Marylanders’ tax dollars don’t go as far in maintaining the state highway system as Virginians’ money does, according to a study released Thursday.
Maryland ranked in the bottom third of states that use their money effectively to maintain good pavement conditions, stem accident rates, ease congestion and keep up bridges on state-owned roads.
Virginia, whose highway system is 10 times larger than Maryland’s, ranked in the top third of states in the study by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.
“Virginia has over a $3 billion highway budget — the seventh- or eighth-largest in the country — but it also has the third-largest highway system,” said David Hartgen, lead author of the study.
“Maryland is spending about six times as much per mile of responsibility as Virginia,” he said. “They ought to be doing fairly well, but when you look at their results, things aren’t there.”
Maryland, which has a $1.8 billion state highway budget, ranked the fourth-worst out of 50 states in terms of congestion on its urban interstates.
Almost 70 percent of the state’s interstate highway miles are congested, surpassed only by North Carolina, Minnesota and California, the study said.
Virginia ranked 22nd overall, with 43 percent of its interstate miles congested.
Maryland ranked 36th in pavement conditions of state highways, with 7 percent of its highway miles in poor condition, the study said.
Virginia ranked 28th, with 4 percent of its interstate miles in poor condition.
Virginia performs well overall despite the state’s modest per-mile highway budget because officials spend more on maintaining existing roads than on building new ones and other capital expenses, Hartgen said.
“About 37 percent of the Virginia highway budget is spent on maintenance — the highest in the country,” he said.
Maryland spends 16 percent of its budget on maintenance.
One area where Maryland outperformed Virginia: preventing traffic fatalities.
Maryland had 1.16 fatalities for every 100 million miles, placing the state 14th in the rankings.
Virginia placed 16th, with 1.2 fatalities for every 100 million miles.
The study, which is released annually, was based on data from 1984 to 2006.
