation systems for 22 years, and usually puts Massachusetts near the bottom. This year, it’s at 46, with Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont close behind.
Report author David Hartgen said state government oversees 3600 miles of road in Massachusetts — which is a relatively small system — while spending three to four times the national average per mile.
“So they have a lot of resources to expend on that relatively small system,” Hartgen said. “So you would think they would have relatively good results.”
And yet, he said, Massachusetts’ highway system has much worse pavement quality than the national average, higher traffic congestion and too many bridges in poor shape — more than a third of them are considered “deficient.”
Granted, Hartgen said, Massachusetts must contend with harsh winters and dense populations.
“I understand that costs are going to be higher there, but that said, I would hope that the system could be in better shape,” Hartgen said.
But UMass Amherst transportation engineer Eric Gonzalez says focusing on cost per mile of road is unfair.
“The way these rankings look like they’re working out is they’re favoring large states that have a lot of road miles,” said Gonzalez, “and are penalizing small states that have a lot of traffic and a lot of use concentrated on a relatively small network.”
If you took into consideration how many people travel, and all the goods that are transported, Gonzalez expects Massachusetts — and most New England states — would rank much higher.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in a statement, argued that the formula used by the Reason Foundation “doesn’t account for the Commonwealth’s disproportionately low ownership of highway miles eligible for federal aid and also DOT’s larger expense responsibility for the inspection and repair of local bridges.”
There is one measure where Massachusetts does very well in the new report. It’s got the lowest rate of traffic fatalities in the country — a likely byproduct, the authors say, of more urban traffic and slower speeds.