On the bright side, traffic jams are practically non-existent in Maine, and our rural interstate system is in better shape than in any other state. On the other hand, a third of our bridges are deficient or functionally obsolete.

That’s the mixed picture of Maine’s highway system, according to an annual report done by the Reason Foundation. It compared state highway systems in 11 categories, including congestion, pavement conditions, fatalities, deficient bridges and total spending. The latest report is for 2007.

Then the study ranks the states on overall spending effectiveness, basically comparing the bang taxpayers are getting for their highway bucks. And that’s the area Maine should be most worried about. When all factors are taken into consideration, we rank 28th in the United States — a pretty mediocre showing.

Even less comforting, our trend line is headed in the wrong direction. In 2000 we were 15th in the U.S., in 2006, 22nd and now, we are 28th. We are spending our highway dollars less and less effectively.

Some other highlights from the report:

* We are 17th in the U.S. in highway fatalities, which seems pretty good considering the time we spend driving on narrow rural roads (the most dangerous type) and the long distances many of us are forced to travel.

Our rate was 1.22 fatalities per 100 million miles driven, compared to
Montana, which was twice our rate (2.45) and the highest in the U.S. Massachusetts was, believe it
or not, the safest place to drive a car, with a fatality rate a little
more than half ours (.76).

Total fatalities in the U.S. have dropped dramatically since 2007, reflecting the start of the recession and higher gas prices.

* We also did pretty well in administrative spending per
state-controlled mile of highway, 10th in the nation. We spent,
according to the survey, $3,935 on administration per mile, which
seems like a big number to us. But it pales in comparison to
Massachusetts, which spent $70,131 per mile. That’s amazing, but the
rates in California, New Jersey and Hawaii are nearly as high.

* When it comes to bridges, the entire Northeast is in trouble. More than half of the bridges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are deficient or obsolete. About a third of the bridges need help in all of the states between Maine and West Virginia — a way higher rate than the rest of the U.S.

* Maine is very high in the percentage of narrow lanes and rural roads, 43rd in the U.S. No surprise there, and probably not much we can do about it. There are advantages to living in a rural state; the expense of maintaining a large rural road network  is not one of them.

One thing struck us as particularly disturbing in the report and should concern us as a nation.

Since 1984, per-mile disbursements on state highways have increased by 262 percent. According to several Web calculator tools, the overall inflation rate during the same period was only 101 percent.

It’s not exactly as if we’ve spent the past 25 years starving our highways and bridges. Is it the price of materials? Labor? Planning?

All good questions. Unfortunately, we tried contacting the authors of the report and they were unavailable through the holidays. Look for a follow-up in 2010.

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