Report Ranks Kansas Highways as Best in the United States

A special report on the nation’s highways published in the April edition of Reader’s Digest has ranked Kansas highways as the best in the United States, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.

The study factored safety statistics, pavement condition, bridge condition, congestion-urban freeway, and congestion-urban lane miles in ranking the Kansas highway system the best in the country. Rounding out the top five are Wisconsin, Montana, New Mexico and Utah.

Kansans have benefitted significantly from two major transportation programs over the past two decades – the 1989 Comprehensive Highway Program and the 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Program.

“It took a 20-year commitment of Kansans and their leaders to build the system we have today, and this ranking substantiates what many of us have long believed about our highways,” said Kansas Transportation Secretary Deb Miller.

“Unfortunately, transportation funding has now fallen to 1970s-levels and that won’t allow us to have a system that supports the state’s economic goals, much less earn a top ranking.”

A trucker quoted in the story summed up his thoughts about Kansas roads this way: “Actually, in Kansas, all the highways are very good. Even the two-lane roads are great: smooth, with shoulders.”

Source: Kansas Department of Transportation