The Best and Worst Cities to Drive in the US
No two cities are created equally when it comes to driving experiences.
WalletHub has conducted a study, taking a look at 100 of the most populated cities in the U.S., noting how friendly they are to drivers. The company analyzed 21 key metrics, including average gas prices, average annual traffic delays, rates of car theft and car clubs per capita, ranking them overall in terms of time, money and safety.
Texas led the way for being driver-friendly, with the top two cities residing in the state: Lubbock and Corpus Christi. Rounding out the top 10 best cities were Lincoln, NE, Greensboro, NC, Tucson, AZ, Reno, NV, Durham, NC, Colorado Springs, CO, Winston-Salem, NC and Raleigh, NC. Reno was also the highest rated in the “Traffic and Road Conditions” ranking.
SEE ALSO: Self-Driving Cars Could Cure Traffic Jams: Study
As for the worst cities? Well, New York, NY unsurprisingly topped the list. Coming in second was Washington, D.C., while third place honors went to Philadelphia, PA. Residents of California might be shocked to hear that the first city to place in the top 10 worst cities to be a driver was San Francisco, CA, while Detroit, MI finished out the top 5. Leading the way for the rest of the top 10 worst list is Newark, NJ, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Baltimore, MD and Los Angeles, CA.
Other cities that received recognition include Birmingham, AL for topping the “Costs” rank, Laredo, TX leading the way for the “Safety” rank and Las Vegas, NV the best for the “Driver and Car Wellness” rank.
Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
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NYC is so bad i've been in lung-squeezing pedestrian traffic jams
Portland Oregon! Probably failed to make the worst list because the testers were stuck in traffic trying to get there and just gave up. The state Transportation Director stated a few years ago some thing to the effect of not seeing a need to build anymore streets, especially commuter highways and went on to state how more suburban highways in Los Angeles have just led to more traffic jams. It all orbits around the not so secret love for urban "light rail" which is mostly vacant outside of the downtown area. It can't make money as the tickets are purchased from vending machines at each stop and there is little if any enforcement on those taking the "Free Ride". Portland (or Oregon which is the same thing as 75% of Oregon lives in greater Portland) even broke off the discussion of replacing the very old Interstate 5 lifting bridge over the mighty Columbia River (after a couple of hundred million bucks of studies) when Vancouver and Washington State declined to finance a new bridge with light rail as there is no light rail anywhere near the bridge in Washington. I think Seattle has light rail and its only 175 miles away. So the major North/South route is stuck with a six lane bridge with daily bridge lifts and the one other bridge crossing the Columbia is the I-205, miles away and many traffic jams from getting back to the I-5 corridor until well south of town when they converge again. Other than those two bridges, its miles and miles and well out of the way to the next bridge over the river anywhere near Portland. The road surfaces in Portland remind me of third world countries in which I was stationed while in the service. They had no forward planning when fuel efficient hybrids were being snatched up left and right so they had no alternative method of funding road maintenance when, predictably, gas taxes fell off. Maybe the pot holes were really planned as an incentive for using light rail. We moved here from Washington DC after my wife who grew up here, retired from the Army and I'll take DC traffic over this mess any day.