This Map Reveals the Best (and Worst) Cities for Drivers Right Now

Willie Nelson couldn’t wait to get on the road again, but millions of Americans dread leaving their homes in a car every day. 

Sure, there are incredible scenic drives in every state but, for some, it’s nearly impossible to even leave your neighborhood by vehicle. Take LA for example, where residents would suggest avoiding gridlock hours completely, or Austin, where traffic is so bad that we had to write an article explaining how it got like that

On top of that, driving can be incredibly costly depending on where you live, both because of gas prices and how slowly your city is crawling towards repaired roads. And when your rims are bent from excessive potholes, you have to factor in the price of an auto repair shop. It’s a lot to consider, which is why personal finance site WalletHub has come through and offered to the internet a report revealing the best and worst cities to drive through in 2019

To get the results, WalletHub measured the 100 largest US cities in four categories: cost of ownership & maintenance, traffic & infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance. They compared 30 relevant metrics using stats from a number of government agencies looking at things like average gas prices, annual hours spent in traffic congestion, and auto repair per capita. Here are the results (and here’s the full list):

Best cities to drive in the US:
15.
Atlanta, Georgia 
14. Jacksonville, Florida
13. Plano, Texas
12. Scottsdale, Arizona
11. El Paso, Texas
10. Greensboro, North Carolina
9. Charlotte, North Carolina
8. Boise, Idaho 
7. Corpus Christi, Texas
6. Birmingham, Alabama 
5. Winston-Salem, North Carolina 
4. Tampa, Florida 
3. Lincoln, Nevada 
2. Orlando, Florida
1. Raleigh, North Carolina 

Worst cities to drive in the US:
15.
San Jose, California
14. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
13. Baltimore, Maryland 
12. Chicago, Illinois 
11. San Bernardino, California
10. Honolulu, Hawaii 
9. New York, New York
8. Los Angeles, California 
7. Seattle, Washington
6. Washington, DC
5. Newark, New Jersey
4. San Francisco, California
3. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
2. Oakland, California
1. Detroit, Michigan 

So, Detroit takes the cake here for the worst place to drive. Makes sense, because they even have a bar and grill called Traffic Jam & Snug. Most notably, the city has one of the highest car theft rates (Arizona cities have the lowest). 

On the expenses side, New York and Boston are in the running for both highest auto maintenance and highest parking rates, and California cities take all the slots for the highest gas prices. Texas cities take up three of the slots for the lowest gas prices. 

Aaaand finally, Florida apparently has a lot of car washes, which is cool?

MORE:Here's how far you can drive your car on empty.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Ruby Anderson is a News Writer for Thrillist.