A study released Thursday found that traffic congestion and highway fatalities have increased slightly even as road conditions have improved in recent years. The findings are based on data from 1984 through 2005.

North Dakota and South Carolina roads rated highest in the overall rankings; Hawai'i was in the bottom five and dropped two places from 2004.

See an interactive map for the Performance of State Highway Systems.

The state-by-state evaluation was conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and financed by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank based in Los Angeles.

With the federal highway fund running short of money for major highway projects, state governments are faced with having to pay a greater share of the cost of building and maintaining highways.

'GRIDLOCK ISN'T GOING AWAY'

David T. Hartgen, the study's lead author, said the results show that states need to set priorities and direct transportation money to projects designed to reduce congestion.

"Gridlock isn't going away," Hartgen said.

The study ranked highway systems according to their cost-effectiveness. That was determined using factors such as traffic fatalities, congestion, pavement condition, bridge condition, highway maintenance and administrative costs. Evaluations were done on highways and all state-owned roads.

The five states with the most cost-effective roads, according to the study, are North Dakota, South Carolina, Kansas, New Mexico and Montana. The bottom five states are New Jersey, Alaska, New York, Rhode Island and Hawai'i.

States spent almost $99 billion on roads they owned in 2005, almost 13 percent more than in 2004. New Jersey spent the most, almost $2.4 million per mile. South Carolina spent the least, at about $31,000 per mile.

The study also measured major rural roads that have lanes no more than 12 feet wide, which is a recommended standard for safety. Almost 42 percent of West Virginia's lanes were too narrow, according to the study; Pennsylvania came in a close second with 41 percent. Nationally, almost 11 percent of lanes were too narrow.

The study found that traffic fatalities rose by less than 1 percent between 2004 and 2005.

Montana had the deadliest roads, with 2.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Massachusetts roads were the safest, with a death rate of 0.8.

A bit more than half of the urban interstate highways were regularly congested in 2005. Only Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were without congested urban interstates.

TRAFFIC WOES AT CRISIS LEVELS

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said congestion has nearly tripled in metropolitan areas during the past 25 years despite increases in spending. Resolving the issue is a priority for the department.

"It's so important to get our transportation policies headed in the right direction — away from the federal government and back to the states and localities where innovation in America has always originated," she said in a statement.

Federal leadership and investment is needed if these problems are going to be solved, said Matt Jeanneret, spokesman for American Road and Transportation Builders Association. He points to estimates that the average person spends 47 hours a year stuck in traffic.

"We are bursting at the seams with motor vehicles and we're not adding capacity to accommodate that growth," he said.

Janet Kavinoky, who works on transportation issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says traffic woes are at crisis levels. "There's more bad news coming," she said. "You hate holiday traffic? Pretty soon it's going to be business as usual."

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