Another day, another reminder of what a pain it is to drive in D.C. (also, another ranking).
Washington came in at 99 on WalletHub’s ranking of 100 U.S. cities based on driving conditions. Only New York City has it worse. Meanwhile, Lubbock and Corpus Christi, in Texas; Lincoln, NE; Greensboro, N.C.; and Tuscon, AZ rounded out the top five.
WalletHub looked at a pretty robust number of variables to come to that determination: costs (gas, insurance, etc), traffic and road conditions, safety (number of accidents, rate of car thefts, etc), and driver and car wellness (aka the availability of resources like car washes and dealerships).
Across the country, wasted time and fuel because of traffic congestion costs a total of $124 billion each year—and that doesn’t include the costs of maintaining and repairing cars wracked by the poor quality of American roads (the American Society of Civil Engineers gives them a ‘D’), according to WalletHub.
The District scored particularly poorly on the “traffic and road conditions” and “driver and car wellness” categories. Put another way we do poorly—comparatively speaking —in traffic delays, commute times, rainfall, and quality of roads and bridges as well as number of repair shops, car washes, dealerships, and availability of parking. We are among the absolute worst in terms of average traffic delays, likelihood of getting into an accident, and the number of repair shops (to add insult to injury?)
Of course, the alternatives to driving are Metro, the streetcar, buses, and biking.
Rachel Sadon