What is the worst state to drive in?

Think about your personal answer...New York? That is the first thing that I thought.

Specifically, Long Island is a horrific driving scene. If you have driven on Long Island, you know what I mean. You are probably tense just thinking about it.

But that was not the number one answer. In fact, New York ranked #18, according to the WalletHub study. There are 17 other states worse to drive in than New York?!

Apparently. And yes, this is a real study.

This topic can certainly be in the eyes of the beholder, or in the hands of the driver, but a real study was conducted to see what state is the worst state to drive in.

Below is a map that shows, in color, the best vs the worst. The lighter the state, the worse the state is for driving. The bluer, the better.

Source: WalletHub

The overall worst is Hawaii, according to WalletHub. The state ranked dead last. I cannot speak on that, because I haven't been there.

What was SHOCKING to me were the New England results.

So, of New England, what state is the worst? Let's be honest. It has to be Massachusetts, right? Boston driving is awful. Traffic in and out of the city around work days is awful. Jerks headed north on weekends in the summer are awful.

Nope. That is not the worst, according to the study. Mass ranked as the 15th worst.

The two that ranked the worst in New England were Rhode Island as the 4th worst, and New Hampshire as the 8th worst.

That cannot be right. New Hampshire is not worse than Massachusetts when it comes to driving.

There were many factors that went into this. Categories that played a role in determining the worst state to drive in included but were not limited to percentage of rush hour traffic congestion, days with precipitation, car theft rate, auto-repair shops per capita, auto maintenance costs, and more.

Here is how New Hampshire fared in some of the main categories:

  • 31st– Share of Rush-Hour Traffic Congestion
  • 24th– Auto-Repair Shops per Capita
  • 34th– Avg. Gas Prices
  • 27th– Auto-Maintenance Costs
  • 20th– Road Quality
  • 31st– Car Dealerships per Capita

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

LOOK: Here's where people in every state are moving to most

Stacker analyzed the Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey data to determine the three most popular destinations for people moving out of each state.

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