Where you live can make a dramatic impact on how stressful your commutes is and a new study has revealed the best and worst cities for driving in America.
Compiled by Wallet Hub, the study examined the 100 largest cities in the United States as well as “29 key indicators of driver-friendliness.” The latter included everything from the average price of gas to the number of automotive repair facilities per capita.
The ten best cities were all located in the south and Raleigh, North Carolina walked away with top honors. It was closely followed by Corpus Christi, Texas and Orlando, Florida.
The remaining top ten cities were all located in Florida, Texas and North Carolina. They include Greensboro, Plano, Winston-Salem, Durham, El Paso, Jacksonville and Tampa.
The worst city is a bit of a surprise as it has a relatively modest population and isn’t known for gridlock. It’s none other than Detroit, Michigan.
While the Motor City doesn’t have the same traffic issues as second and third worst cities San Francisco and Oakland, it has a disastrous combination of high insurance rates, high crime rates and some of the worst maintained roads in America.
Among the other worst cities for drivers are Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC. Many of these cities have bad traffic, a high number of accidents and high gas prices.
Speaking of traffic jams, the report says drivers spend more than 290 hours behind the wheel every year. Traffic congestion also costs the average household around $1,700 annually due to wasted time and fuel.
To see the full list of all 100 cities, you can read the report here.