These are the Best and Worst Cities to Drive in the US in 2018

Is Your Home Town on the List?

If you read TFLcar.com, there is a good chance you are at least somewhat interested in driving. Certainly, there are better and worse places to drive here in the US. Fortunately, our friends at WalletHub have collected a ton of data and determined what the best and worst cities for driving are here in the US. In order to determine this information, WalletHub ranked each city based on 1) Cost of Ownership & Maintenance, 2) Traffic & Infrastructure, 3) Safety and 4) Access to Vehicles & Maintenance. The data was compiled from a number of sources including the Census Bureau, FBI, NHTSA and More.

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Methodology

To rank each city, certain weights were given to each category. Cost of Ownership & Maintenance was worth a total of 30 points, as was Traffic & Infrastructure, and Safety. Access to Vehicles & Maintenance was worth only 10 points. Each city was compared based on their weighted metrics to determine the winners, and losers.

The Top 3

Orlando, Florida comes in 3rd place thanks to its low cost of ownership, exceptionally low amount of traffic, and great access to vehicles and maintenance. Safety is not ranked particularly well, but the other factors kept Orlando in the top 3.

Corpus Christi, Texas takes the 2nd spot. Again, ranking quite well in cost of ownership. Corpus Christi actually ranked 1st in terms of traffic and infrastructure. Plus, a respectable 18th for safety. Corpus Christi wasn’t perfect for maintenance, though, this category holds less weight than the other three.

Coming in at number 1, Raleigh, North Carolina. Raleigh ranked 1st in cost of ownership, 17th in traffic and infrastructure and 27th in safety. Maintenance wasn’t perfect, but 55th was enough to rank Raleigh, NC as the best place to drive in the US.

The Bottom 3

Here are the worst cities to drive in the US.

Coming in 3rd to last is Oakland, California. Oakland combines some of the most expensive ownership costs, with particularly bad traffic and a poor rank in safety. Maintenance was ranked just 56th, but the other factors put Oakland 3rd to last.

Just across the Bay is the 2nd to last city, San Francisco, California. San Fran was the most expensive city to maintain a car in, while traffic was in the bottom 10. Safety was not too bad at 52nd, and maintenance was equally middle-of-the-pack at 57th. Though, bad ownership cost and traffic send San Fran to the second worst spot.

Last place goes to none other than America’s heart of motoring, Detroit, Michigan. Detroit ranked 86th in cost of ownership, 94th in traffic & infrastructure, and 99th in safety. Access to vehicles and maintenance was just 47th, but the other metrics were so bad that Detroit easily took last place.

There you go, those are the best and worst cities in which you can drive here in the US. Do you think your city is particularly bad to drive in? Take a look at the full list and tell us where your home town ranks!

Special thanks to WalletHub for sending us this information, you can read their full dataset by clicking here.

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