The City of Brotherly Love is not … a good place to drive.
Philadelphia ranks as the worst city to drive in, according to research released Tuesday by the financial website Wallethub, while Raleigh, North Carolina, is the best. Wallethub looked at 30 important variables, including average gas prices, the number of auto repair businesses per capita, and the number of hours each commuter spends in traffic each year.
How the cities rank
The 10 worst cities include Los Angeles at 91, followed by Seattle; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; New York City; Chicago; San Francisco; Oakland, California; Detroit and Philadelphia.
Among the study’s top 10 best cities for driving, Plano, Texas ranks second, followed by Corpus Christi, Texas; Greensboro, North Carolina; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Lincoln, Nebraska; Jacksonville, Florida; Arlington, Texas; Garland, Texas; and Orlando, Florida.
Other notable rankings
But other cities also rank high or low in certain metrics.
In terms of road fatalities per 100,000 people, Honolulu has the lowest rate (2.3), which is 14.9 times lower than Memphis, Tennessee, which has the worst rate (34.26). Or consider car thefts. Gilbert, Arizona, has the fewest at 0.58, while Oakland, California has the highest 15.33, 26.4 times higher. And when it comes to maintenance costs, they’re lowest in Jacksonville, Florida and highest in Seattle.
Residents in Laredo, Texas pay less for fuel than the 99 other cities measured, paying $3.12 on average. That’s 1.8 times lower than the $5.46 per gallon paid by those who live San Francisco, which has the highest average gas price.
That’s bad enough that you might want to park your car and walk. If you do that in Corpus Christi, Texas, or Reno, Nevada, you’ll pay the lowest average parking rate, $1 for two hours. That’s 38.4 times less expensive than in Boston, the city with the highest parking rate of $38.40 per two hours.
One truism that cuts across all cities is the time spent in traffic congestion. Here, there’s no clear winner, as it’s a six-way tie. Drivers in Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago spend the most time snarled traffic.
Of course, it will surprise no one that drivers in Lubbock, Texas; Greensboro, North Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; El Paso, Texas and Toledo, Ohio spend the least time in congested traffic. Although, if you want to stay accident free, drive in Boise, Idaho; it has the fewest, while Baltimore has the most.
One thing is for sure: Orlando has the cleanest cars, as it has the most car washes.
