The chart above shows the ratio of the road network to the rail network in every US region. The larger the ratio, the more prevalent roads are over rail in the region. For instance, the West has 31 more miles of road for every mile of rail. All regions of the US have a pretty similar road to rail ratio that lies somewhere around 30:1 (the figures in the chart are rounded to the nearest whole number).
Findings
- The difference between the region with the largest ratio, the Western US, and the region with the smallest ratio, the Midwestern US, is 3.
- The Western US has 1.1 times the road to rail ratio that the Midwestern US has.
- There really aren't any differences in the road to rail ratio between any of the regions.
Caveats
- Road and rail length data is from 2015.
- Road and rail data come from different sources.
- Hawaii does not have rail networks.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Details
Although Rhode Island has a road to rail ratio way above any other state's both its road and rail networks are so small that they have a limited effect on the Northeast's overall road to rail ratio. The same goes for Hawaii which has no rail network at all. The other Western states have rail and road networks so much larger than Hawaii's that it does not really affect the West's overall ratio.
The ratio for the entire United States is 29.99 miles of road for every mile of rail which ranks the US as a whole just under the Southern US and just above the Midwestern US (the figures in the chart are rounded to the nearest whole number).
Sources
United States Department of Transportation. 2016. "Table HM-10M - Highway Statistics 2015 - Policy | Federal Highway Administration." Accessed March 12, 2018. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2015/hm10m.cfm.
United States Department of Transportation. 2018. "Table MV-1 - Highway Statistics 2015." Accessed February 20, 2018. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2015/mv1.cfm.