RALEIGH – North Carolina has a weak economy, a corrupt political class, and a host of other challenges. But not all the recent news is bad: according to an annual study of highway performance, North Carolina has been getting better at managing its systems of roads and bridges.

Dr. David Hartgen, a professor emeritus at UNC-Charlotte, has produced the study for 18 years. It uses a combination of funding and performance data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of state highway systems across the country. The John Locke Foundation was the publisher of the study for a while, until it found its natural home at the California-based Reason Foundation, which has a national purview and a particular interest in infrastructure issues.

In the most recent report, issued last month, Hartgen and his colleagues ranked North Carolina 20th. That’s a significant improvement from the state’s 31st ranking two years ago. Keep in mind, however, that this is a measurement of cost-effectiveness. It doesn’t mean that North Carolina’s highway system is 20th in quality or adequacy. Unfortunately, there are still many transportation problems to address:

• North Carolina is worse than the national average in highway fatality rates, narrow lanes, and bridges that are either deficient or obsolete.

• Only four states have more congested miles of urban interstate than North Carolina does.

• Only seven states have more rural interstate miles in poor condition.

In other work for JLF, Hartgen has offered a number of recommendations for North Carolina to continue to improve the management of its highway system. One of the most important sounds simple enough: spend our gas and car tax dollars on the highest-priority needs, rated by sound estimates of congestion to be alleviated or lives saved. All too often in the past, administrations have allowed the personal and political preferences of powerful state lawmakers and other politicians to dictate where road dollars flowed.

Looking at the national findings, it’s clear that North Carolina can still learn a lot about managing highway systems from neighboring states with better rankings, such as South Carolina (4th), Georgia (9th), and Virginia (12th). Anyone who drives the roads across these borders extensively can see and feel the difference.

Investing wisely in highways is a form of capital formation with payoffs similar to investing in new companies or talent. Unfortunately, the politics of road-building don’t necessarily overlap with wise investment – the state’s role in highways may have been unavoidable but it does have some obvious drawbacks.

At the very least, Hartgen writes, state leaders need to set clear goals and measure progress towards them. “This year’s report shows the difficulties that many states are having when it comes to making across-the-board progress in road conditions,” he said. “In many cases, we see two steps forward, one step back. We saw improvement in five key categories in 2007, but also found that over a quarter of the nation’s bridges are rated deficient. Urban interstate conditions are worsening again. And real progress in reducing urban congestion has slowed to a crawl.”

In this area, North Carolina has showed some promising improvement. Let’s keep it up.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation