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Study Ranks N.C. 14th In Nation For Highway Performance, Cost-Effectiveness

Courtesy N.C. Department of Transportation

A new study shows improvements on North Carolina highways when it comes to road conditions and spending. But there are still problems with fatality rates and bridge conditions.

The Reason Foundation's 25th Annual Highway Report ranks North Carolina's system 14th in the nation when it comes to overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness. That's based on data from the nonprofit's 2018 survey, which moves the state up three spots from the previous study in 2016.  

North Carolina's best rankings are in urban interstate pavement condition and spending per mile.

But it's listed next to last in rural fatality rates, and also gets a poor ranking for the number of structurally deficient bridges.

The state is right in the middle of the list for traffic congestion, ranked in the 25th slot.

North Carolina manages one of the largest state-controlled highway systems in the country.

When it comes to overall highway performance, North Carolina is still worse than neighboring South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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