Although it may be surprising that two of the prettiest states in the U.S. are supposedly the worst to drive in, it kinda makes sense when you consider anything but spirited driving.
The study was run by Wallet Hub, a personal finance company. It looked at cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance to rank all 50 states.
In the end, Hawaii came in dead last with California coming in second last. Meanwhile, Texas and Indiana came first. Although Texas didn’t top any particular category (California was actually first in both days without precipitation and most auto-repair shops per capita), it did well in every category.
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According to the study’s authors, every category was evaluated based on 31 metrics, each given a weight, to combine for a total score out of 100. Things like average gas price, cost of insurance, traffic congestion, road quality, traffic fatality rate, and more were considered.
Some of the categories given the most weight were average gas price, auto-maintenance cost, share of rush-hour traffic congestion, and average commute time.
Since Hawaii come last or nearly last in repair shops per capita, car washes per capita, gas prices, price of auto maintenance, and car thefts per capita, it didn’t fare particularly well on this test.
California’s high congestion and cost of ownership, meanwhile, did it no favors. It’s hard to argue that these factors would certainly make owning a car and commuting every day a bit of a headache.
To see where your state came, check out the full ranking below from Best to Worse: