Los Angeles, pictured here, is ranked among the worst cities for motorists in the U.S.
There’s no denying the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nation’s vehicular landscape. With shelter-in-place and work-at-home being the predominant status quo earlier this year, roadways in even the busiest population centers were eerily bereft of traffic.
As businesses have opened up and workers are gradually transitioning back to the office and many kids off to school, a sense of normalcy is returning to the nation’s highways and byways. Some are projecting traffic may eventually become worse than it was before the crisis hit, as many commuters will be minimizing personal risk by eschewing public transportation to get to and from the workplace. What’s more, we’re seeing unprecedented spikes in used-car prices of late, largely due to the increased demand for personal transportation.
Even in the best of times, some cities are just plain more hospitable to motorists than others. Cars are more affordable to purchase in some areas than others, and operating costs like fuel prices, insurance premiums, parking rates, and maintenance and repair costs can vary wildly from one metro area to another. There’s also the frequency of accidents, fatal crashes and car thefts to consider, as well as local weather conditions, road quality, average commuting times, and access to auto repair shops, parking lots/garages, vehicle dealerships, and car washes. And all this is on top of Coronavirus travel restrictions being enforced in some cities and states.
A team of experts from the personal finance website WalletHub.com recently rated the best and worst cities for drivers in the pandemic era among the 100 most-populated areas, based on 31 separate variables. Perhaps not surprisingly, smaller burgs fare far better in this regard than do the nation’s largest and most car-clogged metro areas.
According to the study, the best city in which to own a vehicle is Lincoln, NE, which gets especially good marks for ownership costs, safety, and traffic and infrastructure. The most inhospitable city for drivers among those analyzed is Oakland, CA, which is ranked near the bottom in all three of those categories.
Among individual attributes studied, those living in Lubbock, TX spend the fewest annual hours commuting, while (and this should come as no surprise to anyone who lives there) the worst commutes can be found equally painful in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia. You’re least likely to get into an accident in Boise, ID, and most likely to crash in Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.
Vehicles are statistically stolen the least in Gilbert, AZ, and the most frequently in Albuquerque, NM. Gas prices are the lowest in San Antonia, TX, and the highest in San Francisco. A vehicle costs the least to maintain in Raleigh, NC, and the most in Honolulu. The cheapest parking rates are in Corpus Christi, TX, while the costliest are (of course) in New York City. And so on.
Here are the ten best cities for drivers in the U.S.according to WalletHub.com, with their total scores based on 30 variables noted (higher is better):
1. Lincoln, NE (68.01)
2. Raleigh, NC (66.25)
3. Corpus Christi, TX (65.57)
4. Greensboro, NC (65.33)
5. Boise, ID (65.08)
6. Plano, TX (63.77)
7. Winston-Salem, NC (63.65)
8. Nashville, TN (62.80)
9. Orlando, FL (62.79)
10. Omaha, NE (62.65)
And here are the 10 worst cities in which to be a motorist among the 100 most-populated areas, along with their aggregate scores:
100. Oakland, CA (38.16)
99. Philadelphia, PA (38.67)
98. San Francisco, CA (39.55)
97. Detroit, MI (40.34)
96. New York, NY (42.33)
95. Los Angeles, CA (42.44)
94. Chicago, IL (43.60)
93. San Bernardino, CA (44.07)
92. Newark, NJ (44.74)
91. Seattle, WA (44.77)
You can check out WalletHub.com’s rankings and full scores for all 100 cities analyzed, along with the study’s methodology and other additional information in the full report here.
