Reason Foundation’s 2026 Annual Highway Report is in, and they’ve got some surprising news for the nation: Georgia has one of the best highway systems in the country. Coming in at #2 (just after Virginia), Georgia’s ranking in the 29th Annual Highway Report might surprise you… so keep scrolling to find out more!
Why does Georgia rank so high?
If you’ve ever driven on Georgia roads, you might bet thinking… huh? But it’s true. When compared to other states, Georgia’s highway system is actually very cost-efficient and high-performing.
Reason Foundation states,
When compared to its neighboring states, Georgia’s overall highway performance is better than South Carolina’s (3rd), Alabama’s (8th), Tennessee’s (12th), Florida’s (14th), and Mississippi’s (24th).
Georgia also ranks very high in the category of ‘rural arterial pavement condition’ (#3), ‘urban other principal arterial pavement condition’ (#2) and the lowest percentage of structurally deficient bridges (#5).
Okay, but what about the traffic?
The study actually does take traffic into consideration. And for ‘urbanized area congestion’, Georgia ranks #45. But even with this crazy low ranking, we still come in #2 overall, meaning our other categories outweigh the traffic woes.
If you wanna take a deeper look into Atlanta’s rankings, you can check out Reason Foundation’s Georgia report, here!
Which other states rank on the top of the list?
Which states rank the highest when it comes to cost-effective and high-performing highways? We’ve got the top 10 states for ya right here:
- Virginia
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- North Dakota
- Connecticut
- Alabama
- Missouri
- Utah
And coming in last place? At #50 is Alaska.
What do you think? Would you say we’ve got cost-effective and high performing highways here in Georgia?
