The condition of Minnesota's roads is still below average, but they are getting much better. That's according to the Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report out last week.

Minnesota came in at No. 28 in terms of highway performance and cost-effectiveness. And while that places the state in the bottom half, it's a huge jump from five years ago when the Gopher state ranked No. 42. In 2011, the state ranked 31st.

"Minnesota is slowly improving on most items across the board," said David Hartgen, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte who has been doing the report since 1984."Minnesota has been in the middle of the pack and is starting to move up, but that's not something that can be done overnight or in one season."

Hartgen said the state's road conditions are considerably better than 10 years ago, accessibility is better and congestion has leveled off.

Minnesota scored best with its low fatality rate, coming in at No. 2 with .69 deaths for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

The state earned high marks for the low number of deficient bridges coming in 5th and ranking 6th in terms of the low number of narrow rural arterial lanes.

On the opposite end of the scale, the state faired poorly in terms of urban pavement condition (No. 43) and rural interstate pavement condition, 37th.

The Reason Foundation's report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2012. It found that Wyoming had the best roads, followed by Nebraska, South Dakota, South Carolina and Kansas. North Dakota came in at No. 6, Wisconsin No. 15 and Iowa at No. 18.

The states with the worst highway conditions were California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Alaska and Hawaii.