South Carolina's roads: Spending, quality, and safety in question

South Carolina has long struggled to maintain adequate roads, and citizens are well aware of the issue. In 2017, public frustration over poor road conditions pushed the Legislature to approve the first gas-tax increase in 30 years.

The revenue was intended to improve infrastructure and bring South Carolina’s road quality closer in line with the national standard. Yet nearly a decade later, overall road conditions remain poor, with only minimal signs of progress.

Lawmakers continue to promise more spending each year, but improvements have not materialized. The South Carolina Policy Council polled this issue in January: We found that 90% of voters said that repairing and maintaining roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure to improve safety and reduce traffic issues is very or somewhat important to them. 

That same poll found that 61% of voters believe that the state Department of Transportation does not manage road maintenance and repairs effectively. Despite rising budgets, S.C. roads face ongoing quality and safety issues, and citizens in South Carolina remain concerned. 

For this report, we will examine the 10-year period from 2013 to 2023, which provides the most complete set of available data. 

Road quality overview 

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) monitors road conditions nationwide and publishes annual reports detailing each state’s performance. BTS calculates the percentage of roadway mileage deemed “acceptable,” which is the measure used in this analysis 

South Carolina roads compared to the United States 

*Note: BTS reported a sharp decline in total mileage in 2020, resulting in an inflated percentage of 91.51%.

Over the 10-year period from 2013 to 2023, South Carolina’s road quality has trended downward. In 2013, South Carolina outperformed the national average by 7.64 percentage points. By 2023, the state had fallen behind the U.S. average by one point, a complete reversal of its earlier advantage. Meanwhile, national road quality has remained relatively stable with a modest upward trend. 

South Carolina’s roads have not seen corresponding improvements despite a sustained growth in spending. 

Road spending in SC 

The South Carolina Policy Council has produced numerous reports on state spending over the years, including the Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT budget, like most agencies in state government, has increased every year.  

The central question is whether this increased spending has translated into better-quality roads. To evaluate this, we look at three key figures over the past decade: the DOT budget, county transportation funds, and inflation. 

The DOT funds maintenance and improvement projects on state-owned roads and bridges, as well as U.S. highways and interstates, primarily with state gasoline taxes and federal funds. County Transportation Committee (CTC) funds, drawn largely from the state’s gas tax, typically support smaller-scale, local improvements. 

Road spending, 2013–2023 

Sources: South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office (summary control documents); inflation figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics s Consumer Price Indexes. 

Between 2013 and 2023, the DOT budget nearly doubled, growing by 99%. CTC funds expanded even more dramatically, rising by almost 340%. Over the same period, inflation reduced purchasing power by 27%, meaning the DOT’s budget still grew by 56.4% in real terms, and CTC funds by 245.5% in real terms. 

South Carolina has therefore spent well above inflationary levels on both state and county transportation projects. Yet this increased spending has coincided with declining road quality. 

Over the past decade, DOT spending grew by nearly $1.4 billion before accounting for inflation. At the same time, the percentage of South Carolina roads in acceptable condition fell by 6.32 percentage points. Put another way, for every additional $220 million spent, the share of acceptable roads declined by one percentage point. 

Of course, correlation is not causation. There is no evidence that increased spending itself worsens road quality. But if a decade of higher funding has produced worse results, it may be time to reconsider how those dollars are allocated. 

Traffic fatalities 

The final measure to determine whether South Carolinians are getting a return on investment in their roads is traffic safety. While increased spending has not improved road quality, it could still be justified if it led to fewer traffic deaths. 

South Carolina traffic fatalities, 2013–2023 

Source: South Carolina Department of Public Safety’s annual Traffic Collison Fact Books.  

From 2013 to 2023, South Carolina experienced an overall increase in fatalities, rising from 767 deaths in 2013 to a peak of 1,112 in 2021 before falling to 976 in 2023. These totals, however, are influenced by population changes, particularly during the pandemic-era influx, making year-to-year comparisons less conclusive. 

The more reliable measure is the death rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which controls for population growth. That figure rose from 1.57 in 2013 to 2.08 in 2021 before declining to 1.72 in 2023. This indicates that driving in South Carolina became riskier per mile over the decade, even as spending increased. While multiple factors contribute to traffic deaths, such as congestion, enforcement, and driver behavior, the data suggests that higher spending in isolation has not made roads safer. 

Conclusion 

Across the three areas examined, the results are clear: 

• Road quality has declined over the past decade. 

• Spending on both DOT and CTC has grown dramatically, far outpacing inflation. 

• Traffic fatalities show no consistent improvement, with a slight upward trend in deaths per mile driven. 

This suggests that increased spending has a negative correlation with road quality and little connection to traffic safety. South Carolina remains among the worst states in the nation for traffic-death rates and lags behind the national average in road conditions. 

As the old saying goes: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Instead of just dumping more money on the problem, lawmakers should pursue structural reforms. Key questions include whether a less centralized approach could allow counties to address their roads more quickly, or whether streamlining the DOT’s bureaucracy would empower leadership to prioritize repairs more effectively. 

The DOT has been a target of reform discussions for years. In 2016, the Legislative Audit Council (LAC) – the Legislature’s investigative arm – reported that the agency was not addressing roads on a worst-first basis and that overlapping accountability structures hindered the DOT secretary’s ability to meet the state’s needs. Since then, no follow-up audits have been conducted; lawmakers have passed no major reforms; and road conditions have continued to deteriorate. 

 Lawmakers should require the DOT to implement the LAC’s recommendations and enact the necessary structural changes. Doing so is the most direct way for the Legislature to make an immediate impact and begin the long process of repairing South Carolina’s bad roads and bridges. In addition, lawmakers should explore whether a more decentralized approach could deliver better results for the people of South Carolina. 

This report may be republished in whole or in part, provided that proper credit is given to the author(s) and the South Carolina Policy Council.