KENNEWICK — Have you ever heard someone say “people here don’t know how to drive” in Washington? No matter where you are in the Evergreen State, it doesn’t take long to hear comments on regional driving skills.
But are some states better to drive in? Considering the people, the routes, the traffic and much more, which states are best, and which are worst for drivers?
According to a new study, Iowa is the best state to drive in. The worst is Hawaii, immediately preceded by Washington.
WalletHub, a personal finance site, evaluated states on 31 metrics across four main categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance. States were given a weighted score out of 100, determining their place in the ranking.
Some of the 31 metrics included average gas prices, auto-maintenance costs, rush hour traffic congestion, average commute time, traffic fatality rates, car dealerships and gas stations per capita.
WA second-worst state to drive in
Washington ranked poorly due to its low scores in the Cost of Ownership and Maintenance and the Traffic and Infrastructure categories.
Following Iowa, the rest of the top 10 best states to drive in were:
- Georgia
- Kansas
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Tennessee
- Texas
- North Dakota
The ten worst states to drive in were:
- Montana
- Vermont
- Rhode Island
- Nevada
- Massachusetts
- California
- West Virginia
- Delaware
- Washington
- Hawaii
Washington did better in some metrics than others. It beat only Colorado for car theft rate and only Hawai’i and California for average gas prices. In other categories, Washington ranked fairly middle-of-the-road:
- Share of rush-hour traffic congestion: 35
- Auto-repair shops per capita: 20
- Auto-maintenance costs: 37
- Road quality: 46
- Car dealerships per capita: 19
