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State road and highway conditions are the best they’ve been in 19 years, according to Reason Foundation’s 19th Annual Highway Report. Unfortunately, the recession is partly responsible for the improvement in road conditions: people are driving less which has helped slow pavement deterioration and reduced traffic congestion and fatalities. The annual Reason Foundation study measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-owned roads in 11 categories, including deficient bridges, urban traffic congestion, fatality rates, pavement condition, and the number of unsafe narrow rural lanes. National performance in all of those key areas improved in 2008, the most recent year with complete data available. The report's findings include:

• Drivers in California, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, and Connecticut are stuck in the worst traffic. But nationally, urban Interstate congestion is at its lowest level since 2000.
• Motorists in California and Hawaii have to look out for the most potholes on urban Interstates. Alaska and Rhode Island have the bumpiest rural pavement. Across the country, pavement conditions are the best since 1993.
• Rhode Island has the most troubled bridges in the U.S., with more than 53 percent of its bridges deficient. More than 141,000 (23.7 percent) of America’s bridges were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete in 2008, the lowest percentage since 1984.
• Massachusetts has the safest roads with just 0.67 fatalities per 100 million miles driven. Montana and Louisiana have the highest fatality rates, at 2.12 and 2.02 fatalities per 100 million miles driven. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that fatalities in 2009 fell even further, to the lowest level since 1950.
• Overall, North Dakota, Montana, and Kansas have the most cost-effective state highway systems. Rhode Island, Alaska, California, Hawaii, and New York have the least cost-effective roads.

To read Reason Foundation's complete Annual Highway Report, with detailed state-by-state analysis, click here.