WalletHub has released its 2024 “Best and Worst Cities to Drive In” list on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Looking at the 100 most populated cities in the U.S., the company compared them using four key categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance.
The methodology consisted of 30 different metrics for a particular city under those categories. Those metrics included average gas prices, average monthly car insurance premiums, annual hours spent in congestion, average commute time, number of days with precipitation, traffic fatality rate, number of adults who always wear seat belts, rate of car thefts, and number of auto-repair shops, car washes and parking lots.
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The best city to drive in according to WalletHub is Raleigh, North Carolina. The rest of the top 5 is Boise, Idaho, Corpus Christi, Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida.
WalletHub says Raleigh is the best city because it’s an inexpensive one, ranking low in categories like new car prices and parking rates. At the same time, Raleigh ranks high when it comes to drivers wearing seat belts and is one of the best cities for road maintenance.
On the other end of the list, the bottom five cities are Detroit Michigan at No. 96, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Oakland, California at No. 100. Oakland ranked the worst in the category of cost of ownership and maintenance risk and towards the bottom of safety risk.
According to the latest data from AAA released in September, drivers spend an average of 60.7 minutes on the road each day and, as WalletHub’s list shows, some cities offer better perks than others for when you do decide to get behind the wheel.
